MONTEREY >> At nearly 1 p.m. on Sunday, about 60 people began gathering near the cemetery at the Presidio of Monterey for a unique ceremony. The remains of 17 Native Americans, long ago dug up from the hill where the Army base now stands, would be reburied in a traditional Indian ceremony.
It was a simple, heartfelt service that concluded years of work by Louise Miranda Ramirez, chairwoman of the Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Nation, and dozens of people who helped her fulfill a long-held dream of bringing her ancestors home.
Dressed in traditional regalia, Miranda Ramirez asked participants to smudge with sage as time drew near for the start of the funeral service, and even began doing the smudging herself. When she was done, the chants began and the procession took off.
The group was led by veterans from the Tule River Indian Tribe, one of the five nations that helped Miranda Ramirez bring the remains back to Monterey. In four green boxes, her ancestors were carried by four young Indian pallbearers.
The boxes were placed in front of the ditch, now covered by a plank of redwood. Once on the ground the boxes were uncovered, and all participants were asked to bring forth offerings: tobacco, bead necklaces, feathers, cedar.
“All of you are welcome to join us,” Miranda Ramirez told attendants. “We have gifts we present to the ancestors.”
When Miranda Ramirez became tribal chairwoman 11 years ago, she set three goals for herself: to find land for her people so they could build a gathering and interpretive center, to make the tribe known and to rescue her ancestors and give them a proper burial.
None of them have been easy, but she’s made some inroads.
Federal and state laws require municipalities to notify Native American tribes of development projects that would affect their cultural resources — if a housing complex is in known Indian land, for instance, or an excavation that turns up human remains. To Miranda Ramirez, bones that are found all over Monterey County are her relatives, and they need to have a proper burial site.
So even though Miranda Ramirez has lived in San Jose for a number of years, she’s one of the few — if not the only one — who responds to requests for consultation and shows up at construction sites when indigenous artifacts turn up. That was the case when a male skeleton was found on Lighthouse Avenue in 2015, remains that were found to be more than 4,000 years old. That was also the case when, in 2009, a male skeleton was found between Foam and Wave streets when a parking lot was being built and was discovered to be the site of a major village from precolonial times.
