Current Initiatives
Bolsa Chica
ANNOUNCEMENT: ATLC NOW HOLDS TITLE TO THIS SACRED LAND. click here to see the press release.
The Mesa of Bolsa Chica at Huntington Beach is home to a 9,500 years old Acjachemen and Tongva village site. This is a sacred site which is considered a place of knowledge as well as a major conduit between Pimu/Pipimar (Catalina) and the river people of the villages inland.
This ancient village changes the history of California. Here hundreds of our ancestors were unearthed and reburied along with tens of thousands of beads and hundreds of cogstones and discoidals. This is just a small example of what was found at this place of knowledge.
Currently there are approximately eleven undeveloped acres of privately-owned land remaining at Bolsa Chica. There has been a tremendous amount of controversy surrounding the last remnants of this sacred place we call home.
Numerous organizations and Tribal Nations have fought to protect this place. In 2016 a settlement was negotiated between the Coastal Commission, the City of Huntington Beach, and Signal Landmark (Landowner of the Windward Property) that would enable the Acjachemen Tongva Land Conservancy to hold title to our sacred sites. The Windward Specific plan lays out a condition of development wherein the eastern 2.5 acres of the Windward Property as well as the entirety of the Goodell Parcel will be donated to a qualifying non profit in order for Signal Landmark to receive a development permit for the remaining 2.5 acres of the Windward property.
We never support the development of our sacred sites. However, given the fact that this condition is already in place we believe that the land returning to native stewardship is the best possible outcome. This opportunity for stewardship is precedent setting considering neither the Acjachemen nor the Tongva hold title to any place in our homelands.
