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Resources Division offers annual training for all Native American liaisons. Together, these
training opportunities give staff tools to maintain and strengthen relationships with Native
American tribes and ensure compliance with statutory requirements.
Native American Consultation at the SVRAs
Beginning in the summer of 2012, local Ohlone and Northern Valley Yokuts, including tribal
representatives from the Indian Canyon Mutsun Band of Costanoan, the Muwekma Ohlone
Indian Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area, the Ohlone Indian Tribe, the Trina Marine
Ruano Family, and the Salinan Layehm have been involved in ongoing consultation with
the Carnegie SVRA General Plan team. Consultation included OHMVR Division staff-led
tours of known prehistoric cultural resources within the original Carnegie SVRA and the
expansion area.
As a result of these on-site consultation tours, the Native American community identified
several cultural resources to be “sacred sites,” meaning “places of spiritual importance to
a tribe where religious ceremonies are practiced or which are central to their origins as a
people. It is always up to the tribe to determine whether or not a site is sacred” (California
State Parks Departmental Notice 2007: 5). OHMVR Division archaeologists and Twin Cities
District staff are working with the Native American community to facilitate Native American
access to the sacred sites for ceremonial use.
Native American consultation in the Carnegie SVRA General Plan process helped the
planning team identify areas, such as sacred sites, that need to be avoided or mitigated
during future park development. Additionally, Native American consultation will play an
integral role in the future management and preservation of known prehistoric cultural
resources, all of which will be discussed in the cultural resource guides and guidelines
section of the Carnegie SVRA revised General Plan.
In the fall of 2015, an OHMVR Division archaeologist and Oceano Dunes staff participated
in a meeting with local Northern Chumash Native Americans to discuss upcoming projects,
and identify any ongoing concerns tribal members may have. Moving forward, the OHMVR
Division plans to continue holding annual meetings with the tribe to assess any upcoming
projects that may involve Native American interests.
In June 2016, an OHMVR Division archaeologist, Oceano Dunes SVRA staff, and a
representative from the Northern Chumash group worked together to identify several sites
of concern within the dune preserve area, and to install symbolic fencing around the sites
to discourage pedestrians and equestrians from entering into the sites and potentially
damaging them.
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California State Parks, Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Commission