Kuya’mu in Gaviota

I want to raise my personal concerns and express my opinions why I care about this issue and why it’s so important to me.

The famous Dos Pueblos Ranch was the home of my ancestors Maria De Los Angeles (b.1830) and her father, Cirilo Chulu Talahuit (b.1887 Kuyama), his wife, Primativa (b.1796), Chief Beato Temiacucat (b.1748), and Delfina Maria (b.1742). They all dwelled at the village of Mikiw (the places of the muscles). D the road to the southeast is the historic landmark of Naples. This area is best known to my Chumash community people as the village of the Kuya’mu area. Historical trails and a main road had led to the historic town of Naples.

The beautiful landscape, the undisturbed soils from the 1700s, and the pristine grassy landscape with gorgeous views of the ocean and our marine terrace bluffs are the many vital reasons to say, “No no no,” to this proposed development for this parcel of land. I humbly ask our county supervisors not to approve this development. Please take into consideration the high cultural resource sensitivity of this area, the significant ecological habitat, the beautiful undisturbed environment, the profound history of where Juan Cabrillo initially landed. As a direct descendant of people of the Mikiw and Kuya’mu Chumash villages, I want to express and acknowledge the profound history that has been written and explored . My descendants are mentioned in books such as Swinging the Censer: Reminiscences of old Santa Barbara times by Catherine Den Bell, the daughter of Rosa Hill Den and Nicholas Den, who received one of the first land grants in the 1840s given by Governor Alvarado; and Santa Barbara’s Royal Rancho: The fabulous history of Los Dos Pueblos by Walker A. Thompkins.

This proposed development is devastating to the environment and our cultural history. This historical piece of property and the environment needs to be preserved now! Reconsider this proposed development, which is not good for the environment.

We need to think about the future of the Gaviota and preserve the majority of it for future generations to experience. We need to understand the land’s beauty and trails.

Preservation, restoration, and preservation in place are the elements that need to be voiced. These are the signs of the times with climate changes and sea level on the rise. We need to annex this land now. Just as my late grandfather Paul Pommier Sr. wrote an article in the Independent on May 12, 2010, I want to advocate for the importance once again of the amount of undisturbed soils, the high amount of bio archeology, as well as sacred artifacts and burial sites. These are all important issues to be considered for this proposed development.

Please ask our county representatives to consider carefully the development proposed. I believe that this area needs to be preserved. I want to raise my personal concerns and express my opinions why I care about this issue and why it’s so important to me as I continue the acknowledgment of my homeland, while I envision the Super Sacred conscious of someday repatriating the land to today’s living descendants.

I want to thank you for your time and your effort to hear our voices and our concerns. Please be in consideration, let’s do what’s best for the land, and not what’s best for our pockets. As I bring this letter to a close, I will quote my grandfather in the 2010 article asking Santa Barbara to annex this land: “This particular parcel of land to be sold in foreclosed this Thursday plus the adjacent Dos Pueblos ranch which is not part of the foreclosure sale is where my great-grandfather chief Beto Temicucat, his forefathers and his clan lived and where generations of my tribal ancestors are buried This land is sacred holy ground to the Chumash.”