County’s ancient Indigenous sites face new threat as California eases environmental rules to spur housing development

Tribal leaders and archaeologists in Santa Cruz County are warning that recent changes to the state’s environmental laws to speed housing development could threaten crucial pieces of Indigenous history in the region.

More than a fifth of Santa Cruz’s land contains archaeologically sensitive sites, particularly around the San Lorenzo River, where the Amah Mutsun people lived, hunted and fished for centuries. Now, their descendants say new exemptions to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) that took effect July 1 could leave developers free to build over ancient sites without archaeological monitoring or tribal consultation. 

“Without CEQA, we’ll have no access to the land,” said Valentin Lopez, chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, the people indigenous to Santa Cruz County. “These sites will be allowed to be built over. And that’s a huge threat to us.”

In the past, this CEQA protection has taken shape by moving a driveway, structure or parking lot 10 feet in one direction to avoid building over a culturally significant site, Lopez said. In Amah Mutsun territory, which stretches from north of Santa Cruz County to south of Pinnacles National Park, mitigations like this happen close to once or twice a month, he estimated.

Under the new exemption rules, there are no guarantees that developers will report sensitive findings or allow people to monitor construction on archaeologically sensitive grounds. 

Lopez said culturally significant sites and burial grounds could be exposed to the will of developers who own the properties. 

“A lot of our work, in CEQA, allows us an opportunity to learn about our ancestors who were here before our time,” he said. “The loss of CEQA would mean the loss of our ability to continue our learning and protecting of our ancestors.”

Roughly 21.5% of Santa Cruz is considered an archaeologically sensitive site, according to calculations based on public mapping software that the city uses. 

Within Santa Cruz city limits, there are sites over 5,000 years old that hold significance, Lopez said. To the north of the county, there’s a site that’s 7,500 years old, and to the east there is one that’s 13,200 years old. 

“Santa Cruz is a very sensitive and important area for Indigenous cultural resource protection,” Lopez said.

Because Santa Cruz is rich in rivers, where the Amah Mutsun lived, there is a large archeological territory that can provide information about how the ancestors of the Amah Mutsun lived. Finding an artifact like a cooking kit can give immense insight into what people’s diets were and how they spent their time, Lopez said. Particularly sensitive are burial grounds. Disturbance of the burials of the Amah Mutsun’s ancestors “would be a serious violation of our spiritual beliefs,” Lopez said.

The human history of Santa Cruz is estimated to be upward of 12,000 years old, with Scotts Valley containing one of the oldest Native American sites recorded in California, said Tsim Schneider, an archaeologist and associate professor at UC Santa Cruz. 

Prehistoric artifacts can give unique insights into the everyday life people once lived, including their decisions, innovations and political and economic structures.

“Cultural resources are finite resources that can provide unparalleled opportunities to learn about human history generally,” Schneider said. 

He added that these resources are “powerful reminders” of Indigenous presence historically and to this day, many of California’s tribes that are federally unrecognized, such as the Amah Mutsun, can struggle with having the capacity to protect that heritage. 

Some local protections remain in place. In the City of Santa Cruz, Planning Director Lee Butler said there are city codes that mirror the requirements of CEQA.

The language in Santa Cruz’s municipal code mimics that of CEQA and notes the need for regulations to protect the “unique and irreplaceable phenomena” of deposits and sites left by generations of Native people. 

This includes regulations to cease all excavation in the area surrounding the discovery, arrange staking of the area, notifying the sheriff-coroner if remains are found and allowing county personnel access to the site to assess the origins of the artifacts or remains.

“Our provisions here have us taking steps to ensure that the resources are protected, and those are the same types of steps that would be taken through CEQA,” Butler said.

Butler declined to share information about how often culturally sensitive sites with artifacts and remains are found in the city in order to discourage people from going out and digging, but he said the presence of archeological monitors at sites is very common. Monitors are almost always in place any time that there is disturbance in soil deeper than a foot.

Santa Cruz County’s code, as well as Capitola and Scotts Valley municipal codes, all have similar provisions — of varying specificity — that protect the guidelines and processes that CEQA had ensured at the state level.

Watsonville has clauses in its general plan addressing archaeological resources, directing the city to limit development from harming these resources, according to an email from city spokesperson Michelle Pulido. Also, the recently approved Downtown Watsonville Specific Plan has an environmental impact report that addresses mitigation measures for archaeological findings that was completed through CEQA requirements, the email said.

Municipal codes are the collection of laws that govern a specific city, whereas a general plan serves as a blueprint for a city’s future development. General plans are enforceable through a city’s zoning, land-use ordinances and development approvals.

But Lopez said local protections don’t assuage any fears about the future, as city laws can be changed at any time by new pro-development administrations. 

“Good for the short term, but there’s no guarantees for the long term, and so that doesn’t work,” Lopez said.

Lopez testified in front of the California Senate budget committee on June 30 in an effort to dissuade lawmakers from approving the changes to CEQA before the vote. He is asking them to require developers to abide by the monitoring and reporting requirements for native artifacts and remains regardless of if their projects are now considered exempt from CEQA. This way, tribal leaders will still have a say in what happens on construction sites that hold cultural significance. 

Schneider, the archaeologist at UCSC, said there is no way to predict how and when these artifacts will be found, making protections like CEQA all the more crucial to the preservation of cultural and biological resources.

“The Central Coast was and continues to be a very attractive place to live, so there’s always a chance of finding cultural resources,” Schneider said.

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