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.
