LAND BACK

Diablo Canyon Ancestral Homelands

It’s time to return our ancestral coastal homelands back to our Tribe. Diablo Canyon lands has been HOME to our People, the yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash for over 10,000 years. We are the only documented descendant Tribe of Diablo Canyon lands and the Pecho Coast — home to our ancestors’ villages, burial sites, prayer areas and other areas of great cultural significance, including territory currently owned by PG&E that houses the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. We are requesting California Governor Gavin Newsom to make amends for historical wrongs and rightfully return our Diablo Canyon ancestral homelands. Find out more. 

YAK TITʸU TITʸU YAK TIŁHINI

LIVING HISTORY

The presence of yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini (ytt) Northern Chumash in the area of San Luis Obispo County and Region date to time immemorial with evidence of our families living here for thousands of years. We have an unbroken chain of inhabiting this one region and we remain standing in this defined place. Despite the introduction of European diseases, the inhumane ideologies of the Spanish mission system, the Mexican conquest and American colonization - all forces that contributed to the near decimation of our Tribe - we survived and we remain resilient. Through all these challenges and attempts at direct and indirect genocide of our people, we never lost our connections to each other and to our homeland. Our homeland was taken from us through confiscation without our agreement, consideration, or compensation. Our language and culture were outlawed and our basic human rights were disregarded and dismantled. In spite of disproportionate odds against us, the ytt Northern Chumash culture survives.

We look for ways to share and educate the broader community about our elegant culture and our deep history. When we’re invited to speak to an organization or to students, we try to say yes, as we want residents to understand the amazing indigenous history of this region. We want the community and visitors to know that although the missionaries came to civilize us, the real truth is we already had a sophisticated civilization that had existed for thousands of years. Our ways included spirituality, commerce, trade routes, currency, artistic expression, music and exquisite craftsmanship with the ability to make a great variety of tools, tule rush homes and watercraft. We were weavers of incredible baskets. "Our basketry is stunning and is considered some of the best in North America and throughout the world. Their intricacy and symmetry reveal sophisticated mathematical concepts that are found in nature, further expressing our connection and relationship to our homeland," as said by Leah Mata-Fragua, Tribal Council Member. We continue today to work with natural materials to make baskets and regalia. We used effective environmental strategies so that our families and villages would thrive and we seek to continue these strategies. Fortunately, our culture endures today and remains part of our community.   

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We are proud of our heritage, our people and the beautiful land we call our home. We are active today in the protection and preservation of our traditional ways and places. Much of our time is spent engaging with city, county, state and federal agencies to provide guidance on protecting our irreplaceable cultural and traditional resources. We encourage you to contact us as our partnerships continue to grow. Helping each other is not only important, but vital to all. 

 We have met incredible obstacles in the past, but we look to our future as limitless.  We are still standing in our defined place.  

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NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Papers of John Peabody Harrington, 1907-1957

John Peabody Harrington was a linguist and ethnologist who greatly assisted in the record and preservation of the languages of the ytt Northern Chumash and other Tribes throughout the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The Smithsonian has online archives of some of his work that can be found on their website. CLICK HERE for further information about his archival work with our Tribe to view the archival records Harrington recorded with our Grandmother, Rosario Cooper.

Our Work

We employ a wide-ranging approach to promote public awareness of yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash for the benefit of all generations by:

Advocating     Cultural Education, Tribal Events, Language Development

Promoting       Site Restoration, Land Stewardship, Volunteering

Supporting      Tribal Land Acquisition, Tribal Economic Development

Through partnerships with private, nonprofit, local, state, and federal entities, we are committed to building positive relationships and understanding of the ytt Northern Chumash people and vision for the region.