Creating community spaces for healing, unity and cultural resistance

May 27, 2025

This Newsletter includes

Intertribal Events & Actions on California Central Coast

Ancestral Land of the Chumash People

- Intertribal Community Film Screening: The Doctrine of Recovery

- Community Celebrates Opening of the Santa Ynez Chumash Museum and Cultural Center

- Ventura County Indian Education Consoratium's 50th Anniversary Honoring Ceremony

- Art Exhibit Brings Awareness to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives

Intertribal Community Film Screening of

The Doctrine of Recovery

As part of our ongoing efforts to continue the spirit of the Peace and Dignity Journeys’ sacred prayer run for Native and indigenous healing, unity and cultural self determination, the Peace and Dignity Journeys - Central Coast is hosting a June 1st film screening of the ground breaking film, The Doctrine of Recovery at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura.

While the June 1st screening has sold out, having reached our seating capacity, an additional Santa Barbara showing is being organized by Su’nan The Space for July 26, 2025. For more information on this upcoming showing, contact Mia Lopez at mialopez2424@gmail.com.

The film explores the historical and continuing impacts on our environment and Indigenous populations of North America of the 'Doctrine of Discovery,' used by European colonizers as justification for the dispossession and decimation of the Indigenous populations of North America. The film instead offers an alternative vision through the 'Doctrine of Recovery' as a means of restoring balance to our Mother Earth. 

Chumash elder, Julie Tumamait, will open the event with a blessing. And following the film screening there will be a panel discussion with actor and Ponca Tribe Elder, Casey Camp-Horinek, and indigenous land protectors, Elena Rios, Xiuhtezcatl & Quannah ChasingHorse. For more information on these indigenous leaders log onto the Peace and Dignity Journeys - Central Coast website. 

While this intertribal event is free, we are asking attendees and other supporters to consider making a tax deductible donation to Native graduating seniors in Ventura County. To donate log onto the Ventura County Community Foundation websits and list “Indian Education Scholarship Fund” as the donation purpose.

Community Celebrates Opening of the Santa Ynez Chumash Museum and Cultural Center

This month the Central Coast region’s Native and indigenous community celebrate the opening of the highly anticipated Santa Ynez Chumash Museum and Cultural Center, which was open to the public on Thursday, May 15.

The 14,000-square-foot facility, which is located on the corner of Highway 246 and Edison Street in Santa Ynez, showcases a portion of the tribe’s collection of more than 24,000 historically significant cultural items, including baskets, musical instruments, hunting tools, ceremonial items, and regalia – highlighting the richness and diversity of Chumash culture. 

“Our tribe looks forward to sharing the deep history and culture of our people with the greater community,” shared Kenneth Kahn, Tribal Chairman for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, regarding the cultural center’s opening. “Our museum guests are encouraged to explore this one-of-a-kind facility that has been a five-decade-long dream for our people. It holds not only artifacts and exhibits, but the spirit of our ancestors, the wisdom of those who came before us, and the richness of a culture that has withstood the test of time.”  

“We are so excited to share this meaningful experience with you, which is the result of the incredible work that has gone into bringing this project to life. The opening of the museum is a milestone that will forever change the way we experience, understand and honor our shared history. This facility is a beacon of knowledge, culture and pride,” said Kathy Marshall, Museum Board Chairwoman for the Santa Ynez Chumash Museum and Cultural Center. 

The Museum and Cultural Center hours of operation are 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, and tickets are available for purchase at www.sychumashmuseum.org.

Admission is $15 for adults (18-64), $12 for seniors (65+), $12 for teens (13-17), $10 for children (3-12), $12 for military members (with ID) and free for toddlers (2 and under).

Ventura County Indian Education Consortium Celebrates 50th Anniversary Honoring Ceremony

On May 7th, the Ventura County Indian Education Consortium held the 50th anniversary of its annual Honoring Ceremony, celebrating the program’s graduating seniors and American Indian Students of the Year. The honoring ceremony, which took place at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, brought together graduating Native seniors from throughout Ventura County and their loved ones in a an emotionally moving event. During the a blanketing ceremony, family members placed a Native blanket onto the shoulders of each graduating senior, with blankets gifted by the American Indian Health and Services. Also included was a powerful ceremonial presentation offered by the Iposi Drum Singers, and an inspiring talk and hoop dance presentation by renowned Native Hoop Dancer, Eric Hernandez, from the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina.

