As a starting point to change this culture, which I feel materially diminishes the importance of our shared California history and heritage, I am posting short articles on the attached Travelogue/Blog at www.eastbayhillpeople.com.
I believe the public needs to experience these sites in order to understand their importance and relevance to our lives today.”
Hi James Benney,
I’m calling to give you a heads up that a lot of archaeologists and tribal groups are trying to get your website taken down because you are giving out information illegally about archaeological site locations.
We understand that you know this based on the blurb you gave in your website about what you’re against but you’re violating sections 6253, 6254, 6254.10 of the California Code and also the California Public Records Act government code 52.5 and California’s open reading laws to protect the confidentialities of Native American culture place information.
Also there’s extension three of the Freedom of Information act 5 and USD five.
The whole point of this is that I understand that you want to protect the sites but that’s not going about this right way.
My name is Theodora Firstenberg and I’m an archaeologist for the National Oceanic Administration.
I’m not calling on behalf of them I’m just letting you know that decision is not OK that you have these site locations posted for anyone to see. It’s not even about vandalism, it’s about the tribe’s secret culture and the fact that they might not want everybody to know where the sites are because it doesn’t help protect them at all. There’s processes that help protect them.
You can call me back if you want but really I’m just trying to give you a heads up that there’s a lot of reasons that this is not OK and there’s a concerted effort to make you stop sharing these locations.
Please consider this. Thank you.
