01 Aug Satwiwa Native American Indian Culture Center

Greetings! Jose Gonzalez here 🙂 These photos are from my visit to Satwiwa Native American Indian Culture Center at Rancho Sierra Vista in Newbury Park, CA. “Satwiwa, which means ‘the bluffs,’ was the name of a nearby Chumash village. To reflect this heritage, Satwiwa Native American Indian Culture Center and Natural Area was established by the National Park Service in partnership with the Friends of Satwiwa” (NPS, 2015).

Park Ranger Robert Cromwell and Archaeological Technician Austin Ringelstein gave us a tour of the area by leading us on a hike to an excavation site. Youth members of the Urban Archaeology Corps will be excavating an area which was once a Chumash rock oven. Antonio Solorio, the SAMO youth program coordinator, gave us a tour of the Satwiwa Native Plant Garden. We tasted several plants that were important for the Chumash and Tongva people.

The visit to Rancho Sierra Vista was amazing! It was wonderful to learn about the many uses plants served for Native American cultures as well as the continued use of many of these plants in modern society. There was lots of wildlife near the cultural center including a King Snake and a lizard. The King Snake gets its name because it is able to eat rattlesnakes which are prevalent in the area.