Chumash

Name

The name Chumash (pronounced CHOO-mash) may have come from the word the tribe used to refer to the inhabitants of one of the Santa Barbara Channel Islands. The people called themselves “the first people,” although many tribal elders today say that Chumash means “bead maker” or “seashell people.” The Spanish used the name “Chumash” to refer to every group of Native Americans living on these islands and along the southern coast of California. The Chumash are sometimes called the Santa Barbara Indians.

Location

The Chumash used to occupy lands stretching along 200 miles (322 kilometers) of southern California coastline, plus four of the Santa Barbara Channel Islands: Anacapa, San Miguel, Santa Rosa, and Santa Cruz. Their total territory at the time of European contact comprised about 7,000 square miles (18,130 square kilometers), ranging from San Luis Obispo to Malibu Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains outside Los Angeles. In the late 1990s the Chumash owned only Santa Ynez Reservation in Santa Ynez, California, located about 32 miles (52 kilometers) north of Santa Barbara and 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Pacific Ocean. It is only about 75 acres with a small, but growing, population. Many Chumash in the early twenty-first century live in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and other southern California cities.

Population

In 1770 between ten thousand and twenty-two thousand Chumash people were known to exist. In 1920 the number had dwindled to 74. In 1972 there were 1,925 persons of Chumash descent. In the 1990 U.S. Census, 3,114 people identified themselves as Chumash and 94 said they were Santa Ynez Chumash. The 2000 census showed 3,758 Chumash lived in the United States, while 7,056 people claimed some Chumash heritage. The Santa Ynez Reservation was home to 122 people in 2000; tribal sources indicated that there were 283 people living there in 2004.

Language family

Hokan.

Origins and group affiliations

The ancestors of the Chumash people are believed by scientists to have migrated across the ancient Bering Land Bridge connecting Siberia (Russia) to Alaska between twelve thousand and twenty-seven thousand years ago. Chumash creation stories, however, tell of a more local origin.

There were at least six groups of Chumash; five were given the names of the Catholic missions founded in their territory beginning in the 1700s. The largest group was called the Ynezeño. Little is known about the sixth group, the Interior Chumash.

For thousands of years the Chumash sailed up and down the California coast in brightly painted cedar-plank boats that in modern times are considered marvels of engineering. They fished in the ocean and visited and traded with tribes in faraway places. After suffering at the hands of Spanish Catholic missionaries and Mexican and American settlers, the tribe was thought to have become extinct. Chumash descendants, however, have succeeded in keeping their culture alive. They have done so quietly, hoping to retain their privacy and protect sacred artifacts from vandals and land developers. The tribe has also made great strides economically as well and, in doing so, they continue to practice ‘amuyich, the spirit of generosity, which is an important part of their traditional way of life. Millions in casino profits have gone to better the surrounding community.

History

Chumash territory has been inhabited for at least 9,000 years. Archaeologists (scientists who study the remains of ancient cultures) speculate that the Chumash had assumed control of what is now southern California by about 1000. Once one of the largest Native groups in California, the tribe carried on a lively business with its neighbors, trading soapstone (a carvable soft stone made into articles such as pipes and bowls), acorns, shells, beads, fish, and other items for animal skins, herbs, seeds, and nuts. Archaeologists have unearthed remnants of these trade objects many miles from Chumash territory, so the Chumash people evidently engaged in trade far from their homes. There are theories that the early Chumash groups of hunter-gatherers all moved together for support during a drought. The confederacy then developed an organized and complex political and economic system. But the Spanish, Mexicans, and Americans who invaded Chumash lands did not record any information about the tribe’s way of life. By the time people showed interest in the group’s pre-contact society, there were few Chumash left who remembered the old ways.

The Chumash Indians were prosperous at the time Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo (died 1543), a Portuguese commander sailing for Spain, first made contact with them. He sailed along the Santa Barbara Coast in 1542, leading a small fleet of Spanish ships. Cabrillo was searching for riches and a northwest passage through North America when he happened upon the Chumash, a friendly, peaceful people said to be the first group of Native Californians ever encountered by Europeans.

The Chumash greeted Cabrillo in canoes carrying generous gifts. Cabrillo claimed the area for Spain, but left without establishing a settlement. Sixty years later, in 1602, Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno (1548–1624) sailed through Chumash waters and named Santa Barbara Bay in honor of Saint Barbara’s birthday as he looked for a port. For the next 160 years the Chumash thrived and had no further visits from Europeans.

Important Dates

1000–1804: The Chumash people and other California Indians use shell money.

1542: The Chumash are the first California tribe to encounter Europeans.

1772: The first of the Spanish Catholic missions in Chumash territory is built at San Luis Obispo.

