Prior to the invasion of California by the Spanish military in the late eighteenth century, this coastline belonged to the Tsmuwich and Purisimento divisions of the Chumash Indians. In the1850's, American troops seized the Chumash lands, along with the territory of all other native peoples of California.
Now, at the beginning of the twenty first century, the American government is studying the benefits of classifying this huge coastal area as a federal seashore. Unfortunately, this federal reclassification has the potential of eliminating local Chumash land claims, unless the federal government changes its long standing policy of denying Chumash claimants legal status so they can defend their land claims in federal courts.
On December 28, 2001, Paul Pommmier sent the following letter to the National Parks Service. It proposed legal designation for 20,000 acres of the contested coastline for a Chumash homeland.
The National Park Service is completing a three-year study to determine the feasibility of adding part of this coastline to the National Park system as a National Seashore. I am writing this letter to make certain that the religious views and land-use goals of the Barbareno Chumash Council are appropriately integrated into your planning process.
The term used by the National Park Service for the area currently under study is Goleta. It includes approximately 76 miles of California coastline and 200,000 acres of land which lie within the aboriginal territory of the Barbareno and Purismento Indians. One of the expressed goals of the feasibility study is to identify and encourage the participation of "key stakeholders" in the planning process. As we have discussed in previous conversation, the Barbareno Chumash are key stakeholders. Yet it was not until very late in the planning process that our Council became aware of your activities.
We do not attempt to speak about the spirituality and land-use goals of Barbareno Chumash families that belong to the Coastal Band or other organizations with Barbareno Chumash members. But we can speak for our participating families, who seek a permanent land base on the coastline under study.
We have consulted with the Coastal Band and have attended meetings of the Gaviota Coastal Conservancy in an effort to broaden our contacts with other key stakeholders and to educate our membership about the many issues under discussion. We have talked to regional church leaders, large landowners, environmental groups, developers, and staff members of the National Park Service. After assessing these and other sources of information, the Barbareno Chumash Council has decided to endorse the following basic goals:
To put aside 10% of the land under study for a ?homeland? for the descendants of the Barbareno Chumash Indians. This 20,000 acres should be located on the coast, from Dos Pueblos Canyon west to Refugio Canyon. The Barbareno Council has drawn up preliminary plans for a Tribal Administrative center, Elders' Health Care Facility, Drug and Alcohol Prevention Center, housing for Barbareno families, a Tribal Library, and a Demonstration Village for tourists.
2. To protect the archaeological, historical, and economic use sites of the Barbareno and Purismento Chumash, which lie within the 200,000-acre feasibility study area.
3. To protect the religious sites of the Barbareno and Purismento Chumash that lie within the study area. To facilitate this goal, a tribal religious sanctuary should be set aside at Point Conception, which is one of the most important spiritual sites in the aboriginal Chumash territory.
4. To facilitate federal recognition for the non-reservation descendants of the Barbareno Chumash. as well as other divisions of the non-reservation Chumash. Lack of federal recognition has hindered generations of Barbareno Chumash, who are a distinct division of the Chumash people. They consider themselves separate from the Samala Chumash. who have federal recognition and the only existing reservation.
I hope this short list of objectives will help your staff focus on these issues of pressing importance to the Barbareno Chumash Council. It is our expectation that the Barbareno Chumash will be respected as "key stakeholders" in your draft feasibility study. We expect that the goals addressed will appear in each of your "management alternatives" which will appear in the publication scheduled to be available soon for public review.
The descendants of the Barbareno Chumash have been systematically excluded from public policy for generations, as a result of the refusal of the federal government to legally recognize our existence as a people and thereby denying us a land base where we could preserve our culture. For thousands of years, our ancestors were a coastal people. The Gaviota Coast, with its extensive open lands, is our best hope for gaining title to an unspoiled section of our ancestral coastal land. Please help us at this critical time of our history.
We welcome an ongoing dialogue in the months ahead, and will do everything in our power to cooperate with local, state, and federal agencies responsible for the protection and administration of public facilities on the Gaviota Coast.
Paul Pommier
Elder, Representing the Barbareno Chumash Council
National Park Service headquarters in San Francisco.
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"The Barbareno Chumash Council is an organization representing many native California families whose ancestors lived for thousands of years in an area of the California coast in and near the town of Santa Barbara. This coastline is often referred to as the Santa Barbara Channel.
Update 1
Coastal Band Statement
