Veterans’ Home Site Protested

A governor’s commission considering Ventura for a state-funded veterans’ facility ran into a protest Wednesday from a handful of Native Americans who say the proposed site must be preserved as a Chumash burial ground.

War veterans, residents and government officials urged the commission to select Ventura as one of two Southern California sites for a 400-bed retirement home.

But debate over the Chumash burial ground on the proposed 22-acre site resurfaced during the meeting, casting a shadow over a project that local officials have championed as having the community’s endorsement.

“We are proud of where we are today,” Supervisor John K. Flynn told commissioners and about 200 people attending the meeting at the Ventura County Government Center. “The site has widespread support and we invite you to take a tour.”

But during a walking tour of the land, situated on a citrus ranch at Telephone Road near Saticoy Avenue, a small group claiming Chumash descent argued with other Native Americans who support the project.

Although some Chumash descendants would like to see a veterans’ home on their ancestral land, others disagree.

“The land should not be disturbed,” said Semu Huaute, an Ojai resident who said he is descended from the Chumash. “I am not against anybody. But I am against them destroying the bones of our people.”

Huaute, a World War II veteran, has favored a competing site on Olivas Park Drive that City Council members turned down because it would require building on the city’s greenbelt.

The dispute over the burial ground and a nearby ancient village that archeologists have dated to at least 1200 AD has been festering since the project was proposed two years ago.

The dispute stalled negotiations for the retirement home in late 1994 when a state task force decided the community was too divided to invest there. The veterans’ home is expected to cost about $30 million and would bring about 400 jobs to the area.

In response to the earlier land dispute, city officials brought in a federal mediator who met with as many as 25 Chumash descendants.

“The Chumash people reached consensus on the common goal of protection, preservation and respect for burial remains and artifacts,” mediator Stephen N. Thom wrote to the commission. He added that plans were drawn to donate 2 1/2 acres for a combined Native American and veterans’ memorial.

Chumash descendants who support the project say the veterans’ home will benefit Native Americans who fought for their country. And, they argue, the cultural findings will be preserved by a memorial at the site.

“This way, we can all benefit,” said Greg Sandoval, a Ventura resident who says his ancestors were members of the Saticoy Chumash tribe.

For their part, veterans say Ventura is an ideal site for a retirement home based on its mild climate and central site. Of the state’s 3.3 million veterans, an estimated 663,000 live in five western counties of Southern California.

“It would be a cold day in hell that I’d be put out in a desert,” said Harry Gabrielson, a Ventura resident and disabled World War II veteran who attended the meeting.

If selected, Ventura would join Lancaster and Barstow as state-operated care facilities in Southern California. State officials are also looking for a fourth site.

Steve Davis, a Ventura resident who served two tours in Southeast Asia, urged the commission to select his city as one of the remaining sites and stressed the cooperation between some local Chumash and veterans.

“The area veterans and the Chumash have worked together to utilize this 22 acres of land,” he said. “I strongly urge the adoption of Saticoy-Ventura as the site for a veterans’ facility.”

But representatives of the panel, which also includes veterans and federal officials, reminded the audience that other sites are still under consideration.

“Ventura is simply one of a number of cities that have expressed interest,” Veterans Administration Undersecretary Lee Bennett said. “No decision has been made as of yet.”

Commissioner Richard Bowen said if Ventura is chosen, he hopes the community will work together and “all hold hands as brothers and help our elderly because that is what this is all about.”

The veterans’ home is planned for a portion of a 62-acre site owned by Newport Beach developer Wittenburg-Livingston Inc.

In exchange for donating the land, the developer is asking permission to build more than 400 homes on the adjoining property.

Despite the claims of Huaute and others opposed to the east Ventura site for archeological and cultural reasons, archeologist Bob Lopez performed an assessment of the property and said most of the remains have already been destroyed by decades of farming.

“The site has been fully impacted,” he said. “You wouldn’t be able to get anything archeologically from it.”

Ventura rancher Ives Vanoni, who sold all but a few acres of the land to Wittenburg-Livingston, said his family has plowed, dug and run pipelines through the property for 81 years.