Kumeyaay conservancy may help purchase Gregory Canyon area sites

The Pala Band of Mission Indians is Luiseno, but a land conservancy founded by the Kumeyaay, the other main indigenous people of San Diego County, may be utilized to purchase the Gregory Mountain and Medicine Rock sites which are considered sacred by the Pala band.

“We could step in and help do that for them, absolutely,” said Louis Guassac of the Mesa Grande reservation, who is a board member of the Kumeyaay-Diegueno Land Conservancy (KDLC).

Guassac gave an overview of the Kumeyaay-Diegueno Land Conservancy during the San Diego Association of Governments’ Borders Committee meeting May 27. The KDLC was formed in 2005 to identify, protect, and preserve sacred sites throughout the traditional Kumeyaay homeland area. “It’s about focusing our attention on lands that were important to us culturally,” Guassac said. “Our intent was simple: we just want to help preserve and protect sites that were meaningful traditionally.”

The Kumeyaay had permanent and temporary villages throughout southern San Diego County and northern Baja California before their land was taken by the Spanish, Mexican, and United States governments. Guassac noted that unlike many conservancies which focus merely on habitat, the KDLC desires to preserve sacred ancestral lands. “We embrace that whole landscape,” he said.

“Everything is important, because that was our way of life,” Guassac said. “Our lifestyle was based on our relationship with nature: to land, to the animals, to water.”

In addition to the preservation of landscapes, the KDLC is trying to recapture the Kumeyaay names of the various villages. The Kumeyaay had no written language, but Spanish priests kept extensive records during discovery missions. “One thing the Spanish did do was have records,” Guassac said.

The KDLC received 501(c)(3) non-profit status in July 2010 but initially worked in a mentor-protégé relationship with the Native American Land Conservancy, the first such mentor-protégé relationship in the nation. That alignment not only minimized internal resource needs but also enabled the KDLC to obtain National Park Service and other grants.

In 2009, the KDLC acquired 32 acres of the 38-acre Mosler property near Julian (the other six acres went to the Julian Volunteer Fire Department to build and operate a fire station). “Our efforts have been really productive,” Guassac said.

The activities of a land trust can include purchasing land, acquiring land through donation (including mitigation agreements), securing conservation easements on land, monitoring easement terms, and working in partnership with private and government conservation agencies.

Guassac notes that the off-site mitigation can help achieve KDLC goals as well as mitigation needs of developers. “We can serve as that vehicle for them,” he said.

Because Proposition C, the 1994 county ballot measure which zoned the Gregory Canyon area as a landfill, was approved by voters through the initiative process, the area including the Pala sacred sites could not be rezoned without another countywide vote. The site’s zoning as a landfill does not preclude Gregory Canyon, Ltd., from selling the property to another party, including one who desires to use it for preservation rather than for industrial use.