1824: In the Great Chumash Revolt led by Pacomio, two thousand Native Americans rise against missionaries, holding the mission for about a month before being forced to surrender.

1855: Land is set aside near Santa Ynez Mission for a reservation.

1901: The Santa Ynez Band is officially recognized by the federal government.

1978: Chumash Indians agree to end their three-day protest at the site of an ancient burial ground.

Spanish missions

Spain already had a huge empire in North America. By the sixteenth century Spanish colonizers had laid claim to a vast expanse of land in what is now the state of California. Over the next two hundred years Russian and British adventurers arrived in the area, threatening Spain’s hold on the territory. To protect their claim, the Spanish constructed missions—combinations of a fort, a plantation, and a religious center—in California in 1769.

The Spanish government embarked on a program of “Europeanization,” teaching Native Americans the Spanish language and making them into “useful” citizens. Catholic priests (padres) assisted in establishing the missions. The priests, who had their own goal of converting the Natives to the Catholic religion, directed the construction of the missions, using unpaid, and later forced, Native American labor.

The first of the Spanish Catholic missions in Chumash territory was built in 1772 at San Luis Obispo. In all, twenty-one missions were constructed in California, five of them in Chumash territory. The missions became forced labor camps for the Native population. By the time the mission system came to an end more than sixty years later, the Chumash economy had been virtually destroyed and their culture critically disrupted.

Becoming “Mission Indians”

The Spanish introduced livestock to Chumash territory. The cattle and other animals destroyed local plant life, greatly reducing the food supply. Game animals dependent upon the plants became scarce. With their way of life disrupted, the Chumash were drawn into the colonial economy out of necessity. Some of them sought refuge at the missions after a serious earthquake in 1812. By 1824 all of the Channel Islands Chumash had been coaxed into the mission system. Spanish soldiers sometimes kidnapped those who did not join the missions and forced them into it. The Chumash and other tribes who belonged to the missions are often referred to as Mission Indians.

Native Americans who converted to Christianity and were baptized into the Catholic faith were called neophytes (pronounced NEE-oh-fites; beginners). Because Spanish law required that neophytes live near the missions, these Native Americans had to leave their villages and live in camps outside the missions.

At age five or six Chumash children were taken from their families and forced to live in barracks that were filthy and disease-ridden. At the mission they attended religious services, performed physical labor without pay, and were trained in carpentry, agriculture, and other occupations the Spanish considered useful. Chumash parents could do little to change things because men, women, and children were beaten, imprisoned, and sentenced to harsh physical labor for disobeying the missionaries.

Mexican control

In 1824 the Chumash revolted. Neophytes from several missions rose up in protest. Abandoning their own missions, they occupied La Purísima Mission for more than one month, but surrendered after an assault by Spanish troops and artillery. Several of the Chumash who led the rebellion were executed.

In 1823 Mexico gained control of present-day California. A decade later the Mexican government took over the California missions. The neophytes were freed, and some attempts were made to help them. Mexican officials promised the Native Americans land—the same land where the Chumash had hunted and built villages for thousands of years—but never delivered on the promise. Instead Mexican settlers flooded into California, hoping to obtain some of the rich and developed former mission lands for themselves.

A people divided

Between 1769, when the first mission was built, and 1832, just before the Mexicans took over, nearly two-thirds of the Chumash population died from disease and mission life. The survivors had few, if any, connections to their ancient villages and way of life. Some remained in positions as unpaid laborers under Mexican rather than Spanish control. Others scattered to find employment in Los Angeles and other towns along the coast. Some headed away from the coast and into the California interior to find new homes among other tribes. Many became rebels; they stole livestock from Mexican cattle ranches—or died trying.

In 1848 the United States took California from Mexico, and a year later gold was discovered in the area. Americans poured into California country, resulting in terrible consequences for the Natives. The Spanish and the Mexicans had used the Native Americans as slaves; the Americans wanted them out of their way. In only a few years American settlers killed thousands of California Natives, including many Chumash, through new epidemics (outbreaks of disease) and outright murder.

Reservation difficulties

In 1851 the U.S. government decided to resolve California’s Native American situation by establishing a reservation system. It originally created reservations on military reserves to protect Natives from the violence of white settlers. In reality government reserves served fewer than two thousand Native Americans at any given time. The vast majority of California Indians survived as best they could on their own.

A reservation was set aside for the Chumash in 1854, but quickly fell apart due to the corruption of its administrators. The Chumash scattered. Like other California Indians, they withdrew to remote areas away from settlers, but violence against them continued. Murder of individuals, raids by vigilantes (groups that posed as volunteer police, but went beyond the law), and even occasional army massacres took place.

