The words of the late President Ronald Reagan, who owned a ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley in Southern California, are being used by opponents of a proposed expansion of the reservation of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians.
The band is the subject of a bill: H.R. 1157 now awaiting action in the lame duck session of Congress that would give the tribe control of 1,400 acres, skipping over the normal process of going through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Locals fear they might expand their reservation, build high-rises or even add to their casino.
The tribe has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying federal lawmakers on the bill.
The Santa Ynez valley is where Reagan owned Rancho del Cielo, where he would ride horse and cut wood, often for the benefit of photographers. One of the president’s riding buddies from that era, veterinarian Doug Herthel was quoted recently by the Washington Examiner as saying that the former president used to worry about Indian policies that would lead to tribes running separate nations within the U.S. “On one ride,” he said “he was really upset, and usually you never saw him upset. . . ‘You can’t have all these 541 separate nations within our nation.’ ”
Herthel is the president of Preservation of Los Olivos, a group of residents opposed to the land transfer.
The land is run by a private foundation now—and the foundation is remaining neutral on the proposal.
Another opponent, the Santa Ynez Valley Coalition, and its spokesman C.J. Jackson is quoting another president, this one incoming: “Indian casinos, while a significant financial boon for the tribe, can be detrimental to the surrounding community, residents, and small businesses. President-elect Trump, who himself was in the casino business at one time, testified before Congress in 1993 on suspected corruption of the Indian gaming industry.”
The bill in Congress is opposed by local Rep. Lois Capps, who says that the issue would be snatched away from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, where it normally resides.
