Seashell First People Of North America
The Chumash Indian homeland lies along the coast of California, between Malibu and Paso Robles, as well as on the Northern Channel Islands. Before the Mission Period, the Chumash lived in 150 independent towns and villages with a total population of at least 25,000 people. In different parts of the region, people spoke six different but related languages. The area was first settled at least 13,000 years ago. Over time, the population increased and the people adapted their lifeways to the local environment. Villages along the coastline, on the islands and in the interior had access to different resources, which they traded with one another. This trade was made possible in part by the seagoing plank canoe, or tomol, which was invented by 1,500 years ago. In addition to the plank canoe, the Chumash are known for their fine basketry, their mysterious cave paintings and their bead money made from shells.
CHUMASH COSMOLOGY PAINTED ON ROCK
Though the Chumash culture persists in disparate corners of the south-central coast of California, the words of anthropologist Alfred Kroeber in 1925 still ring true: “There is no group in California that once held the importance of the Chumash concerning which we know so little.” Most scholars, however, have surmised the remarkable pictographs found in remote caves, hidden crevasses, and massive rock formations from the Channel Islands to the Santa Barbara and Ventura backcountry, may have been associated with the ritual use of the sacred plant Datura, which can induce spirit-helper “‘atishwinic” dreams and visions. They might have been painted by healers and seers, members of the selective school Near Mt. Pinos called ‘Antap, charged with conserving Chumash culture while the missions down on the coast dismantled it. Of course, such speculation is really beside the point.
After the flood, Sky Coyote, Sun, Moon, Morning Star, and Eagle were discussing how they were going to make man. Eagle and Sky Coyote Kept Arguing about whether or not the new people should have hands like Sky Coyote’s. Coyote said that all people in this world should be in his image, since he had the finest hands. Lizard was there also, but he just listened night after night and said nothing. At last, Coyote won the argument and it was agreed that people should have hands just like his. The Next day they all gathered around a beautiful white rock that was there in the sky. It was so fine and smooth on the top that whatever touched it would leave an exact print. Coyote was just about to stamp his down on the rock when Lizard, who had been standing silenty just behind him,quickly reached out and pressed his own perfect hand print onto the rock. Coyote was furious and wanted to kill Lizard, but Lizard ran down into a deep crack and escaped. Since Eagle and Sun approved of what Lizard had done, Coyote couldn’t do anything about it. If Lizard had not made his print, we might have hands like a coyote today!
CHUMASH SKY STORIES
The Sparks of The Sun
The Sun carries a torch of tightly rolled bark to light the world. After his daily journey across the sky, he snaps his torch to throw sparks which are the stars.
Boys Who turned to Geese
Long ago, when animals were people, there was a little boy whose mother and stepfather wouldn’t give him anything to eat, though they had plenty for themselves. So the boy went off to find his own food and met another boy who was also abandoned. Raccoon came along, felt sorry for the two boys, and helped them dig roots to eat. In the next few days, five more hungry abandoned boys came by, and they all went to stay with Raccoon in the temescal (sweathouse). Finally they decided to go north and take Raccoon with them. So they sprinkled themselves with goose down and sang songs. For three days they went around the temescal, singing and rising higher and higher off the ground. But Raccoon couldn’t fly even though he was covered with goose down. All the mothers came to see the boys and begged them to come down, but they refused. They all turned into geese and flew away to the north, to become the seven stars we call the Pleiades. And when geese cry, they sound just like a little boy.
Three Worlds
There is this world in which we live, but there is also one above us and one below us. There are two serpents that hold our world up from below. When they are tired they move, and that causes earthquakes. The World above is sustained by the great eagle. He never moves, he is always in the same spot. When he gets tired of sustaining the upper world, he stretches his wings a little, and this causes the phases of the moon. When there is an eclipse of the moon it is because his wings cover it completely. And the water in the springs and streams of this earth is the urine of the many frogs who live in it.
