Officials Try to Guard Indian Site From Off-Roaders : Los Padres forest: Rangers close one path in hopes of protecting a Chumash village for archeologists.

For more than a decade, a state off-road vehicle park in the northeast corner of Ventura County has coexisted uneasily with neighboring Los Padres National Forest.

That relationship became increasingly difficult recently when forest rangers made what they believe is a rare archeological discovery--the remains of a Chumash Indian village.

Experts say the discovery in early December could be one of only a dozen village sites identified in the 2 million-acre forest and, because it has been undisturbed, could provide valuable information on the way the Chumash lived.

Last week, forestry officials closed one of the main trails from the Hungry Valley State Vehicular Recreation Area into the national forest. But they fear off-road enthusiasts will find another way onto the trail and inadvertently harm the site before archeologists can thoroughly examine it.

“It has been a concern because we are trying to preserve as much history as possible,” said Patrick Tumamait, an Ojai resident who has been active in Chumash affairs. “For vehicles to run over these sites is really bad. They are desecrating a lot of history.”

Before forestry officials can permanently reroute the trail, officials at the State Historic Preservation Office must decide if the site is genuine. This is done by examining historic records and the beads and broken tools that were unearthed--a process that could take until February.

The site was discovered by forestry officials with the help of historic records that document the locations where Spanish explorers found Indian villages in the 1800s.

Steven Horne, an archeologist for the national forest, said an undisturbed Indian village site can provide valuable information on the food-gathering habits and other daily routines of the Chumash. “A village site is the center of activity for the Indians,” he said.

Forestry officials, environmentalists and Chumash representatives say the episode is an example of a longstanding problem with off-road enthusiasts and vandals in an area that was once considered sacred by the Chumash Indians who inhabited it.

Forestry officials have discovered countless Indian artifacts in the wooded area around Mt. Pinos--the highest peak in Los Padres National Forest. Many caves scattered along the mountain ridges are decorated with Indian pictographs.

“Presumably, they did drawings on the caves because those are sacred places,” said Sally M. Reid, a member of the Sierra Club.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill this year to designate a portion of the Chumash’s ancestral land as a wilderness area within the national forest. However, the bill died in the Senate when Congress adjourned.

“Mt. Pinos itself was a sacred mountain,” said John Johnson, the curator of anthropology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. “Most of those peaks in those areas have legends and are considered shrines.”

But off-roaders have caused forest officials grief by tearing through sensitive archeological sites, said Earl Clayton, a spokesman for the Los Padres National Forest. Vandals with spray cans have desecrated cave pictographs, and poachers--known as “pot hunters”--have made off with Indian bowls, beads and arrowheads, he said.

Because the forest is so large and so rich with Indian culture, forestry officials cannot guard each site, he said.

“We consider it urgent that we get in there as fast as possible,” he said, referring to the latest discovery.

When an important Indian site is identified, Horne said, the Forestry Service’s policy is to protect it so historic and anthropological information can be gathered. This is done by diverting public trails away from the area and building natural barriers, such as berms and rock piles, to keep people off the site, he said.

Forestry officials do not advertise the discovery of a site, Horne said, adding that the destruction of sensitive areas usually occurs when hikers and off-road enthusiasts stray from designated trails.

Mike Tarnay, a Los Angeles resident who recently visited the off-road vehicle park, said he only rides his motorcycle on designated trails. He criticized those who plow through sensitive forest land on their bikes.

“They’ve got plenty of room,” he said. “I don’t know why they would go out there.”

Stefan LaCasse, a UCLA student who regularly rides his motorcycle in Hungry Valley, agreed. But he said he understands the fascination with leaving the well-worn trails to blaze new paths in the forest.

“There’s a lot of temptation to go across a line that you are not supposed to cross,” he said.

Dennis Doberneck, a supervisor at Hungry Valley, said there are many trails that lead from the recreation area into the forest. He said there also are about 5,000 acres in the federal forest that are open to off-road vehicles. The Hungry Valley off-road recreation area is visited annually by about 200,000 people.

But he said the problem of off-road vehicles damaging Indian sites and artifacts is not limited to the Los Padres National Forest. Chumash artifacts have been discovered even in the Hungry Valley recreational area, which occupies 19,000 acres near Frazier Park on the forest’s northeast border.

Doberneck said he, too, diverts traffic from the sites of such discoveries.

It is a misdemeanor to remove objects of historic or archeological significance from private land or a public park. It is also a misdemeanor offense to vandalize or in any way disturb Indian cave art. Both are punishable by a sentence of up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Because it is difficult to catch people in the act of stealing or vandalizing Indian artifacts, officials at Hungry Valley have cited only one person in the past five years, Doberneck said. The person was found guilty and fined, Doberneck said.

Clayton said he is uncertain how many people have been cited for stealing artifacts in the Los Padres National Forest, but estimated that about a dozen people are cited annually in the state’s 18 national forests.

Many of the artifacts found in the Los Padres forest, Johnson and Horne said, have come from temporary hunting camps, where Chumash stayed for only short periods while tracking deer or collecting berries and nuts.

Forestry officials believe the site near Hungry Valley was a permanent encampment because it is near a large creek, and “any time you have a water source, it’s highly probable the area could be a village site,” Clayton said.