1/5 jon h. 4 years ago on Google
Nice
museum,
informative
exhibits
and
beautiful
space,
but
my
low
rating
is
for
one
reason
only,
the
nearly
complete
absence
of
information
and
exhibits
of
the
original
people
of
the
Santa
Barbara
region,
who
would
become
known
as
the
Chumash.
On
my
visit
there
were
only
two
small
exhibits
of
the
Chumash,
showing
a
few
baskets
and
stone
tools.
These
were
people
who
were
here
thousands
of
years
before
the
Spanish
arrived
(8,000+
years
ago,
it’s
estimated),
developing
one
of
the
most
populated
regions
of
native
people
in
what
is
now
North
America.
They
developed
advanced
societies,
trade,
commerce
and
governance.
They
were
master
boat-builders,
inhabiting
the
Channel
Islands,
and
had
an
understanding
of
the
natural
environment,
plant
and
wildlife
far
advanced
from
the
Spanish
colonialists.
Unfortunately,
the
Spanish
Imperialists
saw
them
as
primitive
savages,
vilifying
their
customs,
belief
systems
and
culture.
Many
of
the
Spanish
sincerely
believed
theirs
was
good
intent,
though
many
were
outright
opportunists.
They
enslaved
many
native
people,
justifying
it
in
order
to
“save”
them,
and
brought
diseases
that
killed
over
90%
of
the
native
people.
None
of
this
is
conveyed
in
the
museum
that,
based
on
it’s
name,
exists
to
tell
the
history
of
Santa
Barbara.
The
Santa
Barbara
Museum
of
Natural
History,
just
a
few
miles
away,
does
a
far
better
job
of
providing
a
truer
depiction
of
the
role
the
original
people
here
played
in
Santa
Barbara’s
history.
There
are
countless
books
they
do
so
as
well
(Thrown
Among
Strangers
by
Doug
Monroy
is
highly
recommended).
I
understand
that
many
in
Santa
Barbara
have
historically
chosen
to
tell
only
the
portion
of
its
history
from
a
Spanish
perspective,
but
it’s
time
a
truer
history
be
told.
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