The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians announced on Friday Kenneth Kahn was elected chairman in a recent special election. Last month, former chairman Vincent Armenta stepped down after 17 years to pursue a degree at the Culinary Institute of America.
Kahn, 39, who was born and raised on the reservation, was elected to the council at age 25 — the youngest member to ever be elected. As a child, Kahn saw the tribe completely impoverished — no running water or electricity. They subsisted on USDA truckloads of block cheese, canned pork, and powdered milk, he said. “I got to see a lot of challenges we had early on,” he said. “From the outside looking in, it was ‘the poor Indians,’” he said. “On the inside, we had a community.”
Kahn's grandparents have been part of the tribe's leadership, and he has lived on the reservation for most of his life, attending schools in the valley. He graduated from Santa Ynez Valley High School.