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daily bulletin.com |
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By Joe Nelson, Staff Writer |
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Patton remembers
forgotten dead |
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Bill promotes
preservation of burial sites at state hospitals |
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Etched into one stone was the number 197.
The number 1504 was etched into the other. They were grave markers of patients who died
at the hospital and were buried there between 1893 and the mid 1930s, a time
when the unclaimed dead were often buried on the grounds of state mental
hospitals. "Today we're here in memory of all the
people who died," said Larry Bear Rivera, the Native American Chaplain
for Patton, during the 5th annual Remembrance Ceremony hosted by the
California Memorial Project. The California Memorial Project was organized in
2001 after legislation was passed allowing for the preservation and
restoration of burial sites at state hospitals. Advocates including the California Network
of Mental Health Clients, Protection and Advocacy, Inc. and People First of
California are pushing for the passage of Assembly Bill 1448, which would
expand funding for such preservation and documentation. Other state hospitals and development
centers across the state held similar ceremonies on Monday including "Every day they walk through here,
looking for a way home," said Rivera, referring to the spirits of the
dead he said were walking in limbo on Patton grounds because they died alone,
with no one to claim them, the only indicator of their existence a number
etched on a stone. But now, even the numbered stones are long
gone. Nothing is left but a weed-choked dirt lot adjacent to "These people were forgotten, and we're
trying to turn this around so they're not forgotten," said Georgia
Degroat, director of the California Network of Mental Clients' Far South
region, which includes More than 2,000 former patients remain
buried on Patton's grounds, and another 42,000 people are buried on hospital
grounds statewide, said Garnet Magnus of Protection and Advocacy, Inc., an
advocate group for the disabled who has been pivotal in the push for more
legislation. Plans are under way to bring a memorial wall
to the Patton cemetery in the next two years with the names of all the dead
engraved on it, Magnus said. Monday's event concluded with those in
attendance driving out to the cemetery and laying white carnations atop the
grave of Serrano Indian Chief Antonio Saver, who died at the hospital shortly
after his admittance in 1907. He was 105 years old. Janine Anderson, a volunteer for Team House
in A circle about 20 feet in diameter rings the
gravesite. When Saver's kin do visit, they pile sage along the ridge of the
ring and burn it in a ceremony honoring his memory, said Degroat, who is also
Blackfoot Indian. To know that such a strong bond still exists
between a man who died a century ago and his kin tugs at And to see how his memory has been preserved
is somewhat shocking to her. "I just never thought it would be like
this," said "I just never thought it would be like
this," said |
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Contact writer Joe Nelson at (909)
386-3874 or via e-mail at joe.nelson@sbsun.com. |
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