Santa Ynez Band of Chumash opens museum and cultural center

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 A welcome blessing—“haku haku”—is the first thing visitors hear walking into the Santa Ynez Chumash Museum and Cultural Center. 

The museum will also treat guests to paintings of former village sites, displays of ceremonial regalia, and recordings of elders speaking about life on reservations when it opens to the public on May 15, according to Kathleen Marshall, the chairwoman of the museum board.

Marshall said the museum tells the story of the Samala territory, the Chumash peoples’ ancestral homeland in modern Santa Barbara County, and should take guests between an hour or two to traverse, depending on how much they interact with the exhibits. 

“People don’t really know who we are. It’s not taught in schools. This gives us an opportunity to educate the people on who we were and who we are today,” Marshall said. 

The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians was federally recognized in 1901 and is still the only Chumash tribe in the U.S. to be so, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 

While the museum may be new to guests, Santa Ynez Chumash members have been putting the facility together for decades.

“We started off as an advisory committee about 20 years ago, but the thought of having a museum has existed since the ’70s,” Marshall said. 

To generate ideas, Marshall said the advisory committee visited museums across the East Coast that hold native artifacts. Seeing the “old school” approaches of most museums led the committee to pursue an innovative approach.

“We wanted to show that, yes, we have these beautiful items our ancestors left us, but we’re still creating those today,” Marshall said. “It was important to make sure we represent our ancestors while also [showing] we are still living.”

So, when the committee became a board with Marshall at the helm, she made sure to include exhibits representing current lingual trends, basket weavers, and community leaders. 

Current Chumash members re-created artifacts for the museum. Some of the items Marshall highlighted included Sofia Mata-Leon’s abalone pendants, Chanse Zavalla’s steatite bowl, Levi Šičwat Zavalla’s fishing net, and Frank Dominguez’s bone whistles.

Actual relics, though, required a little more patience to obtain. 

“The artifacts weren’t just left for us,” Marshall said. “All of the artifacts were stolen, and the tribe had to acquire them back through [the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act]. Most of the artifacts we have on display were brought back because the tribe purchased or was loaned them.”

Marshall said having to depend on the willingness of private sellers to possess what belonged to her ancestors can be frustrating. 

“Not only is it financially a burden, but it hurts to know we have to do this. It’s draining,” Marshall said. “Yes, it would be a perfect world if people would just be like, ‘Oh, your ancestors made these? You can have these back.’ But, that’s not the reality of what’s happening.”

Felicia Cogorno, education programs and volunteer manager for the museum, said she’s excited the museum will finally provide tribe members the opportunity to tell their story through their perspective and using their language. 

As education programs manager, Cogorno compiled a collection of Indigenous written and themed books for the Maria Solares Discovery Center, a classroom space named after the tribe’s ancestor. One book she highlighted was Spirit Rangers by tribe member Karissa Valencia, which has a corresponding Netflix animated show.

“Growing up, as an indigenous student, it was difficult to have to search out books written by other native people,” Cogorno said. “I wanted to create a space where native students could easily see themselves in the books we have available.”

In the future, the tribe hopes to host special events, fundraisers, and potentially classes on topics like basket weaving and flint knapping at the museum. 

“As someone who went to school here, I wish I would’ve had this museum to go to as a young person,” Cogorno said. “I encourage everyone, Chumash or not, to come visit.”

Highlight

• The Santa Maria-Lompoc Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was awarded $30,000 from Santa Barbara County’s Racial Equity Grant last month. The group plans to use the money to fund an annual gathering honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., two annual celebrations of Black history, its Unsung Heroes Project, and culturally competent programming in schools, according to a press release.

Reach Staff Writer Reece Coren at rcoren@santamariasun.com.

This article appears in May 15-25, 2025.