Violet Sage Walker: Northern Chumash Tribal Leader.
Episode 11: Celebrating America’s Newest Large-Scale Marine Sanctuary
In this episode:
Designated in December 2024, the new Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary is America’s 17th national marine sanctuary, the sixth off the U.S. West Coast, and is one of the largest in the National Marine Sanctuary System. The success of the 20 year effort was due to tenacious leadership by numerous indigenous tribes, including a key leadership role taken by Violet Sage Walker, the tribal chair of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council.
The sanctuary encompasses 4,543 square miles of Central California’s beautiful coastal and ocean waters, providing protection to nationally significant natural, cultural, and historical resources while bringing new opportunities for research, community engagement, and education and outreach activities. The project is demonstrating a balanced effort to restore the extraordinary marine biodiversity--some of which has been lost only in the past 40 years or so---with benefits to people such as the local indigenous fishing industry that has witnessed precipitous declines in salmon populations in recent times.
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WE ARE OCEAN PEOPLE: INDIGENOUS LEADERSHIP IN MARINE CONSERVATION
Chumash — For more than 40 years, California’s coastal Indigenous People, community members, and elected leaders have advocated for the establishment of a new national marine sanctuary. In 2015, Northern Chumash Tribal Council chair, Chief Fred Collins, officially nominated Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s public nominations process. After his recent passing, his daughter, Violet Sage Walker, who had been working on the project with him from the beginning, is carrying on his legacy.
