House
of cards
Ever wonder why Preservation of Los Olivos has battled so
long and so hard over a little plot of land in the middle of town? Or what the objections to renaming
Highway 154 the Chumash Highway were all about? Or the recent vocal objections to AB 2686, a seemingly
benign legislative bill to rename a local water company?
These objections are in response to the major power play
that has been in the works since 1995 and is being fueled solely by a
name. A name that is crucial for a
local Indian tribe to secure as their identity for future territorial expansion
and expanded water rights.
Chumash. The key to unlocking seven thousand miles of
aboriginal territory.
Funny how a name can mean so much and change so many
things for so many people. I guess
we could all continue the charade.
We could also just keep fighting every little battle that comes up. Or perhaps it is time to collectively
stand up and say, “enough is enough.”
If AB 2686 becomes law, a dangerous precedent giving
expanded powers to the tribe over our water supply will be set into motion,
just as allowing a 6.9 acre parcel in Santa Ynez to be taken into trust as
reservation land for the tribe would set a precedent for future land
acquisitions.
These two actions may seem minor to some, but according
to laws governing the status of Indian tribes they would be an important legal
link in establishing an ancestral claim to the reservation in order to
legitimize territorial expansion.
There is no mystery as to why Tribal Administrator Sam Cohen and Tribal
Chairman Vincent Armenta, most likely under the direction of their Washington,
D.C., attorneys, requested that the local water district assist the tribe in
attaining federal water rights.
Again, it is all in a name.
To this day, legal documents filed by both the federal
government and the tribe do not contain the word “Chumash,” and for good
reason.
No one would have cared much to question the evolution of
a name from Santa Ynez Band of Mission Indians to Santa Ynez Band of Chumash
Indians that occurred just before the state compact was signed with Governor
Gray Davis in 1999 if it weren’t for the far-reaching and future land rights
and water rights implications of this fraud.
I am sure there are plenty of people who see and justify
this fraud as particularly gratifying in exchange for the past betrayals and
injustices perpetrated on Native Americans. Unfortunately, it has become nothing more than rewriting
history by opportunists claiming a false identity to cheat the system and cash
in on laws and programs intended to help genuine Native Americans who will
ultimately suffer because of the backlash this will cause.
The Santa Ynez Valley scenario is nothing new. It is a well-crafted blueprint that was
created in the early 1970s in the halls of academe and by crafty and powerful
D.C. attorneys that continues to play out like a broken record in nearly every
gambling state in the country.
The Santa Ynez Band’s sleight of hand is being allowed to
go forward with the blessing of our county, state, and federal governments
while it sets the stage for a major land, power, and water rights grab within
our county. It doesn’t matter what
picture all the tribal pundits want to paint.
If this sits well with county residents, then let it
be. If not, it is time to demand
some answers.
Our state and county government would find no evidence of
the claimed 1901 recognition of the Santa Ynez Band of “Chumash” Indians if
they cared to look. It simply
doesn’t exist. The Santa Ynez Band
of “Mission” Indians had a murky status at best between 1934 and 1978 until
they appeared on the first Department of Interior list of federally recognized
tribes published in 1979.
There is nothing, not one document that can be found, to
support the 1901 recognition that Chairman Armenta has claimed — and
certainly not through an act of Congress as he has also claimed in television
and radio interviews. Similarly,
there is no record of the federal government entering into a treaty or
Congressional agreement of any kind with the Santa Ynez Band, contrary to what
Armenta also has asserted.
Given this — coupled with dozens of other factual
inconsistencies, including a letter to the Bureau of Land Management by the
tribe’s own attorney stating “there are no living lineal descendents” —
serious questions arise over the legal status of not only the Band but of the
legality of the gambling compact with the State of California and the right
they claim to government-to-government relations via their federal status.
The Santa Ynez Valley community has a right to object and
to stop further tribal expansion of the Santa Ynez Band, whether through land
or federal water rights within the boundaries of this valley, simply because of
the fraudulent foundation on which their tribal government privilege is being
granted and used against the community.
