UCLA grad students design Native American center

Monday, July 28, 1997

Monday, July 28, 1997

UCLA grad students design Native American center

PROGRAM:

Friends of Satwiwa, National Park Service work together on cultural projectBy Cindy Choi

Daily Bruin Contributor

The open space and the majestic hills on the western edge of the Santa Monica Mountains could have easily become another land development project.

Thanks to the campaign led by Charlie Cooke, the hereditary chief of the Chumash Nation, the land is the same as it has been for thousands of years and is now the home of the Satwiwa Native American Indian Culture Center.

Devoted to the celebration and the preservation of contemporary Native American cultures, "it is a learning center for all people," Cooke said.

The story began in 1976 with Cooke's dreams of creating a cultural center to serve the Native Americans in Southern California. A huge population without a place to practice their cultures, Cooke envisioned the new place as a "land base" for those dislocated from their native territories.

In a grassroots effort, the Friends of Satwiwa (FOS) was formed to advocate for a culture center, and established a partnership with the National Park Service (NPS) to accomplish this goal.

Finally in 1980, the NPS successfully acquired a site despite the ambitions of developers who had other plans for the same property. Resisting the bulldozers ready to seize the land in case the escrow fell through, Cooke staved off powerful developers and their plans for 640 tract houses.

"He stood right in front of the bulldozers and said you're not coming in here," said Pam Darty, the park ranger who staffs the center.

Still some hurdles remained. The center, which had operated out of a small house for eight years, needed to erect a new structure.

UCLA School of Architecture and Urban Design graduate students took on the task of the designs. The idea of the culture center immediately appealed to the students as a prospective project because it provided the opportunity to work with a program imbedded in a cultural context, noted Professor Richard Schoen.

The FOS and the NPS both cooperated with the students to develop the design strategy. For example, the large square window in the Center's south wall frames the spiritually significant Boney Mountain.

From the drawing boards in 1988 to the grand opening in April 1996, eight years of planning, fund-raising and construction passed.

The enormous uncluttered views of the surrounding mountains are exactly what urban Native Americans need, Cooke said. "This is a place where you can come out and relate to the land. When you relate to the land, that's when you can feel Mother Earth," Cooke affirmed.

Darty, a Creek Indian, agrees on the basic drive for Native Americans to maintain a relationship with the land.

"We aren't whole people without connecting to the earth. I want to connect not only through my shoes but with my bare feet, spiritually and literally," Darty said.

Darty encourages Native Americans to use the personal, cultural and land resources waiting for them at the center. Native Americans are welcome to use the land at Satwiwa for private ceremonies and gatherings.

They may have a cultural center in the urban districts, but no land to practice their cultures. Not many Native Americans know about Satwiwa, according to Darty.

As a ranger, Darty observed that the Native American visitors comprise a minority.

"When we see anyone who looks like an Indian, we're thrilled to death," Darty said.

Even though the center is equally important for non-Native Americans, in order for the center to fulfill its duties to Native Americans, more publicity is essential.

The cultural programs designed by the FOS attract approximately 200 visitors on the weekends, according to Darty. The Guest Host Program invites various Native Americans to share their cultures each Sundays.

Vitus Jack (Yupik), an Eskimo carver, will bring his art and personal stories in August. Future guest host Hank Stevens (Osage) hails his opportunity because "the tribal people speak with their own voices and demonstrate their own skills."

Other plans for the center include an ethnobotanical garden, the cultivation of the native plants used by the indigenous people of the Santa Monica Mountains.

The visitors come with diverse motives. Patricia Libbey came to the center to enhance her understanding of Native American cultures. As a teacher of Native American art, she asserts the importance of providing the cultural context of art.

"I have to teach the whole life of the people," Libbey said.

Due to financial and bureaucratic limitations, the center has not realized its full potential as a "landbase," said Kat High, a Hupa Indian and a member of the Board of Directors of the Friends of Satwiwa.

She hopes to open the center every day as opposed to the present Saturday and Sunday schedules and to make Satwiwa a continuous resource that extends beyond its 10-to-5 operating hours.

In spite of the communication difficulties, Satwiwa Native American Indian Culture Center is made possible by both sides of the partnership who have invested their energies. Regarding its future, Cooke remarked "I envision it's going to go on and expand."