Steve Pappas' Only Issue With Chumash - Only One ?

I read an article in the Lompoc Record where 3rd District Supervisor candidate Steve Pappas was quoted as saying that his only issue with the Chumash was the fee to trust process.

Mr. Pappas said when tribal agencies request land, the Federal government does not give the local community a voice in the process.

Well I have more than one issue with this statement.

First of all, how can this be an issue with the tribe at all? The tribe didn’t make up the rules for putting land into trust. The Federal government makes those rules. The Chumash just followed their rules. Mr. Pappas should have issue with the Feds, not the tribe.

Second, the process does allow communities a voice.

Code of Federal Regulations,
TITLE 25—INDIANS, CHAPTER I--BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

PART 151_LAND ACQUISITIONS

Sec. 151.11 Off-reservation acquisitions.

(d) Contact with state and local governments pursuant to Sec.
151.10 (e) and (f) shall be completed as follows: Upon receipt of a
tribe's written request to have lands taken in trust, the Secretary
shall notify the state and local governments having regulatory
jurisdiction over the land to be acquired. The notice shall inform the
state and local government that each will be given 30 days in which to
provide written comment as to the acquisition's potential impacts on
regulatory jurisdiction, real property taxes and special assessments.

Also, in May of last year, George Skibine, the acting principal deputy assistant secretary at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, stated, "The BIA considers local input when making land-into-trust decisions. We're looking at the local government to tell us if that is detrimental to their community.”

I know Mr. Pappas and friends may not approve of how our local government has responded to land into trust issues before (ie the 6.9 across from the casino) but that doesn’t mean that the community didn’t have a voice.

Again, it’s POLO mistakenly equating not getting the result they want with not having voice on an issue. They have a very loud voice on issues but when the decisions don’t fall in their favor they say they didn’t have a say in the matter.

And third is the statement that the “fee to trust process” is the ONLY issue that Mr. Pappas has with the tribe.

With Mr. Pappas as founder and recent executive director of POLO this statement could be put in the same category as Barrack Obama’s statement saying that, to him, Bill Ayers was “only a guy in the neighborhood”.

POLO in just the last two years, some of which that time Mr. Pappas was a the helm, has dogged the Chumash on just about everything that had anything to do with them.

April 2007 – POLO was major voice in the 5000 slots non-issue… nothing to do with fee to trust process.

April 2007 – POLO quote: “POLO does not believe it is fair to have the United States through the Bureau of Indian Affairs remove our rights to local self-governance by calling the Santa Ynez Band a separate government that is not subject to the same local regulations the rest of us must obey. Period.”

This is POLO saying they oppose the Chumash’s sovereignty claiming it is racial discrimination against non-Indians. Nothing to do with fee to trust process.

June 2007 - POLO calls the Chumash’s generous charitable donations ” a powerful marketing tool to buy community and political favor”. Nothing to do with fee to trust process.

Sept 2007 - POLO claims the Chumash violated their compact by buying the old Fedrico’s property and the Royal Scandinavian. Nothing to do with fee to trust process.

Sept 2007 – POLO called the placing of commemorative “Chumash Highway” signs along San Marcos Pass a ploy by our state politicians to transform our valley into a “Casino Company Town” and that the signs will have “long reaching ramifications” on our community. Nothing to do with fee to trust process.

November 2007 – POLO hired an air conditioner salesman to “research” then write an op-ed that questions the Chumash’s legitimacy as a Federally recognized tribe as well as the reservation itself, along with more personal attacks on Chairman Armenta. Nothing to do with fee to trust process.

August 2008 – AB 2826, the recent water rights issue which POLO opposed vehemently because they were afraid it would allow the tribe to take our water away from us. Nothing to do with fee to trust process.

September 2008- POLO spokesperson, Kathryn Bowen, says that I, as well as others, are hiding behind racism and “Chumash bashing”, yet in the same letter she says that she is amused to “watch and document” how Chairman Armenta’s “heritage has evolved over the years”.

Mr. Pappas, please tell me how this racially loaded comment relates to the fee to trust process?

I have no doubt that Mr. Pappas is a great guy and has done a wonderful job as President of the Los Olivos School Board. But it’s his high level involvement with POLO and the fact that POLO members have pretty much financed his entire campaign that does him in as a candidate for supervisor for me.

I have to agree with the Santa Ynez Valley News when they say the “Board of Supervisors needs a person from the district who can help build bridges of understanding between the two governments, not tear them down.”

Should Mr. Pappas be elected, his connection to POLO would almost certainly make re-establishing open lines of communication, mutual respect and understanding between the Chumash and the Board of Supervisors impossible.

Sources:
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2004/aprqtr/25cfr151.11.htm http://www.lompocrecord.com/articles/2008/10/23/news/news03.txt