The Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians, also called the Kizh Nation, is suing Los Angeles County, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the nonprofit La Plaza de Cultura y Artes, saying that their ancestors’ stays have been mishandled once they constructed the Mexican American museum in downtown L.A.
The Kizh Nation alleges within the lawsuit filed final week in L.A. County Superior Court docket that the defendants pledged to switch the human stays dug up from the First Cemetery of Los Angeles in 2010 to picket containers that might be positioned in particular person graves in accordance with Catholic rituals.
The stays have been as an alternative put in paper baggage and right into a single grave within the cemetery, which is in “direct violation of the categorical guarantees and assurances by defendants,” in line with the criticism. The development work on the plaza resulted within the “desecration” of greater than 100 graves, the go well with states.
The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles is accountable for the cemetery; L.A. County owns the land the place the cemetery is and La Plaza de Cultura y Artes is the museum that opened in April 2011.
The plaza serves as a neighborhood hub the place Latinx tradition is well known by way of dance, music, exhibitions and extra. The Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians are the Indigenous individuals of the Los Angeles Basin.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles stated in a press release to the Los Angeles Every day Information that they’d informed L.A. County that the “stays needs to be handled with essentially the most utmost sensitivity and respect.”
L.A. County informed the information outlet that the county “engaged in a well-documented public course of to respectfully reinter the stays uncovered” throughout the development of the plaza.
The businesses didn’t instantly reply to The Instances’ request for remark Monday.
