In 1988, Joe Talaugon, then 58, submitted an application to the tribe. One of the most contentious cases involves the Talaugon family. “For them to say, ‘You don’t belong,’ I don’t understand it.” “A lot of it is greed,” said Ortega, asserting that the challenge to his family’s ancestry is without merit. Ortega, 38, said his family’s status is being challenged by a faction seeking to remove as many as 90 of the 153 Indians enrolled in the tribe. Robert “Ted” Ortega is vice chairman of the band. Tribal members point to a notation in the 1925 census: “Agency physician reports that the Ortegas have Spanish blood and resent being classed as Indians.” The Ortega clan is among those whose lineage has been called into question. “The parish priest for these Indians stated that there were but few of the tribe that he called genuine Indians, the others being mixed bloods, who do not call themselves Indians.” “It is practically impossible to obtain accurate data regarding the Santa Ynez Indians,” states a notation that appears on census reports between 19.
Decades-old records of the government’s Indian Census Roll suggest the difficulty of tracing Chumash bloodlines.
