Grand opening of TEK-MAR School and Gloria Liggett Tribal Office at Jalama Ranch in Lompoc
Jarrod Zinn
LOMPOC, Calif. – A new hub for tribal governance and high quality education cut the ribbon this afternoon at Jalama Ranch in Lompoc.
And a surprise announcement was made there.
The Lompoc Chamber of Commerce announced the grand opening for the TEK-MAR school and the Gloria Liggett tribal office on Friday.
TEK-MAR stands for “Traditional Ecological Knowledge Mitigation and Remediation.”
“This is our first and permanent tribal office,” says Violet Sage Walker, the Northern Chumash Tribal Council’s chairwoman. “It’s our new location for our headquarters for ocean conservation and land conservation and our consultation that we do.”
The event ushered in the new facility with demonstrations, tours of the ranch, live music, and a full barbecue dinner.
“We also have horses,” says Walker. “We also have marine sanctuaries to take care of. We also have land acquisitions that we’re working on. So it took us a whole year to be able to open the office.”
The facility will be open to the public to take any of the offered courses in land management, ocean stewardship, and more.
“Northern Chumash Tribal Council has this curriculum that we’ve all co-created, and it’s really focused on all the information passed on from generation to generation through Chumash stories, that tell us so much about our local central coast, the resources here,” says Dawn Murray, marine biologist & Antioch University professor.
A big surprise announcement was made at the ribbon cutting, that the Northern Chumash Tribal Council has entered escrow on land they haven’t had access to in 200 years.
“The Chumash community are going to be gathering tomorrow at Dos Pueblos Ranch and we’re going to be getting back onto land that has been essentially private for about 200 years,” says Walker. “We opened escrow on Thursday and we’re actively seeking partners.”
Programs and classes will make use of ArcGIS, a prominent mapping software, to help students and researchers on their journey to learning more about environmental stewardship in the region.
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