No one was too surprised when word broke on Oct. 24 that a bill had been proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives to allow the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians to annex its Camp 4 property.
As Santa Barbara County 3rd District Supervisor Doreen Farr put it in an e-mail she sent to her constituents that afternoon, “Chumash Tribal Chairman, Vincent Armenta, has stated repeatedly over the past three years that the tribe has been seeking a congressional sponsor to take Camp 4 into trust status through direct legislation.
“Unfortunately, the introduction of this bill by Congressman [Doug] LaMalfa, although unwelcome, should not come as a surprise to those of us in the county who have been following this issue closely.”
Supervisor Farr’s district contains the Santa Ynez Reservation and the Santa Ynez Valley where Camp 4 sits.
Congressman LaMalfa (R-Richvale) introduced the bill, which would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to take the land into trust for the Chumash. He represents counties in the northeast corner of California, including the cities of Redding, Red Bluff, and Klamath River. Phone calls made and e-mails sent to the congressman’s press liaison weren’t returned to the Sun as of press time.
The Chumash are also in the process of trying to get Camp 4 placed in fee to trust through the application process with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). During an Oct. 15 hearing, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted to officially oppose the application. The county has until Nov. 7 to submit its comments to the BIA for the fee-to-trust application.
During the Oct. 15 hearing, Chairman Armenta said the tribe will continue to pursue putting Camp 4 under government trust status, both administratively with the application process and legislatively with members of Congress.
The tribe released a statement in response to the news that LaMalfa had introduced legislation in the House.
“It was a momentous day in the history of our tribe,” Armenta said in the statement. “Members of the tribe, their children, and their grandchildren need a place where they can live and raise their families on tribal land governed by their own tribal government, and the Camp 4 land is ideal.”
There isn’t space for further development on the tribe’s current reservation, where only about 17 percent of tribal members and lineal descendants are living. When the tribe bought the nearly 1,400 acres of land in 2010 from descendants of Fess Parker, one of the big goals for the property was to develop more tribal housing.
Tentative development plans outlined in an environmental assessment submitted to the BIA for Camp 4 call for 143 separate plots of land for tribal members to build homes, open space, and riparian and oak tree corridors, as well as the potential to build a tribal center.
Included in the recently proposed legislation is a caveat that precludes the tribe from developing any gaming on the Camp 4 land, which is one of the major concerns many opponents to annexing the property have expressed.
In her e-mail, Farr encouraged her constituents to contact LaMalfa and the five other co-sponsors of the bill: congressmen Jeff Denham (R-Turlock), Paul Ruiz (D-Palm Desert), Tony Cardena (D-San Fernando Valley), David Valadao (R-Fresno), and Joe Garcia from Florida.
Farr also urged everyone to contact Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara). In response to the legislation, Capps released a statement that said she wasn’t in support of the bill.
“I understand how important this issue is for residents of the Santa Ynez Valley, the Chumash tribe and, indeed, the entire county. That is why I continue to believe a local resolution between the county and the Tribe is best for all parties involved,” Capps said in the statement.
This article appears in Oct 31 – Nov 6, 2013.
