Environmental Report on Cathedral OKd; Archeology Rules Stiffened

The Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency on Wednesday approved a final environmental impact report for the proposed Roman Catholic cathedral downtown and strengthened requirements that an archeologist search for an ancient burial ground that Native Americans believe may be on the site.

The CRA board’s unanimous vote came after tribal leaders pleaded for a halt, or a least a delay, in plans for the $50-million Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on what is now a parking lot next to the Hollywood Freeway, between Grand Avenue and Hill Street.

“This is blasphemy for my people. It’s like starting all over again with the genocide for my people,” said Vera Rocha, a leader of the Shoshone-Gabrieleno Nation. By allowing the cathedral to be built on what she said was a Native American burial ground, “you are doing the worst harm in your life,” she told CRA commissioners.

In a recent addition to the environmental report, an archeological consultant stressed that the only evidence of a possible cemetery was the discovery of a single human skull during construction there in 1957. The report says that the skull may have been moved there in soil fill taken from elsewhere and that it may not have been that of a Native American. Adding to the uncertainty, the skull has been misplaced and cannot be located for forensic examination.

Since the property has been excavated and filled numerous times over the last 150 years, it is unlikely that any historic artifacts or graves are intact beneath the pavement, the report states. Still, the author of the addition to the report, archeologist Brian Dillon, urged careful digging at the site. If any Native American remains are discovered, tribal leaders should decide about their possible movement, he added.

City officials are in a delicate position. They want to avoid further protests or a lawsuit from the Native Americans, yet they also want to accommodate Cardinal Roger M. Mahony’s desire for quick construction so the cathedral can be dedicated on a feast day in September 2000.

While not delaying the report, the CRA promised that final documents it must approve for the project in upcoming weeks will include tight requirements for excavation testing by an archeologist chosen jointly with the Native Americans, plus monitoring by Native Americans.

After the meeting, Brother Hilarion O’Connor, the archdiocese’s director of construction, said cathedral planners are working hard to prove “we are not disrespectful to the Native Americans.” Yet, he added, the building schedule is getting tight.

The cardinal originally wanted to demolish the current cathedral, quake-damaged St. Vibiana’s at 2nd and Main streets, and build the new one there. He shifted to the new site after preservationists won court cases that halted the razing of St. Vibiana’s. The fate of that 101-year-old church, which is now closed, is uncertain.