THUNDER AND LIGHTNING
Thunder Makes Zaca Lake
Zaca Lake was formed when Thunder sat down there and made a great hole in the earth. There was once a village there, and one day, a man saw Thunder and said insulting things to him. The rest of the people ran away in fear, and when they looked back, the man was gone and there was water where Thunder had sat down. There are two brothers who live in the upper world. They sometimes play the hoop-and pole game. One rolls the hoop and the other runs after it and tries to pierce it with his pole. That is what causes thunder. Also they can throw a light they have to make lightning, and when it hits the ground it makes flint.
The Chumash are a rather unique people who occupied the central coast of California. The Chumash people thrived at a very early period in California prehistory, with some settlements dating to at least 10,000 years before present. here were at least eight different related language groups, or dialects, spoken by the Chumash. The differences between the dialects spoken at the northern and the southern ends of the Chumash region were as great as the differences between Spanish and the English languages. A Chumash person could always tell where another Chumash person came from by how he or she spoke. Chumash people first encountered Europeans in the autumn of 1542, when two sailing vessels under Juan Cabrillo arrived on the coast from Mexico. As with most Native American tribes, the Chumash history was passed down from generation to generation through stories and legends. Many of these stories were lost when the Chumash Indian population was all but decimated in the 1700s and 1800s by the Spanish mission system.The Chumash population was eventually decimated, due largely to the introduction of European diseases. By 1831, the number of mission-registered Chumash numbered only 2,788, down from pre-Spanish population estimates of 22,000.
The first Chumash were created on Santa Cruz Island by the Earth Goddess Hutash who fashioned them from the seeds of a magic plant. Hutash was married to the Sky Snake (the Milky Way), who could make lightning bolts with his tongue. One day, the Sky Snake decided to present a gift to the Chumash. So he sent down a bolt of lightning, which started a fire on the island grasslands below. After this, the Chumash kept fires burning in their villages, so that they could keep warm and cook their food. In those days, the condor was a great white bird. One day, Condor was curious about a fire he saw burning in a Chumash village, and he wanted to find out what it was. So he flew low over the fire to get a better look, but he flew too close, and his feathers were scorched black except for under his wings, which he folded tight against his sides as he swooped through the flames. That is why the condor today is a black bird, with just a little white in the spots under his wings, the only part of him that did not get scorched.
When Europeans first arrived, Chumash-speaking peoples occupied a large area that extended south along the California coast from San Luis Obispo County into Los Angeles County and east to Kern County, and included the Channel Islands of San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, and Anacapa. The Chumash living in Ojai spoke Ventureño, one of the six major dialects of the Chumash language. Known as the Ventureño Chumash, this group was distinguished from their culturally similar neighbors on the basis of linguistic variations noted by the early Spanish missionaries of the area, rather than by any apparent di erence in social or economic organization. The Ventureño (so named because of their association with Mission San Buenaventura) were the southernmost of all the Chumash peoples. Native American culture in this region evolved over the course of at least 13,000 years and has been described as having achieved a level of social, political, and economic complexity not ordinarily associated with huntergatherer groups.
Chumash encountered few Europeans during the many decades after Cabrillo’s small fleet departed. A few expeditions sailed along the coast, stopping briefly, but little evidence exists as to what they did or where, precisely, they visited. They thus had little experience with European intruders, and little reason to fear the Spanish who returned in the second half of the eighteenth century. I wish I knew more about that history. When the Spanish arrived in 1769 to secure their hold on the coast of what they called Alta California from their European rivals, José de Gálvez, the visitador of New Spain, instructed Gaspar de Portolá to undertake that task. Both Gálvez and Portolá recognized that they must treat the large numbers of native people on the coast with kindness and respect. Only with the assistance of native peoples could they control California’s verdant coastline. They lacked the soldiers and the funds for a military conquest, so Gálvez placed the “Sacred Expedition,” in the hands of a small number of soldiers and Franciscan missionaries.
BARBAREÑO BAND OF CHUMASH INDIANS
HU L-MOL-MOLOQ-IʼWAŠ HU L-KUH-KUʼ
THE ANCIENT PEOPLE.
