Front Page  »  

Setting the record strait – DANA responds

August 7, 2012

OPINION By ALAN and HELEN DAURIO

We are the Dana Adobe Nipomo Amigos (DANA) Board Co-Presidents. We are writing in response to the opinion column put forth by the Northern Chumash Tribal Council (NCTC). Our community needs to know the facts behind the controversy and not be swayed by the emotional appeal of one voice claiming to represent all Northern Chumash Peoples.

Our successful grant application, “Stories of the Rancho”, was written through a collaborative effort on the part of DANA, the Chumash Maritime Association (CMA) and the NCTC. That portion of DANA’s site plan whose focus was on Chumash culture and educational exhibits was never identified as the “NCTC Chumash Village”, just the Chumash Village.

Once DANA was awarded the Prop 84 state grant, NCTC wanted a contract to build the Village.  Because the state requires DANA to go through a three-bid process, we couldn’t issue a sole source contract.

However, DANA invited all Native American representatives listed on California’s Native American Heritage Commission (NAHC) contact list to be a part of the master site plan process along with the public and major stakeholders. More than twenty meetings were held between April 2011 and December 2011 in which  members of NCTC, CMA and lineal descendants of Rosario Cooper, the last native Northern Chumash speaker, now organized as the Yak Tityu Tityu, participated.

Because of differences of opinion, which led to issues with decorum during meetings, the tribal administrator for NCTC opted out of further participation in DANA’s project in January.

As to the fee waiver granted DANA by the county, that is standard procedure for all non-profits and not specific to DANA. There is also a reference made by NCTC to The Chumash Nation being upset by DANA’s “disrespect.” There is no such organization listed by the NAHC. Rather, as NCTC knows, there are various tribal and kinship groups; there is no single entity representing all Chumash peoples.

DANA committed to the ten cultural resource mitigation measures outlined in the MND.

The public should know that the 130 acres of our future Rancho Nipomo Heritage Park were never identified by any archaeological or historical survey or report nor by the Native American Heritage Commision as a Sacred Site. There is no evidence of ceremonial sites or human remains in all the record searches or site surveys conducted by archaeologist who have studied the site.

It’s important for the public and DANA’s supporters to know that stewardship of cultural resources of all the peoples that ever lived on Rancho Nipomo has always been fundamental to DANA’s mission.

Alan and Helen Daurio are Co-Presidents of the Dana Adobe Nipomo Amigos


Loading...
Subjects:         
Related:


17 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Seriously? The record is now difficult, narrow or limited? Or was the record delineated & made factual – like “the record was set straight”?

Geesh . . .


0

Years ago, the folks at Dana conned us into donating goods to their operation. Said they would publicize us, and make it worthwhile. Lies, total b.s. Nothing was ever done after our donation. Any thing bad said about these greedy scammers I’d believe. Now, our Corp. does not give to non profits, due to these guys.


0

Superdave… sorry to hear that. Now you know how the Chumash feel.


0

Lots of people have had similar experience with this “generous” group. not just Dave and the Chumash.

The Dana Board follows Dana tradition. Thank you Dave for being brave enough to speak up. Their version of history really cant let the native story be told without tarnishing the halo of a salty sea captain that traveled the world before settling in Nipomo. He was no saint.


0

08/06/2012 at 9:16 pm


The true history of the natives demise must be told. This country and the culture that existed here for thousand of years was obliterated in a short period of time by the Missions/Rancheros overgrazing, harvesting the oak timber to create grazing land and to make charcol for the short lived steamship trade and the steam engines trains. The landscape never recovered and the natives were driven inland and angry.

Drought arrived in 1864, cattle and sheep were herded over the cliffs of Pt Sal. They couldnt waste the lead bullets on the herd so they drove the stock away from mucking up the water holes over the cliff.

This was a verdant oakland savanna with abundant wildlife game and plants before the arrival of the Europeans. This land was so rich with food that the natives didnt cultivate crops, they were hunter/fisherman/ gathers. They had a complex democratic social order.

