A 15,000-square-foot museum planned by the Chumash for the tribe’s 6.9-acre parcel across the street from its casino will be designed by a Seattle-based firm that created the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. A dream of the tribe’s for years, the museum moved closer to reality this summer, when the Interior Board of Indian Appeals capped off a decade of appeals by ruling the land could go into federal trust. “Our vision with the museum is to promote understanding of the unique and diverse contemporary culture of the Santa Ynez Chumash and the ancient heritage of our ancestors, the first people of the region,” said tribal chair Vincent Armenta.
