Our Biggest Cultural Environmental Project Yet!

For decades, the Wishtoyo Foundation and its leaders have been committed to vigorous advocacy for Chumash cultural and natural resource protection, as well as indigenous rights and environmental stewardship more broadly.  We have built a Chumash Village on an 8,000-year-old site and brought thousands of school children from underserved communities to be inspired by Chumash beliefs and practices to care for our planet.  We have sponsored Chumash language and cultural revitalization through the Chumash Women’s Elder Council, seasonal ceremonies, and other activities.

We are now embarking on our biggest cultural environmental restoration project yet: Wishtoyo’s First Nations Cultural Ecological Conservancy.  It will be located on property acquired along the Santa Clara (Utom) River in Ventura County.

We fight to protect our Chumash culture and environmental issues.  Through our Ventura Coastkeeper program, we have monitored water quality in local inland and coastal waters, and have taken legal action to stop polluters.  We have restored native habitats and endangered species from Malibu northward, and brought successful litigation to protect them.

The widespread participation of individuals and groups from numerous Chumash and other indigenous tribes, bands, and clans demonstrates how successfully Wishtoyo is fulfilling its cultural and stewardship mission.  There has never been one Chumash tribe or even a single common language.  However, cooperation and collaboration among Chumash tribal groups has occurred for cultural, ceremonial, and other purposes, always on a voluntary basis.

Today, Wishtoyo works with several Chumash tribes, bands, clans and family groups that are local to the area as well as many non-tribally-affiliated people of Chumash descent.  The few who have falsely challenged Wishtoyo’s genealogy and leadership have also declined to engage with Wishtoyo despite invitations to partner with us to protect Chumash culture.

Wishtoyo has built a powerful coalition of Chumash and non-Chumash peoples who care deeply about the land and waters we share, and we welcome your continued support as we pursue our mission of cultural and environmental protection.