SACRED DIABLO CANYON LANDS BACK

We are yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini (ytt) Northern Chumash Tribe

Our membership is comprised of families whose ancestry dates back to this one region for well over 10,000 years. We represent an unbroken chain of lineage, kinship, and culture. Many of our families have never lived anywhere else. It doesn’t matter where our members live, however, because the love of our homeland never ends. Our ongoing work towards Tribal preservation is to protect and promote our unique culture, elegant language, remarkable resources, and timeless traditional ways.

We are asking for you to help yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash Tribe of San Luis Obispo County and Region (YTT Tribe), with obtaining Ancestral Home Land Back on the coast of San Luis Obispo County. This land is commonly called Diablo Lands, or the Pecho Coast, and is in our ancestral homeland. This nearly pristine 12,000 acres was taken from us in the 1700s without agreement or compensation. We are trying to purchase about 9,000 acres. But we need your help - please email key politicians to support the return of Diablo Canyon Homelands to YTT Northern Chumash Tribe.

In late April, the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) is providing recommendations for a Land Conservation and Economic Development Plan for Diablo Lands as required by SB 846. The California State Legislature will be voting on the future of these lands that are rightfully ours. At stake is the future of these lands and the funds to purchase them.

YTT Tribe has been working for many years building a community coalition. Our Coalition includes YTT Tribe, our local powerhouse land conservation group - The Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County, nationally acclaimed Cal Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo and REACH (Regional Economic Action Coalition). All of our coalition members are united in returning ownership of approximately 9,000 acres to YTT Tribe. Together we have written a Proposal that has been presented to numerous local and state politicians, agencies and community groups. Click on Buttons below to view our Full Proposal, Slide Deck and Fact Sheet.

yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini

(YTT) Northern Chumash Tribe

of San Luis Obispo County and Region

ARE DOCUMENTED AS DESCENDANTS OF THE PECHO COAST (DIABLO LANDS) AND OUR ANCESTORS LIVED HERE FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS

Although these lands should be given back to us, we know that isn’t acceptable to the current owner PGE and its subsidiaries, so funds from SB846 will catalyze us toward purchasing these lands as outlined in the Slide Deck and Narrative created by our Partnership. Also included in this Proposal is the Economic Development Plans for the future of our community and California. But, to be clear, the economic development component would only be on the parcel on which a power plant is already built. 

YTT Northern Chumash were forcibly removed from these lands in the 1700s without agreement, consideration or compensation.

Even after the collapse of the mission system we couldn't return, because the Mexican government had given Diablo lands away via Mexican land grants.

Diablo Lands became private property with the most recent owner being PGE and its subsidiaries. This ownership has generated millions upon millions of dollars for PGE, but no funds have ever been shared with the rightful people who stewarded and lived on these lands for over 10,000 years.

However, for the first time since the 1700s, there is this opportunity for YTT Tribe to regain ownership of approximately 9,000 acres of their Ancestral Diablo Homelands. We would do so only with appropriate tribally influenced easements held by The Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County (LCSLO) that would include managed public access.

YTT Tribe is a small, but strong Tribe with extensive knowledge of our homeland. We have developed critical and experienced partners as demonstrated in the Proposal in the areas necessary towards reacquiring Diablo Lands. This includes The Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County (LCSLO), California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) and REACH (Regional Economic Action Coalition). For example, LCSLO has conserved more than 35,000 acres in San Luis Obispo Co, and there is currently an additional 50,000 acres in various stages of acquisition. Cal Poly is the second largest land-holding university in California, currently managing more than 9,000 acres. These two entities have extensive and successful land management practices which will be essential for developing the tribally influenced  conservation easements on the Diablo Lands. YTT Tribe is also meeting with other experts for developing surveys to identify important cultural and biological resources areas.

YTT Tribe values of living "light on the land" will be demonstrated in our care-taking roles, as the proposal will include building smaller caretaker quarters, or perhaps remodeling of some old existing residences if determined to be structurally sound. 

YTT Tribe is opposed to any large development, hospitality services, a casino, etc. on these lands.

The operations of the power plant may go on for several years, followed by the process of decommissioning. So, while those activities are taking place, YTT Tribe will wait to gain access, but are seeking ownership of some of the Diablo Lands now. 

