Santa Ynez Tribal Health Clinic Turns 50 Years Old

The Santa Ynez Tribal Health Clinic grew from a small two-bedroom trailer to its current state-of-the-art facility on the upper reservation chiefly through the energy and dedication of Rosa Pace, an obstetrics nurse and member of the tribe who secured the grants needed to start the clinic in 1974. As well as medical services, the clinic achieved running water on the reservation and dental and social services over the past 50 years, an anniversary the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians celebrated on Friday.

“When my grandmother, Rosa Pace, had a vision, nothing could stop her,” said Kenneth Kahn, who chairs the Santa Ynez Band. In a remembrance he wrote for Pace, who died in 2015, Kahn recalled, “We had everything when we had nothing. The wealth of love and family shielded us from ever feeling we were without. And Grandma Rosa was always there when we needed her.”

Pace had also started the Urban Indian Health Clinic on Milpas Street in Santa Barbara before opening the clinic at the reservation in Santa Ynez, leading the clinic until her retirement in 2000. Today, its 19 providers serve as many as 25,000 people during the year in specialties ranging from optometry and podiatry to substance abuse and behavioral health.

“The Tribal Health Clinic was always her passion,” said Gary Pace of his mother. “My family is proud of what she stood for, and we try to do our best to follow her example.”

Kahn sent a “huge Thank You” to clinicians and staffers past and present, saying they “put in the work every day to support our patients over the years.” The clinic serves Medi-Cal/Medicare patients, reservation residents and the general public, and is one of the few in Santa Barbara County to be accredited as an outpatient facility by the Accredited Association for Ambulatory Health Care.