Construction is moving forward on the Santa Ynez Chumash Museum and Cultural Center off Highway 246, with plans for completion this year.
The project sits on a 6.9-acre site along Highway 246 between Cuesta and Edison streets.
“We are excited to see firsthand the progress that is being made on the Santa Ynez Chumash Museum and Cultural Center,” said Kenneth Kahn, tribal chairman for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians.
“This has been a long-anticipated dream of the tribe, and we are committed to telling the story of our people so visitors will come away with a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities Chumash ancestors faced living in the Santa Ynez Valley for more than 8,000 years,” Kahn said.
In October 2018, tribal leaders unveiled the design for a museum to capture the history and share the culture of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, saying construction would start soon to make the long-time dream reality.
The vision for the museum dates back at least 16 years.
Tribal plans envision the 14,000-square-foot Santa Ynez Chumash Museum and Cultural Center as local leaders were on hand for the announcement.
Plans called for a $32 million, state-of-the-art facility to tell the tribe’s story.
The design includes a Welcome House, Heritage House, Traditional Tule House, Samala Language House, and a Tomol House — symbolically bringing together several houses to make a village.
A 3.5-acre cultural park adjacent to the museum will feature an amphitheater to nurture storytelling.
Landscaping plans include plants the Chumash traditionally gathered for food, medicine and making items used in their daily lives. One section will highlight the plants used for weaving highly specialized baskets.
In addition to getting the structure built, a parallel effort has seen the tribe amass a collection of more than 20,000 cultural objects to help tell their story of Santa Ynez Chumash.
At the time of the design’s unveiling, tribal leaders said groundbreaking would occur before the end of the year.
However, passers-by noted that work at the site has inched along.
Chumash representatives say the project should be done during 2021.
The museum was designed by the Seattle-based Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects. Founding Partner Johnpaul Jones, who is Choctaw/Cherokee by heritage, was one of the principal designers of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian on the Mall in Washington, D.C.
Bernards, a California-based construction company, is providing general contracting and construction services, while Summit Project Management of Culver City has been retained to manage the project.
The Chumash initially listed Armstrong Associates of Santa Barbara as the general contractor, but remained mums about the reason for the switch.
“Armstrong Associates remains a friend of the tribe, and we look forward to possible partnerships in the future, but we made the mutual decision to part ways on this particular project,” Kahn said.
The tribe applied to take the land into federal trust in 2002, with plans to create the museum there.
The Santa Ynez Reservation was established and officially recognized by the federal government on Dec. 27, 1901. The Santa Ynez Band remains the only federally recognized Chumash tribe in the nation.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.