YTT Tribe supports the future economy of the central coast with the reuse and repurposing of Parcel P where the PGE power plant now sits.

YTT Tribe's main goal is CONSERVATION. For now and in perpetuity.  We want these lands to look much as they do now, a thousand years from now.

YTT Tribe recognizes and honors Governor Newsom's 30x30 Biodiversity Initiative to conserve 30% of the state lands and waters by 2030, and their Proposal aligns with those important and critical goals for our state, our nation, and our world. 

RETURN DIABLO CANYON HOMELANDS

The Diablo Canyon power plant stands at the edge of the continent, above cliffs that plunge into the Pacific Ocean. A turbulent saltwater discharge flows from the nuclear plant and is lost in the foam of waves pushed in by the wind and tides… Otters still clasp hands among kelp beds, oystercatchers nest on the rocky shore, and sea lions chase down herring and rockfish. Badgers and coyotes den in the hills of coastal chaparral, while gray whales pass close to shore on their annual migrations. The only piece that’s missing is the coast’s first people, the Yak Titʸu Titʸu Yak Tiłhini…

Newsom apologized to Native Californians in 2019 and has proposed a budget of $100 million for assisting tribes with buying back land. Newsom’s administration also created a tribal land transfer policy that requires investor-owned utilities like PG&E to identify which tribes originally lived on or adjacent to that land before any attempts are made to sell or otherwise dispose of the property. They are “expected to negotiate a transfer to the tribe before putting the land on the market.

[ytt Northern Chumash Tribal Chairwoman, Mona] “Tucker noted that the Tribe’s goals for the land are consistent with Newsom’s conservation goals, and that the [ytt] Northern Chumash have a memorandum of understanding with the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County to develop conservation easements and ensure public access. Tribal members intend to spearhead the effort to conserve the land and waters that their ancestors shaped and cared for, and hope to set an example for others.

The arrival of Spanish missionaries in the late 18th century upended the lives of California’s Indians, bringing coerced conversion, forced labor, disease and genocide. Later, during the Ranchero or Spanish land grant period, survivors endured the fragmentation of their homelands when the Spanish (and later Mexican) governments seized huge areas of Indigenous land and gave it to Spanish and Mexican settlers. The Diablo Canyon lands and villages were taken without the consent of the Yak Titʸu Titʸu Yak Tiłhini and became the Rancheros Pecho y Islay and San Miguelito...

In the 1960s and ’70s, Pacific Gas & Electric bought the Diablo Canyon lands intending to build a nuclear power plant. Its construction was controversial from the beginning, and the power plant became a center of anti-nuclear protest and civil disobedience. Those protests primarily focused on the environmental impacts and risks associated with nuclear energy. The Yak Titʸu Titʸu Yak Tiłhini, however, also had to face the destruction of a historic village site. Tucker said cultural artifacts likely still exist beneath the plant and the buildings surrounding it.

In 2016, PG&E announced that it planned to decommission the plant by 2025. The Yak Titʸu Titʸu Yak Tiłhini sought to participate in the decommissioning process to ensure that cultural resources were properly preserved and that the land was returned to them. PG&E began discussions with the tribe, but then the decommissioning process stalled out. Nuclear advocates have championed Diablo Canyon as a low-carbon alternative to fossil fuels, particularly given current worries about the reliability of California’s electrical grid. The California Legislature responded by passing SB 846, which extends the life of the reactors for another five years, though the bill does acknowledge tribal interests in the land and recommends that PG&E and state agencies “consult and work collaboratively with local California Native American tribes.

Tucker said that the plant’s operating status does not change the tribe’s position that the land needs to be returned. She points out the plant’s industrial footprint occupies only 100 acres out of a total 12,000 acres, and the process of reclaiming that land can begin now.

“We are a small tribe with a big vision, and we’re relentless,” Tucker said. “We are the best people to protect this.”

“Yak Titʸu Titʸu Yak Tiłhini say it’s time to return Diablo Canyon lands to Indigenous hands,”

Noah Schlager - Sept. 20, 2022 - High Country News (HCN)

YOUR HELP IS NEEDED

Please email key politicians to support the return of Diablo Canyon Homelands to YTT Northern Chumash Tribe.

We are yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini (ytt)

Northern Chumash Tribe of San Luis Obispo County and Region