Ventura County Gives Go-Ahead for Chumash Center in Wilderness Park

A Ventura County panel has approved plans for a Chumash Indian center and traditional village to be run by Indians in a county wilderness park in Thousand Oaks.

The Parks and Harbor Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval by the county’s Board of Supervisors of a lease giving the Candelaria American Indian Council and Ventureno Band of the Chumash a 30-year option to run the center at the entrance to Oakbrook Regional Park.

The Indian center, long planned by the county park officials, became a key element in efforts by the county to remove human remains from a Chumash Indian burial site in Calleguas Creek near Point Mugu.

The remains, discovered in August by archeologists who were called in as consultants for a flood-control project, were not exhumed until January, when negotiations for the Indian park helped placate Chumash groups protesting the removal of skeletons.

County workers had suspended the flood project under threat of losing $785,000 in federal flood-control grants if they failed to protect the remains.

After county supervisors rejected as too expensive or ineffective proposals to buffer the burial ground against floodwaters, officials proposed unearthing and reburying the bones in 427-acre Oakbrook Park, which is used only for Boy Scout camp-outs.

The two Indian groups originally opposed relocation of the bones, but dropped their opposition when the county agreed to enter into negotiations with them on management of the Indian center.

Removal of the remains of about 20 Indians was further delayed by a lawsuit filed by a third Indian group, the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation, which contended that ancient religious tradition prohibits the reburial of Indian remains because the souls of the dead would be disturbed.

In December a federal judge turned down the Coastal Band’s request for an injunction blocking the reburial. Archeologists then began exhuming the grave site. The Indian bones, estimated to date from the 3rd Century, are now being studied at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

They will eventually be reburied in a remote part of Oakbrook Park, where access to the public will be regulated by the Indians as part of the lease negotiated between the county and Candelaria and Ventureno leaders.

Grants to Pay for Building

Under terms of the lease, approved by the Parks and Harbor Commission Wednesday, the county will spend $240,000 in state park grants to build an unfurnished building of about 3,000 square feet and a parking area, according to Blake Boyle, the county’s manager of recreational services.

The Indian groups will be responsible for finishing the interior of the building and providing relics and display cases, Boyle said. The lease will allow the Indians to operate a sandwich bar and museum gift shop to pay for the center’s operation.

The center will be partly staffed with park ranger trainees paid under a federal grant to one of the Indian groups, Boyle said.

He said he expects the building to be completed in a year or two.

Supervisor Madge Schaefer said Thursday that she foresees no difficulty in gaining final approval of the lease by the Board of Supervisors. The county’s ruling body is expected to vote on the matter in about two weeks.

“It was exactly what we wanted,” she said. “We believe this lease will provide for a wonderful Indian center operated by the Chumash about the Chumash.”