The Origins of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary and its Failed Mechanisms

American Indian Airwaves

On Indigenous Peoples Day in October 2024, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) designated the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary off the California coast. The Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary makes it America’s 17th national marine sanctuary, the sixth off the U.S. West Coast, and it is considered one of the largest in the National Marine Sanctuary System. The sanctuary encompasses 4,543 square miles of Central California’s coastal and ocean waters, providing protection to nationally significant natural, cultural, and historical resources while bringing new opportunities for research, community engagement, and education and outreach activities. While much of the settler colonial and some Indigenous media treated the designation of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary as beneficial for the Chumash Nation and Mother Earth, there are larger questions about the true origins of the proposed Chumash Maritime Sanctuary along with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) process of adhering to all bands of Chumash nations free, prior, and informed consent international rights, and the failed mechanisms within between different Chumash bands and the NOAA, plus more. Today on American Indian Airwaves we address all these questions with our guests who combined with themselves and their ancestors have decades of living experiences protecting their cultural and traditional practices while simultaneous resisting settler colonial violence. Guest: o Micheal Khus-Zarate (Chumash), Board Member of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation and Marcus Lopez (Barbareño band of the Chumash Nation), co-host and executive producer of American Indian Airwaves.