Letters : Opinion: Stop listening to those voices
Vincent Armenta
June 28, 2015 12:12 AM
Have you ever been in a situation where you know it's bad, but people around you don't seem to notice or choose to ignore it? After a few futile attempts to fix it, you eventually accept it as normal and continue on.
That's how I felt about the situation we found ourselves in with the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. There have been far too many 3-2 votes against our tribe to think that our relationship with the county was productive.
But on June 17, we were vindicated. At the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs legislative hearing, members of the subcommittee understood the difficulties our tribe has faced with the majority of the Board of Supervisors.
The hearing was organized to hear testimony on three bills recently introduced to Congress: HR 2386, HR 2538 and HR 1157, the bill introduced by Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., to place our tribe's Camp 4 land into federal trust.
I testified on behalf of our tribe, discussing our tribe's need for housing, and I gave the subcommittee a summary of our inability to work with county government.
Santa Barbara County CEO Mona Miyasato testified in opposition of HR 1157. Also testifying was Santa Barbara County Fifth District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino, who told the subcommittee that the county had failed to perform its responsibilities as the local jurisdiction by continually refusing to work with the tribe on a government-to-government basis.
This was not news to the subcommittee, which has been aware of the county's mistreatment of our tribe for years. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, said: "This issue has been around for a long time. If I thought for a moment it was true negotiation, government-to-government, I wouldn't have this hearing. But I don't see that effort. I see a total lack of consideration."
Ranking member Dr. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., said, "I'm wondering what is the heart of this issue. I want to make very clear that they are a government. They are a sovereign nation. And for any institution in the United States not to recognize that is backwards."
Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., asked Ms. Miyasato a number of questions regarding the issues she raised. After hearing her answers, he said, "What I continue to not understand over the years, and the committee members of this committee are failing to understand, is if the housing development is less dense than the one next to it, if the ag use is currently being used for ag use and they are willing to offer more than 10 times than what you get in property values today for that tax revenue, what is it you're looking for, other than just holding this issue up?"
Mr. LaMalfa also responded to a comment Ms. Miyasato made in her testimony: "You mentioned earlier that the legislation would be a shortcut to getting to their end goal of providing housing. They've already owned the land for about five years, but even more so, you point back to the taking into trust recently six acres adjacent to the trust land they have, which was a 14-year lawsuit-filled process. How can you really think at this point this looks like a shortcut when they've waited this long?"
He also commented on the bill's contribution to the county, which the majority of the Board of Supervisors fail to understand: "I think what everybody needs to recognize here is that the county actually will do better under this legislation than the open-endedness of what a BIA decision would do. The legislation provides for certain aspects that the county can predict, whereas the tribe wouldn't necessarily have to do certain things under a BIA decision. So there's really not a downside for the county other than maybe they enjoy being a roadblock."
One of the problems with the majority of the Board of Supervisors is their insistence of aligning with the small group of anti-tribal individuals in the Santa Ynez Valley. These individuals, who make up only a minority within our community, have fought our tribe for decades and continue to file frivolous lawsuits that get thrown out of court.
Even Ms. Miyasato conceded at the legislative hearing that there were "some errant voices and maybe some misguided voices in the community." But the question we all have is: Why does the majority of the board continue to listen to these voices?
Instead of continuing to pander to the handful of haters, Supervisors Doreen Farr, Janet Wolf and Peter Adam would be better served to take a more logical and reasonable approach. Or, as the subcommittee chairman told Ms. Miyasato: "They better sit down with this chief or I'm moving this bill."
The author is the tribal chairman of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians.