A welcome blessing—“haku haku”—is the first thing visitors hear walking into the Santa Ynez Chumash Museum and Cultural Center. 
The museum will also treat guests to paintings of former village sites, displays of ceremonial regalia, and recordings of elders speaking about life on reservations when it opens to the public on May 15, according to Kathleen Marshall, the chairwoman of the museum board. Marshall said the museum tells the story of the Samala territory, the Chumash peoples’ ancestral homeland in modern Santa Barbara County, and should take guests between an hour or two to traverse, depending on how much they interact with the exhibits. 
“People don’t really know who we are…