Also honored for his forty years of dedicated service on the Indian Education Parent Committee was Northern Cheyenne elder Sunny Flores.  

The Ventura County Indian Education Consortium (VCIEC) is a Title VI Indian education program offering cultural and academic enrichment supports to students with Native American and Alaska Native heritage at most public schools throughout Ventura County. Go to their website to learn more about the VCIEC.

Art Exhibit Draws to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives

As part of a growing movement to draw awareness to the nation-wide issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives (MMIWR), artists and local activists, led by indigenous community activist and City of Ventura's first Chumash Arts and Culture Commissioner, KC Rodriquez, hosted the Red Dress Awareness Art Exhibit at the Bell Arts Factory in Ventura on May 17, 2025. 

Marking May 5th as National Day of Awareness for Mission and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives, the well-attended event drew indigenous community leaders, activists, and supporters, as well as elected officials from throughout the county, to learn more about the issues and show their support for the MMIWR movement, as well as to celebrate the power of Native and other indigenous art, and its historical and growing role as cultural resistance. The event was also an opportunity to mourn the tragic loss of Native and other indigenous women and other relatives, including two-spirit people, and to honor their lives. 

While a devastating problem facing Native women and relatives in rural and urban areas nationwide, on some reservations Native women face murder rates more than ten times the national average. These disappearances and murders are often directly linked to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, sex trafficking, and longstanding harm impacting indigenous communities. 

The exhibit showcased the work of renowned artists, including James Graca, Collen Conboy, Elisa Torres, Michelle Nosco, Lynne Okun, Allee Amore, Christi Bulgara, Alexis Schmidt, and photographer, Shannon Phaneuf. The event also featured musical performance by singers Juan D Mendoza, Araceli Collazo, and Kalpulli Huitzilin Ihuan Xochitl, and the film screening of the documentary, We Ride For Her, sponsored by the national organization, Medicine Wheel Ride.

For more information on this event and future MMIWR actions, email KC Rodriguez at chumasheducator805@gmail.com

The Powerful Spirit of the 2024 Peace and Dignity Journeys Endures

April 22, 2025

Four months after the conclusion of the 2024 Peace and Dignity Journeys—a seven-month, transcontinental prayer run uniting Indigenous nations—the echoes of its prayers and purpose still reverberate across the Americas. When the runners arrived last November in Silvania, Colombia, they did more than complete a journey of over 10,000 miles. They helped ignite a movement rooted in Indigenous unity, healing, and cultural resistance that continues to grow.

Inspired by this sacred mission, communities from the northern reaches of Alaska to the southern lands of Argentina are continuing to carry the prayer forward. Over the next four years, leading up to the 2028 Peace and Dignity Journeys run, this movement continues to grow in strength, intention, and impact, including here on the ancestral land of the Chumash people of the California Central Coast

The 2024 run culminated in a powerful four-day intertribal gathering in Silvania, Colombia, where Indigenous elders, leaders, and runners from across the hemisphere, also referred to as Turtle Island, came together in ceremony around a sacred fire. The Central Coast was honored to be represented by three of our regional organizers Alotl Aparicio, Wendy Benitez, and Marcos Vargas. The gathering opened with blessings for the core runners—recognizing their sacrifice, strength, and spirit—while also honoring the thousands who joined at various points along the way.

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Having carried the power of their prayers through Central America, the two sacred running staffs are now returning to the Chumash people

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A sacred moment of the gathering was the ceremonial receiving of the running staffs, each one which was carried with love and purpose from communities across Turtle Island. These staffs held the prayers of the people—prayers for land and water protection, healing from the opioid crisis, the revitalization of Indigenous languages and traditions, and the resilience of ancestral knowledge in the face of colonization and ongoing struggle.

Among the sacred staffs were two, which were offered by the Chumash people. The one created by youth from the City of Guadalupe in northern Santa Barbara County, was recently returned to its community in a heartfelt ceremony at the Guadalupe Cultural Center. There, Chumash elder, Guadalupe community leader, and long-time PDJ supporter, Joe Talaugon Sr., who passed to the spirit world in September was honored for his lifelong dedication to preserving Chumash culture and knowledge.