I ask you to remember our ancestors, their way of life. The Dana Adobe needs to respect the land that gave them so much wealth. The Rancho period was short and very destructive to a very special culture.

The Adobe started out to be a “park for the people” and now is a wine tasting fund raiser down a dead end road flanked by eucalyptus and grasslands. Perfect fire tradegy. It is no place for an event center until they fix the deadend road. Its narrow a fire hazard.

It doesnt seem like the park is for the people so much as its for upscale fund raisers. A friend of mine was stopped at the entrance once and asked for a”donation” of 5 bucks to enter. She had 5 kids that’s 30 bucks? I didnt see her there last Sat.

Park for the people? Who’s in it for the money?

Please tone down their dreams of grandure, This was a simple/yet complicated life early California, an event center will ruin the rural rustic feeling. If the neighborhood must be exposed to wine tasting cowboy affairs, we’d like to see equal time for the native tribes.


0

You want a rural, rustic feeling? You want to determine what happens with the land? Other than the prescribed governmental hurdles that you must clear to stop this plan, there is a faster, much simpler solution for you. Buy the land. Everything is for sale at the right price. Then you can keep it “rural” and “rustic” for as long as you like.


0

“Let them eat cake” your solution. The County tax payers bought 100 acres of viewshed land to preserve the historic view. Dana gladly accepted this gift of land as they want the adobe to have the orignial view “rural and rustic.” I actually have bought land in Nipomo 20 yrs ago. I put up with the Dana events crowds down this one lane road flanked by eucs and high grass. This is a deadend road. There is not enough infrastructure to support these large events.

Captain Dana ignored the needs of Nipomos original neighbors and his amigos continue to believe their superiority gives them the right to dominate now.


0

Nicely said felicityfarms


0

My question is why has this project turned into another event center for making money instead of the historical museum center that it was supposed to be?


0

Citizen… good question… keep digging… ; D


0

Good question and there maybe more than one answer. But here is one. We have the regional park. And at one time we had a Charro Arena there that the new comers from out of town, complained about the dust and noise….. and the arena was removed. Now these same new comers want to build an event center and bring there dust and noise to the someone elses neighborhood.

Danas have alway been known for their generosity. They let the Natives have the leaving in the tallow vat, when they were finished rendering the hides and tallow that were their only commerce.


0

Dana Adobe has long been a conscientious steward of the Historical preservation. Working with the many and varied stake holders for such an ambitious project as currently underway can be challenging.


The tone of the NCTC article seemed directed only to its own preferences rather than to the beneficial good for the entire project.


The most telling comment in Dana Adobe reply: “Once DANA was awarded the Prop 84 state grant, NCTC wanted a contract to build the Village. Because the state requires DANA to go through a three-bid process, we couldn’t issue a sole source contract.”


Rather than following the required procedures and making a bid to develop the Chumash Village, NCTC seems to prefer a power-play that not only disrespects the Dana Adobe’s good faith efforts but also disrespects the other equally qualified stake holders.


Let’s not lose a valuable part of the Dana Adobe historical education project by allowing NCTC’s self centered bickering to delay or halt this important project.


0

Fred Collins, who purportedly represents the Northern Chumash Tribal Council ( a tribe that isn’t recognized by any jurisdiction), makes up his history as he goes along. They could also be called the mitigation tribe. It’s all about shaking down whatever development that happens to be going on for whatever money that can be had. His office is in a law office on Marsh St. Follow the money. I happen to think that Fred is a nice guy but so was The Music Man. Follow the money. Best of luck to the Dana Adobe Nipomo Amigos. It sounds like such a nice idea.


0

taxpayer… Chumash do not need to be recognized at Native American by anybody. That is the old way of thinking. We are in a new era where self determination is the rule of the day.


0

Is Dave Collins the manufacturer of this lopsided “controversy?”


0

Must be crowded domn there, eh Ju Ju?


0

The usual bottom feeders.


0