Editorial: Chumash Tribe stray off reservation with land plans

The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, which operates a popular casino and resort on its reservation northwest of Santa Barbara, is eager to expand beyond its current acreage. With that it mind, in 2010 it purchased a huge tract of land — nearly 1,400 acres — a few miles away and eventually announced plans to build houses on it. The tribe may have a persuasive case for building homes for more of its people among the vineyards of the so-called Camp 4 land. But the Chumash shouldn't be able to exclude such a large swath of property from county rules and taxes by claiming tribal jurisdiction over the property.

Leaders of the Santa Ynez Band say that much of its 138-acre reservation is on a riverbank or a slope too steep to build on. As a consequence, only about one-sixth of the tribe's 139 members and more than 1,300 descendants live there. Hence their interest in Camp 4, where they've proposed to build 143 single-family homes for tribe members and their families.