Their federal status allows private access to our
legislators, governor, county government, and state agencies, but at the same
time is being used as a shield to prevent the public from gaining access to any
information regarding tribal plans.
Disclosure of such information from our elected officials, including our
board of supervisors, is being denied.
Information has been consistently withheld with numerous and documented
instances of denial of records, most recently during the skirmish over the
highway renaming and now AB 2686.
For example, after requesting the peer review study from
Santa Barbara Democratic Assembly Member Pedro Nava’s office that was used to
support the historical claim and subsequent bill that was passed to rename the
highway, his office refused — stating, “the study you requested has been
determined to be confidential.”
Quite coincidentally, the public only started hearing
about the Santa Ynez Band’s “10,000 year old” history at the beginning of last
year, just in time for the highway renaming. The “10,000 year old” history of this band simply doesn’t
exist. It exists for the real
native Chumash people, but there is absolutely no proof of any connection
whatsoever to the rewritten and absolutely false history Armenta spews with
great frequency in every paper in this county. It is propaganda, pure and simple, to gain legitimate claim
to the reservation and the land claim for which Armenta is positioning
himself.
California’s Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger —
before he sold out to gambling tribes across the state — actually
challenged the Santa Ynez Band’s aboriginal claims in a 2005 letter to the
Department of Interior, stating very clearly the Santa Ynez Band is not the
aboriginal legatee of land they claim to be ancestral territory.
Chairman Armenta was able to characterize this very
detailed and tribe-specific letter as a “form letter” because of the clear bias
of people like the editorial page editor at the Santa Barbara News-Press,
Travis Armstrong, who never published the significant contents of the
letter. Armstrong also happens to
be a member of the Chippewa tribe, which owns and operates two Indian casinos
in Minnesota.
A free press does not exist in Santa Barbara County
except in one local paper because the news media, particularly radio and print,
have become far too dependent upon casino advertising revenue and have allowed
their content to be controlled by Chairman Armenta’s wishes, desires, and
temper.
In a December 2004 L.A. Times article, Glenn Bunting
reports on the firing of Santa Barbara News-Press reporter Andy Rose after
Armenta strongly urged his dismissal during a meeting with the then-executive
editor, Jerry Roberts, following a column Rose wrote that chastised Armenta and
criticized the tribe over the management of their casino. The article also
states the tribe withdrew casino advertising for a period of time following a
dispute with the News-Press.
It is amusing to me how the tribal pundits like to point
out that nothing has happened: no
added slots, no casino expansion, etc., all the while forgetting the fact that
a small bingo hall grew into a 240,000 square foot casino, spa, hotel,
five-story parking garage, and a wastewater treatment plant in the middle of a
small rural town against an outpouring of opposition by the community. They claim P.O.L.O. and other community
groups are just putting out alarmist propaganda because nothing has occurred
since this massive expansion.
Well, maybe nothing significant has occurred since then
because a bunch of people had the courage to stand up and object, very loudly,
and very publicly while being labeled racists, extremists, goofballs, idiots,
Chumash haters, Chumash bashers, RAWGS (Rich Angry White Guys - a term Frances
Snyder and Vincent Armenta coined back in 2000), and the list goes on.
Critics don’t see the dozens upon dozens of letters that
have been written on behalf of the community to our elected officials, the
incalculable hours of research, and the hundreds of phone calls to our
legislators simply asking to be represented in this matter. We will never know. We only know that we must remain
diligent so that nothing more will occur.
Challenging the legal status of the tribe is not “Chumash
bashing,” as some may want to believe.
Such sympathies ought to be reserved for the historical Chumash people,
who are out there and voiceless because of this deception.
We have enough information now to demand answers to some
serious and legitimate questions because the stakes are too high and the valley
has far too much to lose. Every
single action taken by the Santa Ynez Band, our legislators, our governor, and
our county government, with respect to this land status and the water rights
that come with it is an attempt to establish an ancestral link to the
reservation, which is imperative for further expansion.
If these questions continue to go unanswered, we will
continue to gamble with the future of the valley.