The Indigenous Land Action Committee started occupying a site known as the Gill Tract on October 11, 2015. Photo from Occupy the Farm / Facebook
A protest by a group called the Indigenous Land Access Committee was put to an end by the University of California at Berkeley on Wednesday. The group and its supporters started camping out at the five-acre site, known as the Gill Tract, on Sunday. They called for the return of the land to the Ohlone people in order to prevent the university from developing it. "Through this ceremony, we are calling for the recognition of this land as Ohlone territory, and its preservation as a space for restoring indigenous cultures and practices, including the reclamation of lifeways and foodways on the land that our ancestors called home," Hank Herrera, an Ohlone man who was one of the organizers of the protest, said in a press release. The group sought to work with the university to preserve the land. But police were called in and they removed Herrera and other protesters early Wednesday morning, according to a press release. It's not clear if anyone was arrested or is facing charges. Get the Story:
UC Berkeley evicts Native American protesters for illegal squatting (Campus Reform 10/15)
UC Police Remove Ohlone Elder, Activists from Gill Tract (The East Bay Express 10/15)
Indigenous Land Action Committee occupies UC land (The Daily Californian 10/14)
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