Chumash Camp 4 Bill Clears House Committee

A controversial bill that would allow the Chumash Indian Tribe to transfer hundreds of acres of land in the Santa Ynez Valley into tribal sovereignty has cleared a major hurdle in Congress.

The Congressional House Committee on Natural Resources has voted 29-1 in favor of HR 1157, with local Congresswoman Lois Capps casting the only no vote, on the bill that would allow the transfer of the so-called “Camp 4” property in the Santa Ynez Valley into trust for the Chumash Tribe.

Capps has said she favors the Chumash Tribe pursuing development of the Camp 4 property through Santa Barbara County’s land-use, zoning and environmental regulations and review.

Chumash tribal leaders say the tribe needs the nearly 1,400 acres of ranch land and vineyards at Camp 4 at the northeast corner of Highways 246 and 154 to build more than 140 new homes for tribal members and their families.

The tribe says the current Chumash reservation on Highway 246 in Santa Ynez is built out and overcrowded

“Housing is a serious issue for the Chumash Tribe in Santa Ynez, its not a new issue, its something that we’ve been focused on for many years”, says Chumash Tribal Chairman Kenneth Kahn, “we’ve always maintained the importance of providing housing for our community, to be able to service our members, and the vote of confidence we got from the House Committee on Natural Resources was a step forward in the process of many.”

Chairman Kahn says there is a “no-gaming clause” in HR 1157 which would prohibit any tribal gaming on the Camp 4 property should the bill be passed, signed into law and the land transferred to the Chumash Tribe.

Kahn says HR 1157 will now go before the full House of Representatives for a vote later this year, then onto the U.S. Senate and finally to President Obama for signature before he leaves office.

“As fa as the calendar goes for the Tribe, it can’t be soon enough because the housing need is now, we don’t want to wait another generation to provide this opportunity to our tribe”, Kahn said in a telephone interview Thursday afternoon, “we’re confident that the Obama Administration will support such legislation, I know that they have made a commitment to bring in a half-million acres of land into trust on behalf of tribes around the nation.”

While the Chumash Tribe pursues legislative authority to transfer Camp 4 through HR 1157, an administrative effort to do the same through the Bureau of Indian Affairs has been appealed by the County of Santa Barbara and other opponents.

In the meantime, Tribal Chairman Kahn says he hopes to resume negotiations with the County of Santa Barbara next month on the future of Camp 4.

“HR 1157 is the only reason why the County of Santa Barbara has sat down to work with the Tribe and negotiate”, Kahn says, “an agreement with Santa Barbara County is important for mitigation, its important to the tribal community and it should be equally important to the overall community, we just hope the elected representatives of Santa Barbara County feel the same.”