Shellmound Film Analysis

Developer, Madison Marquette in his opinion attempts to acknowledge Ohlone descendants by including a memorial mound within the malls premises. Chuck Striplen, an Ohlone descendant and archaeologist believed that this gesture includes a sense of pointlessness since Ohlone descendants avoid this area and have been protesting the malls development. Striplen also believes that the issue of the remains were not sensitively addressed, only hoping that the remains that have been left will not be completely destroyed by construction. Despite the toxic contamination of the site, and the burials found, the fact that construction continues which only demonstrates how poorly sites are protected. Meanwhile Cediel, who is decentant of the Chibcha people, is content with the presence of the mall insisting that it would be perfect if it wasn’t for the bones’ presence on the property.
Since Shellmound was not a recognized historical site, a mall was constructed over the majority of the area already concealing most of the burials. Due to the chemicals that were abandoned by the red paint factory, a large part of the burial site which was left outside the initial construction now contained human remains which were damaged by the toxic spill, and needed to be excavated solely for urban expansion.
Situations such as the toxic spill featured in the film is one example of how environmental disasters can devastate a variety of different things such as historical sites and resources. Environmental disasters occur much more frequently as it should, or is even acknowledged in the media. As was portrayed in the film, local native communities are generally the population who are effected by such disasters the most and receive minimal media coverage and compensation asides from a small mound which no one of the Ohlone community will ever