Custody Battle : Official Wants Chumash Artifacts to Go to Center, Not to Stagecoach Museum

A dispute is developing over where to house a large collection of Chumash artifacts found in Newbury Park: the Stagecoach Inn Museum or the recently built Chumash Interpretive Center.

Planning Commissioner Linda Parks believes the relics, found at a development site near Rancho Conejo Boulevard, should go to the Native American center and not to the Stagecoach Inn Museum despite past promises by the city.

And, at her urging, the Planning Commission has asked the City Council to reexamine the issue.

“It seems more appropriate to give this to the Indians instead of the cowboys,” said Parks, a City Council candidate. “Also, you want to put these artifacts in the best place, and I don’t think there is any question that the Chumash center is the best place.”

Not everyone agrees with Parks, however.

Jerry Knotts of the Conejo Valley Historical Society, which operates the Stagecoach Inn Museum, is upset that the facility could lose the artifacts after working for years to save and store them.

Shapell Industries of Beverly Hills is planning to build 1,452 houses on the 1,860-acre property where the relics were found over the last 27 years. The property is a former ranch once owned by the MGM film studio.

When Thousand Oaks approved the development, it decided that artifacts discovered at the site should go to the museum, which has since received state and federal grants to take care of the find.

“We have been working this since 1988, and it’s a little late for whoever is behind this to be getting into the act,” Knotts said. “We’re not going to let someone drive a wedge between us and the Chumash. We’re eight years into this effort. This is like building a building, then being told to tear it down.”

The relics--including colorful paint-mixing bowls and tools fashioned from condor bones--reveal a settlement inhabited on and off by Native Americans for several thousand years.

Artifacts were first discovered in 1969, and digging continued sporadically until last year.

They are currently being examined by an archeologist who is preparing a report on the aspects of Chumash life that they illustrate. For example, shell fragments found at the landlocked site come from as far away as Malibu and Point Mugu, showing that the inhabitants were part of a large trade network.

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Parks believes that Thousand Oaks should reconsider who should take control of the artifacts now that the Chumash Interpretive Center, an educational facility run by the Oakbrook Chumash, opened its doors near the Lang Ranch section of the city last year.

She stressed that she has nothing against the Stagecoach Inn Museum, noting that the facility has done an admirable job of preserving the Conejo Valley’s past. But she believes Chumash people should have Chumash artifacts.

“When that development agreement was signed, there was only one place to put artifacts like this--the Stagecoach museum,” Parks said. “But now we have the Chumash museum, a million-dollar facility, and I think it is a much better place to save these artifacts through history.”

Councilman Mike Markey said giving the artifacts to the Interpretive Center at this point would be an injustice to the Stagecoach Inn Museum. He charged Parks with trying to stir up an issue to draw attention to her City Council campaign.

“To yank that away from them would be totally unfair,” said Markey, who also is running for reelection. “I think it’s a political issue she’s trying to drum up, and that’s really unfortunate.”

Paul Varela, director of the Chumash Interpretive Center, said the Oakbrook Chumash are interested in the artifacts but have not had a chance to examine them. He said he thinks highly of the Stagecoach Inn Museum and does not want to enter into a dispute with it because both organizations have worked well together in the past.

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But he would fight for the collection if it turns out to be important to the Chumash, he said.

“Sometimes, a large collection like this is mostly a bunch of rocks, and we don’t want that,” Varela said. “I’ve got to see the collection, and I’ve got to see the [archeologist’s] report before I make a decision.”

Greg Smith of Thousand Oaks’ planning department said he is concerned that the Chumash Interpretive Center may be ill-equipped to deal with a collection of relics as large and fragile as the ones found on the Shapell property. Moreover, he said he is troubled by the ethics of sending a collection to the Chumash that Thousand Oaks had previously promised to the Stagecoach Inn Museum.

“I personally think the request has to be considered in light of the facility they [the Oakbrook Chumash] have there,” Smith said. “They don’t have a museum, and to my knowledge, there is no one at that facility with the expertise to handle these kinds of artifacts.”

In a letter to Smith, C. William Clewlow Jr., the archeologist examining the collection, stressed that he believes the Stagecoach Inn Museum should be given the artifacts. He pointed out that the museum already holds numerous other collections of artifacts from Native American settlements in the Conejo Valley and has worked closely with him on this and other projects.

“To not do so would be personally, professionally and legally remiss,” Clewlow said in the letter.

Mayor Andy Fox agreed. He said the entire issue was news to him, adding that the City Council never asked the Planning Commission for its opinion on the collection. The City Council is set, however, to review changes to the Shapell development later this year, and the issue could come up at that point.

“I’m not interested in going back on our word to the Stagecoach Inn and changing horses in midstream here,” Fox said. “We basically have a group of volunteers [the historical society] who have worked really hard on this. I don’t see this as an issue at all.”