In October, the San Diego Historical Resources Board (HRB) took a “nuanced” and “complex” vote on whether a parcel of land in La Jolla Shores is historic, due to its proximity to the Mut kula xuy/Mut lah hoy ya site, in which artifacts and remains of native tribes have been found. It voted “yes.”
“The City knows there’s a village (under) The Shores and we’re not sure of the extent because there hasn’t been a thorough archaeology exploration,” Kane told La Jolla Light. “Whenever anyone does construction and grading, they hit stuff that includes ashes from a campfire to pottery to human remains — the finds are literally all over the map.”
Brandon Linton, councilmember for the Mesa Grande Band and vice chair of the Kumeyaay Heritage Preservation Committee said the issue is one that spreads across the country with a history spanning thousands of years.
“There is nowhere you can go in San Diego County where you won’t find Kumeyaay artifacts and things like that,” he said. “When San Diego was built, it was built up so quickly — especially La Jolla — and there were no environmental laws, so everything was built on what was there. People could move dirt and build on top of it. Archaeology wasn’t recorded or preserved, so anytime you dig up a street or road near people’s houses in areas like La Jolla, you find village sites that still have dense amount of artifacts and remnants of population that was there before.”
He said while the Kumeyaay and scientific measurements conflict as to how long exactly the Kumeyaay have had a presence in La Jolla, the common thought is at least 10,000 years. He said Kumeyaay people were removed from La Jolla and forced east toward the deserts and down toward Mexico.
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