Five-hundred-twenty-seven years ago this month, Christopher Columbus “discovered” America, triggering a cascade of death and destruction upon most of the tribal cultures living here. Santa Barbara’s City Council observed Indigenous People’s Day this week as a man claiming Chumash, Lakota, and Tibetan ancestry played a flute made from a pelican’s bone. Marcus Lopez, an elder with the Barbareño Tribal Council called on the council to create a “Truth and Healing Caucus” to initiate a process of reconciliation for what was done to the Chumash by early city leaders.