Plans are now underway to return the second staff, entrusted to the runners by youth and elders of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians during a powerful ceremonial stop last year on the Santa Ynez Reservation.

Throughout the gathering in Colombia, Indigenous elders led powerful ceremonies around the sacred fire, grounding the space in prayer, tradition, and a call to unity—a unity rooted in the sacred duty to protect our Mother Earth, now facing unprecedented threats.

Though the 2024 run has ended and the next is still three years away, the spirit of Peace and Dignity is alive and rising here on the Central Coast. The eight days the run passed through our region left a deep imprint—bringing Indigenous communities together, offering space for healing from generational trauma from genocide, colonization and conquest, and reminding us all of the strength and beauty that lives within our ancestral cultures.

Out of that experience, many communities throughout the 2024 route have been called to action. From organizing ceremonies and participating in community protests for protection of the land and the water, and the rights of Indigenous and immigrant communities, our resistance is growing. Especially now, in the face of renewed political attacks on the environment and Indigenous rights, the call to protect, defend, and uplift is more urgent than ever.

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We keep the Peace and Dignity Journey fire burning through our unity and collective resistance.

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In the spirit of the Peace and Dignity Journeys, we are each invited to be part of this movement —to resist peacefully, to build unity, and in this way we keep the fire burning. One way to stay connected is by participating inupcoming intertribal events like the PDJ community screening and panel discussion of the groundbreaking film The Doctrine of Recovery on Sunday, June 1st at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura (details and RSVP info below).

These are challenging times. But together—with ceremony, solidarity, and sacred intention—we can rise up. We can protect what is sacred. And together we can create a just, sustainable, and beautiful future for all generations to come.

Aho Mitakuye Oyasin

We are all related.

Marcos Vargas

Regional Coordinator

Peace and Dignity Journeys - California Central Coast

Arrival of P&DJ Runners in Colombia having shared their prayer journey with the Central Coast in July

Nov. 20, 2024

Grounded in the knowledge of the ancestors, runners continue to carry their indigenous prayer of peace and resistance across the Americas

On November 29th, the runners of the Peace and Dignity Journeys will arrive in Silvania Cundinamarca, Colombia, concluding their seven-month indigenous peoples prayer run with a four-day intertribal closing ceremony, with representation from throughout the Americas.

The journey has been beautiful but at times extremely challenging, highlighted by significant obstacles, such as when core runners were denied entry into Nicaragua amid government threats aimed at confiscating the sacred staffs, which had been entrusted to them from communities they had traveled through and which they had carried over nearly 5,000 miles. 

In mid-July, while traveling through California's Central Coast — ancestral land of the Chumash people — local communities came out in support of the run, participating in this historic ceremony. Chumash and other indigenous people and organizations united, many for the first time, in a powerful expression of healing and unity.

From San Luis Obispo to Fillmore, nine community ceremonies were held, each unique and powerful. The runners were welcomed by Chumash elders, followed by intertribal ceremonies that included Chumash, Mexica, and other Native and indigenous songs, drumming, and Aztec danza.

The Peace and Dignity Journeys - Central Coast extends heartfelt gratitude to the Chumash elders who opened each ceremony, as well as the hundreds of local community members of indigenous ancestry who volunteered and participated in this vital prayer for global peace, healing, and unity among all indigenous peoples of the Americas.

We also appreciate the over one hundred local indigenous and non-indigenous runners who participated in the run through our region, and the many individuals and funders who provided much needed financial support.

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Financial support for the run still needed. See below.

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As the PDJ runners near the end of their 6,000-mile prayer journey across Turtle Island, south from Alaska to Colombia, and north from Argentina to Colombia, we send strong prayers filled with love and gratitude.

In a time when people of conscience in the U.S. are rallying to resist anticipated actions against our sacred lands, immigrant relatives, and other vulnerable communities, this prayer for peace, dignity, and unity carries even greater significance.

Let us draw inspiration and knowledge from our ancestors and mother earth to empower our resistance, and our commitment to peace, dignity, and unity today and for seven generations to come.

Aho mitakuye oyasin

We are all related

Marcos Vargas

Regional Coordinator

Peace and Dignity Journeys - California Central Coast