Santa Barbara renames street offensive to Chumash tribal leaders

December 14, 2020

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

In response to pressure from Chumash tribal leaders, the city of Santa Barbara on Monday is renaming “Dead Indian” Street to “Earth Mother” Street.

Santa Barbara will no longer have a street named “Indio Muerto,” which is Spanish for dead Indian. The name Indio Muerto is being replaced with “Hutash,” a Chumash term for earth mother.

This spring, the Barbareno Chumash Tribal Council requested the name change. Though Santa Barbara has a well-established history of its original street names, the city council determined Indio Muerto was not an appropriate name and voted on Sept. 29 to rename the street Hutash.

City officials are holding a ribbon cutting ceremony Monday afternoon to unveil the new street signs.