I sat in on a hearing about a housing development encroaching on Kumeyaay burial grounds, an issue my colleague Katie Futterman covered some weeks ago.
Did you know that under AB 52, California law deems tribal historic preservation officers as experts in the field of identifying cultural resources for the state’s environmental review process? The law says their expertise readily provides information that even an experienced archeologist may not be aware of.
This struck me as an important point that many of us might not know. Indigenous knowledge is enshrined in the law. As to how that is put into practice, my perception after the hearing is that there is a lot of work still to be done.