Chumash Nation Honors Mission Ancestors and Opposes Serra Sainthood

Chumash Nation Honors Mission Ancestors and Opposes Serra Sainthood

Public welcome to weekend event introducing the real history of California missions


Santa Barbara – The story behind the iconic California system of missions, built from San Diego to the San Francisco area by Franciscan priests from 1769-1833, has long been held by California as a golden era – an unique storyline of its own history.

The Californias' public schools and many others in the community have promoted and even defended that notion over the years.

But, the missions weren't built and run by the missionaries exclusively. Many of the Native peoples were forced into slave labor and lived in the compounds of the mission sites, used to develop the structures and then breathe life into them. It's also long been known that uncountable numbers of Natives were held against their will by those who oversaw the missions and endured the types of suffering David Stannard, a professor of American Studies, asserts for the mission Natives were equivalent to what the " Nazi concentration camps were to the Jewish people."

Meanwhile, the Catholic church has not only tried to ignore what the missionaries did to the Native Californians, but recently Pope Francis has announced he will canonize Junipero Serra, the so-called "father" of the mission system, later this year when he visits the East Coast.

"The Vatican's decision to canonize Junipero Serra validates the genocide of California Indians. We cannot ever forget our ancestors, and the truth shall be herd. Our truth is our light of healing and moving toward self determination," stated Marcus Lopez , Sr., Barbareno Chumash Tribal 'iyalmumic Council.

In opposition of the Pope's plans, the Barbareno Chumash Tribal Iyalmuwic Council and the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation will lead a weekend of cultural reverence and resistance to the notion of Serras' Canonization; highlighted by a ceremony to honor the more than 4,000 ancestors who lost their lives who are buried in a mass gravesite. The ceremony will be outside the Santa Barbara Mission, May 31, starting at 1 p.m, at 2201 Laguna Street Santa Barbara, CA. 93105

Saturday May 30th will draw a wide array of California Native Nations, Native organizations, friends and supporters – for panel and community discussions, featuring some of the Native community's most notable academditions and leaders. Panel discussions will range from the international affects of the canonization to working with Catholic and Christian friends that are also against canonization.

Confirmed weekend panelists are to include:

Marcus Lopez, Sr. Co-Chair of the Barbareno Chumash Tribal Iyalmuwic Council;
Elias Castillo, author, A Cross of Thorns, The Enslavement of California’s Indians by the Spanish Missions';
Valentin Lopez, Chairman, the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band of Costanoan/Ohlone Indians;
Tia Oros Peters-Zuni, Executive Director of the 7th Generation Fund,;
Deana Dartt-Newton - Chumash, doctor of Anthropology;
Roberta Cordero - Chumash Elder, Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation;
Shannon Rivers, Akimel O'otham, former co-chair of the Global Indigenous Peoples Caucus United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues;
Georgiana Valoyce Sanchez- Chumash, O'odham Elder Retired Professor of American Indian Literature Cal-State Long Beach;
Kanyon Sayers-Roods, Costanoan Ohlone, Chumash, Director of CIR- Indian Canyon.

Saturday May 30th, Panel discussion, Saturday night fundraising Youth concert (TBA) .
Sunday May 31 Ceremony to Honor Ancestors at SB Mission.


American Indian Movement Southern California