This week as I was flying around catching Pokémon (by the way, it’s so much easier to catch them all from my perspective) a thought occurred to me: I think I’d like to see how many Pokémon might exist on the 1,400-acre parcel owned by the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians called Camp 4.
OK, so I completely, made that up. I wasn’t playing Pokémon Go but only because I am the suspicious sort and I really distrust apps that want to access all the information on my phone. And I definitely am not endorsing using Camp 4 as a Pokémon playground. However, I did really wonder about all the potential Pokémon that might be living on the property.
Fake anime Pokémon aside, there are some very real people who are not yet living on that property, but really should be: members of the Chumash tribe that owns it.
Why there are (potentially) Pokémon on the property and not families rests on the fact that the tribe and the county haven’t come to terms on allowing the tribe to take the property into federal trust. To come to a compromise, the two sides began meeting late last year, but their monthly meetings resulted in so little progress that they mutually agreed to suspend them for a few months.
What is making progress is legislation that would allow the tribe to take the parcel into federal trust.
The House Committee on Natural Resources voted on July 12 to clear the legislation, referred to as HR-1157.
Why is this an issue that is taking up the time of lawmakers?
Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) was correct when she cast the lone dissenting vote on the bill, saying that the issues are “between neighbors,” and that those neighbors must work together to resolve those issues. At least she was right in theory. She said that local forces should be able to settle things without federal involvement, but in practice that’s not so easy. At least that’s what the meetings have so far seemed to reveal.
Why this is so difficult comes down to the fact that both sides want to protect their interests, and they want very different things.
The tribe wants the land to build homes; the county, as if dollars were Pokémon, wants to catch all the potential money from property taxes that would be generated by those houses.
What’s especially funny about this is that Supervisors Doreen Farr and Peter Adam, both of whom were on the ad-hoc committee formed to negotiate with the tribe on behalf of the county, wrote a letter to the House committee asking the members to defer taking any action on the bill because their action would send “a troubling message to all acting in good faith and to the community that has supported this process.” It’s funny because it didn’t seem like talks were getting anywhere. Isn’t that why they were suspended in the first place?
At least both parties will continue negotiations, which will resume in August, and Tribal Chairman Kenneth Kahn has said he is committed to working out a common sense solution with the county, while simultaneously pushing for passage of the legislation. Until then, the bill will continue to wind its way through the federal path to the White House, taking up time from other issues that legislators should be addressing. But with contentious talks, was there any other choice?
The Canary really wants to play Pokémon Go but also likes her anonymity. Send her comments at [email protected].
