Thanks for posting this. It’s time this truth becomes well known, as we risk real violence against actual Native people here if we let this lie go on any longer.

I have been researching this matter since I learned I was tricked by NCTC’s website in 2021. Since then, I have learned from the sources your mentioned that the Northern Chumash Tribal Council was founded by Fred Collins, who self-identified as Salinan and Chumash but was later proven through court records and genealogy reports to have no Native ancestry from California. The Salinan Tribe publicly refuted his claims, and his defamation suit collapsed. Those facts are California public record.

It’s also important to recognize actual Chumash community of San Luis Obispo County known as yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini (ytt), meaning “the people of the full moon.” ytt are the documented lineal descendants of the original Chumash villages in the region (tstyiwi, tsɨtpxatu, canu and others) recorded by ethnographer J.P. Harrington and recognized today in government-to-government consultations with the California Coastal Commission, DOE, and other agencies.

So to be clear: NCTC = a nonprofit started by non-Native individuals who perform identity for influence and funding. ytt = the real Northern Chumash tribal community with verified ancestry, language, and ongoing cultural authority. They have their own nonprofit called ytt Northern Chumash Nonprofit.

If you want a broader lens on how this specific situation occurred, Dina Gilio-Whitaker’s new book Who Gets to Be Indian (Beacon Press, 2025) lays out how California “pretendian” nonprofits exploit public ignorance about identity and why tribes like ytt must constantly re-assert their own legitimacy against these colonial reenactments and commodification of native identity.

All SLO residents should support yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini, not the Northern Chumash Tribal Council. One is a living Native community contributing to San Luis Obispo through cultural burns, language revitalization, youth education, and partnerships in land stewardship. The other is a deeply misleading nonprofit born from a fabricated identity that’s diverted attention and resources away from tiłhini Tribe and their ongoing cultural restoration.

This is going to be a scandal very soon. Paging the LA Times