Here’s the thing about butting your head against a stone wall — it’s usually the head that comes out a loser.

There’s been a lot of head-butting in the Santa Ynez Valley in recent years, as one citizens group or another challenges the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians’ authority to operate a successful casino/resort, and otherwise grow the tribe’s business and residential development plans.

Think of the Chumash as the solid wall, and opposing neighbors as the head-bangers. The end result is inevitable, an immutable law of physics.

The principle applies to one valley group’s latest foray into the legal wars against the Chumash. A U.S. District Court judge has denied the group’s motion that challenges the tribe’s reservation land rights.