Speakers at Central Coast Bioneers to discuss rematriation of Indigenous lands

The Chumash people have inhabited this area for at least 13,000 years, living in a network of villages.  Spanish explorers arrived in the area in 1769, and Franciscan friars and soldiers established settlements and missions on the Chumash’s land.  The YTT Northern Chumash Tribe of San Luis Obispo County were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands in the 1700s without compensation or agreement. The Mexican government gave away the Diablo Lands through land grants after the mission system collapsed, making the land private property.  Mona Olives Tucker,  Tribal Chair for yak tityu tityu yak tiłhini- Northern Chumash Tribe of San Luis Obispo County and Region, and Wendy Lucas,  Vice-President of the ytt Northern Chumash Nonprofit, as well as on the Land Back Committee, will discuss the current juncture where the YTT Northern Chumash could once again become stewards of their homelands.

Wendy and Mona’s talk will follow a screening of the video of National Bioneers Conference speaker Corrina Gould, the Tribal Chair for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan Nation and co-founder and Lead Organizer for Indian People Organizing for Change.  Corrina spoke on Rematriation: Indigenous Women’s Work to Recover, Remember and Heal, and some of the successful rematriation efforts in the Bay Area.