We are the true descendants of the first people and the land that is now called Santa Barbara and Goleta. We have been the caretakers of the land since time immemorial. We are the survivors of genocide: The Spanish colonized Santa Barbara, put us through the mission system, stole our land, and spread their diseases. After the missions we maintained a community known as La Cieneguita; however, that was eventually taken from us by appointment of Indian Agent Thomas Hope. Today, we are landless and we are not recognized by the government, we have lost many things, but we are still here. We operate as a non-profit, we are striving for recognition, we maintain our community and the continuation of our culture.
kiy kǝ ’i ka šiš-kuhkʼúʼ hi ‘itil šup o kiya nu na! [We are the people of this land!]
How humans got their hands. Another Chumash Myth
After the flood (there is evidence of the Channel Islands, in California, was once one large island as the sea levels rose over the millennia and it is believed that the Chumash may have lived there since 27,000 BC and so bared witness to these ancient events), Šnilemum (the Coyote in the Sky), Sun, Moon, Morning Star, and Sloɂw (the great eagle that knows what it is to be) were discussing how they were going to make people, and Sloɂw and Šnilemum quarreled about whether or not these new people should have hands like Šnilemum. Coyote proclaimed that if there were to be people in this world they should be in his image as he had the finest hands. Lizard was there also, but remained silent night after night. Finally, Šnilemum won, and all agreed (except one) that people would have hands just like his.
The people of the two villages also had different physical characteristics. The people of Mikiw were thought to be descended from the Shoshone tribe, those people being tall, slender and a light complexion. The Kuyamuns were thought to be from Aztec descent, short, thick and darker skinned. It’s not known which group was there first, which group was more aggressive, and how they came to tolerate each other. We only know that they lived next to each other for hundreds of years.
The Chumash (the name means “bead maker” or “seashell people”), according to their traditional beliefs, sprouted on the island from seeds of a plant created by to their origin story, Hutash, the Earth mother. The Chumash were cold so Hutash’s husband, Alchupo’osh (a sky snake), gave them fire by striking the ground with a bolt of lightning. The Chumash tended and preserved the fire and used to keep warm and to cook food. The fire’s smoke attracted the watchful condor, until then all-white, who was blackened with soot when he got too close, giving him the appearance he has today. The Chumash grew in number and the noise of their singing and dancing began to annoy Hutash, who created a rainbow bridge to the mainland between the island of Limuw and Tzchimoos, a tall mountain near Mishopshno (now Carpinteria) so that the Chumash could spread out and Hutash could enjoy some peace and quiet. While crossing the bridge, some of the Chumash fell into the ocean and were turned into dolphins, which were traditionally therefore regarded as the Chumash’s kin.
“When animals were still people, the boys would spend all their time trying to climb a smooth pole in order to see who could do it best, and Centipede always won for he was very good at it. Finally the other boys began to get angry because Centipede was always the winner, and one day they complained to old man Coyote. He agreed to remedy the situation, and after it had gotten dark and everybody in the village was asleep, he went and placed his takulsoxinas, his downy cord, around the base of the pole. [This was a shaman’s magical string, woven with precious puffs of fluffy woodpecker down, like a feather boa.]
The first Chumash people were created on Santa Cruz Island. They made from seeds of a Magic Plant by the Earth Goddess, whose name was Hutash. Hutash was married to the Sky Snake (the Milky Way). He could make lightning bolts with his tongue. One day, he decided to make a gift to the Chumash people. He sent down a bolt of lightning, and this started a fire. After this, people kept fires burning so that they could keep warm, and so that they could cook their food. In those days, the Condor was a white bird. But the Condor was very curious about the fire he saw burning in the Chumash village.He wanted to find out what it was. So he flew very low over the fire to get a better look. But he flew too close; he got his feathers scorched and they turned black. So now the Condor is a black bird, with just a little white left under the wings where they didn’t get burned. After Sky Snake gave them fire, the Chumash people lived more comfortably. More people were born each year, and their villages got bigger and bigger. Santa Cruz Island was getting crowded. And the noise the people made was starting to annoy Hutash. It kept her awake at night. So, finally, she decided that some of the Chumash would have to move off the island. They would have to go to the mainland, where there weren’t any people living in thos days. But how were the people going to get across the water to the mainland? Finally, Hutash had the idea of making a bridge out of a rainbow. She made a very long, very high rainbow, which stretched from the tallest peak on Santa Cruz Island all the way to the tall mountains near Carpinteria. Hutash told the people to go across the Rainbow Bridge, and fill the whole world with people. So the Chumash people started to go across the bridge. Some of them got across safely, but some of them made the mistake of looking down. It was a long way down to the water, and the fog was swirling around. They got so dizzy that some of them fell off the Rainbow Brodge, down, down, through the fog, into the ocean. Hutash felt very badly about this, beacause she had told them to cross the bridge. She didn’t want them to drown. Instead, she turned them into dolphins. So the Chumash always said that dolphins were their brothers.
This Chumash creation story describes the island birthplace of the people, and how they crossed to the mainland via a Rainbow Bridge. Hutash, the Earth Mother, created the first Chumash people on the island of Limuw, now known as Santa Cruz Island. They were made from the seeds of a Magic Plant. To create the Chumash people, Earth Mother Hutash buried the seeds of a magical plant on Limuw (“in the sea”), now known as Santa Cruz Island, in the Santa Barbara Channel. The people sprung full grown from the plant, both men and women to inhabit the island. Seeing that the people were cold, Hutash’s husband Alchupo’osh, Sky Snake (the Milky Way), decided to give Hutash’s people a gift. Using his tongue to send a bolt of lightning, he started a fire. The people tended the fire and kept it burning so they could stay warm and cook their food.
Chumash and Gabrielino-Tongva Peoples
Anthropologist have written that there were 20,000 Chumash living in an area that covers California’s coast from Malibu in the South, to San Luis Obispo in the North at the time of European occupation. The successful livelihood of the Chumash people was based upon subsistence upon the available natural resources – plants, animals and fish, and their sustainable ways of utilizing these resources. The ancestors found uses for almost every type of plant and animal available – for food, clothing, medicine, baskets, canoes, and tools. The natural environment inspired art (Chumash rock and cave art still exists today), beliefs, stories, ceremonies and songs. The rich history and lifeways of the Chumash people is preserved in those art forms, which were passed down to the children of each generation to today.
The Chumash are a maritime culture, known as hunters and gatherers. Our boats – canoes, called tomols – enabled abundant fishing and trade, traveling up and down the coast to other villages. Tomols are usually constructed from redwood or pine logs. Chumash people were not dependent upon farming, as were other Native American tribes. Acorns, seeds, bulbs, roots and nuts were seasonal staples, as was wild game, including bears, seals, otters, shellfish, deer and rabbits. Chumash homes called ‘ap ‘ap, are constructed of local plant materials. Baskets and mats are woven, and bones and plants were and still are used for tools and clothing. The Chumash learned to be extremely innovative and resourceful, and found uses for everything that was available, including each part of almost every plant.
CHUMASH CHANNEL
Sacred Sites of the Chumash Indians
They say that before the appearance of two leggeds, the rocks, plants and animals were the people of the world. They even talked like people. The world was a harmonious place in those early days of creation. Each morning when people woke they would consider their good fortune and say “Thank you.” They would stop to admire Grandfather Sun rise in the morning, giving appreciation for another day of living and loving. They went about offering the gifts they had been given, helping each other. They respected each other’s differences, and learned from them. They only took from the Mother Earth on an as needed basis, never wasting anything. People always stopped to watch Grandfather Sun go to bed and were grateful when Grandmother Moon arrived to shine her soft moonbeams upon them. Each night, before sleep, they would count their blessings again, and say “Thank you.” Those early days of peaceful world coexistence lasted many, many moons.
Indigenous Peoples Literature 