People began living in tipis in Isla Vista in the 1960s.
When I moved here in 1972, there were at least 25 tipis spread
around town. Many were in backyards, but most were in vacant
lots owned by people who were such distant absentee-owners that
they never noticed it. Of course, if the owner happened to visit
his property and kick off the squatter, it was easy enough to
pick up the structure and move onto another vacant lot--after
all, Indians had lived here like this for centuries!
There was even a store in Isla Vista--New World Resources--that
sold tipis. A new one cost about $400, as I remember. For the
most party these tipi-dwellers were left alone, seldom bothered
by either the police or County government officials.
Tipi Village
In the late 70s, however, the practice suddenly mush-roomed.
Almost
overnight, there were well over fifty tipis around town, with
21 of them concentrated on one lot in the 6700 block of Sueno
Road. Most people attribute this dramatic increase in the number
of tipi dwellers to the huge rent increases that began in 1976,
which is when enrollment at UCSB began to skyrocket. Enrollment
at UCSB had been under 12,000 in 1972, but it began increasing
1,000 a year in 1974. By 1980 it was over 16,000. Vacancy signs
became an endangered species around I.V.
But the concentration of so many tipis on a cypress-lined lot
that became known as Tipi Village became too much for government
officials to overlook. In 1979, the Isla Vista Sanitary District
(now called the Goleta West San. District) Board of Directors
voted unanimously to ask the Sheriff to evict the dwellers from
Tipi Village, supposedly because there were no official toilets
on the property.
The Villagers actually had been paying rent on this property
for a number of years. The owner was an elderly woman who was
confined to a rest home. Although the rent was a modest amount,
she was happy to receive some return on this property that she
couldn't build on because of the water hook-up moratorium imposed
by area voters in 1973.
The lifestyle in the Village was wholly organic, with Villagers
growing their food without benefit of pesticides in community
gardens established by the I.V. Park District along Estero Road.
These gardens still exist and are farmed mostly by Indo-Chinese
refugees today. Villagers used the toilets next door at what
was then the Isla Vista Park District Office at 889 Camino del
Sur.
1
2
3
home
