Two baskets; a steatite stone model of a Chumash tomol, or plank canoe; and an early 1900s photograph of Santa Ynez Chumash ancestors.
These four culturally significant items were recently returned to the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians by the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum in compliance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The federal law, revised last July, requires that museums and institutions return remains and cultural artifacts to their rightful owners, including lineal descendants, culturally affiliated American Indian tribes, Alaska Native villages, and Native Hawaiian organizations.
The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians is the only federally recognized Chumash tribe in the United States, according to the tribe’s cultural director, Nakia Zavalla. Because of this, the protection and repatriation law allows the tribe to go into museums and institutions to identify “sacred items” from ancient ancestors, such as funerary and ceremonial items.
“We’re able to bring these items back home,” Zavalla said. “We’re able to study them, spend time with them, and have the ability to connect.”
Every returned artifact has a unique spiritual and historical significance. Zavalla explained that returns are especially important for sharing and preserving cultural knowledge for future generations.
“Our Chumash people are known for our basketry,” she said. “As a cultural item, it means so much. We’re still in this place of learning more about our culture, and having those items returned back home just helps us out with continuing to share that with our community members.”
For Zavalla and many others in the Chumash tribe, this return is part of a much larger effort to heal from historical injustices and assert the tribe’s right to take back what belongs to them.
“This is part of us healing as a nation, as a people, and showing our next generation how important it is to care for these items and the importance of exercising our rights as a federally recognized tribe to enforce these federal laws on institutions when so much wrong has been done,” she said.
Zavalla will continue to work with museums and institutions to recover the tribe’s cultural heritage, describing her role in the return process as “legacy work.”
“I’m doing it for my grandchild and great-grandchildren and many generations to come,” she said.
The recent visit to the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum for the return of artifacts led to the identification of additional Chumash items, which will be reviewed for a possible future cultural return. Zavalla expressed immense gratitude toward the museum, specifically Executive Director Krissy Castillo, for facilitating a smooth return process.
“They really opened their doors to us,” Zavalla said. “Most of the time, we’re knocking on doors, saying, ‘Hey, we want to come see these items.’ The new director there, she’s just fabulous. She’s a great person. You can tell her heart’s in the right place, and it really demonstrates our local museum wanting to do what’s right and return these items back to the tribe with no issues at all.”
Since 2022, Zavalla and Castillo have collaborated to initiate a successful and amicable return of artifacts to the Chumash tribe.
“It’s been a really nice understanding of our collection,” Castillo said. “Them telling us about it, and us telling them about it. We have newspaper articles about the collection, who donated it to us and when it was donated, and that’s been fun because we’re all kind of finding our way in this new world. It’s been really enlightening.”
Castillo emphasized that she feels grateful to be a part of the return process, adding that “it’s just the right thing to do.”
“They are the rightful owners,” she said. “It comes from them. We shouldn’t be telling their story. They know their story. We can only pretend to know their story.”
Highlight
• This spring, the Lompoc Public Library System will join Neighborhood Forest’s 16th annual Free Tree Program to promote youth environmentalism and a greener community. Parents and guardians can register online by March 15 to receive a free 6-to-12-inch tree during Earth Week. Species details will be announced in early April, and trees will be delivered to the library. Staff will notify registrants when their trees are ready for pickup, which is expected to be around April 22, or Earth Day. Planting instructions and other tree care details will be emailed before delivery and available on the Neighborhood Forest website. To register, visit neighborhoodforest.org/parent-registration.
Staff Writer Emma Montalbano can be reached at emontalbano@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Feb 27 – Mar 9, 2025.