It was not until 1901 that a small group of Chumash living near the former Santa Ynez Mission was finally granted 120 acres there; this amount was later reduced by almost half. The site officially became California’s smallest reservation, the Santa Ynez Chumash Reservation. Seventy-five acres was not enough land to support many people. Because the reservation provided no employment, many Chumash only lived on the reservation temporarily. They came and went, living in small groups throughout their former territory.

Because American settlers continued to mistreat Natives in California, the Chumash culture went underground (became secret). Their withdrawal led some observers to believe that the entire tribe was extinct. Although the Chumash population was reduced to a small fraction of its once great size, the group and its traditions managed to survive and were again growing in the early twenty-first century.

Religion

The Chumash believed the universe was divided into three worlds: the Sky World, the World of the People (Earth), and the Lower World (where evil beings lived). According to Chumash tradition, animals were Earth’s first creatures. When death appeared on Earth, some animals rose into the sky to escape it and turned into heavenly bodies such as the Sun, Moon, Morning Star, Evening Star, and Sky Coyote.

The Chief of the Sky People was Eagle, who held up the sky with his wings. Eclipses occurred when Eagle covered the Moon with his wings. If the Sky People became upset, terrible storms rained down on the World of the People. And if the two serpents who held up the World of the People became restless and moved, earthquakes and other disturbances would shake the Earth. Dead people journeyed through the heavenly bodies before reaching the afterworld.

A central feature of the Chumash religion was consumption of a drug called toloache, which is obtained from a plant called jimsonweed. The drug causes those who take it to go into a trancelike state and see visions. Chumash religious leaders were priest-astrologers, who could read meanings in the positions of the heavenly bodies. Under the influence of toloache, the priest-astrologers painted pictographs in sacred caves. (See “Arts.”) The exact meaning of these pictographs is not known, but they may have been attempts to communicate with the spirit world. Toloache was also consumed by sons of wealthy families as part of their training for a religious society called an antap.

Some Chumash became Catholics reluctantly and returned to their traditional religious practices when the mission system ended. Many, however, retained the Christian belief in a supreme being. Although many modern-day Chumash identify themselves as Catholic, few attend mass on a regular basis.

Language

At least six languages belonged to the Chumash language family, but the speakers were separated from each other for generations. Over time the groups lost the ability to understand each other.

Because of the heavy Spanish influence in Chumash areas during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, most Chumash spoke Spanish by the early 1900s. Their children, however, learned English in public schools. The last person known to have spoken a Chumash language died in 1965.

Chumash Words

• haku … “hello”
• he … “yes”
• ’ap … “house”
• mimi … “finger or toe”
• muhu … “horned owl”
• muhuw … “beach”
• ’alqapač … “animal”
• towič … “to go/be fast”
• uštanin … “to understand”
• ’ištanitap’ … “Please come in.”
• suk’ a pitaq? … “What did you hear?”
• kun e’ni? … “Who is this?”

Government

Under the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of 1934, tribes were encouraged to form tribal governments modeled after the U.S. system. The Chumash created a general council, composed of all members of the tribe aged 21 and over. The tribe also has an elders council, open to all members over the age of fifty. They are governed by a seven-member board, and oversee the protection and preservation of cultural resources. They also develop strong bonds with the youth in the tribe.

One arm of the government is the Business Committee, which handles the tribe’s economic growth. The Santa Ynez Gaming Commission is another branch, responsible for the casino. Committees include education, health, housing, elections, enrollment, environment, and powwows (celebrations with Native singing and dancing). Members are elected to serve on these committees. A tribal administrator and a twelve-member staff handle the finances, health and education, and environmental issues for the tribe.

Economy

Traditional economy

Before the Spanish came the Chumash economy revolved around gathering and trading activities. Each region provided different resources for the tribe. The Chumash processed and traded these materials with other groups. For example, those who lived on the islands collected shells, which they traded for grain and skins from the mainland dwellers. Tribe members shaped these shells into small disks to use as currency.

Many Native American peoples worked cooperatively, with large numbers of people in a village tending fields or hunting. The Chumash people were unique in that they developed craft specialties such as fishing or basketmaking. Experts in these specialties belonged to organizations called guilds, much like the ones that operated in Europe during the Middle Ages (c. 500–c. 1500; the period of European history between ancient times and the Renaissance).

The guild system resulted in a surplus (too much) of certain objects, so villages traded their excess goods. Guild members set prices for their goods and services. The most expensive items—those priced too high for most villagers—were purchased by the wealthiest families. Sometimes villages held fairs. Guild members set up booths at a designated marketplace, and interested customers from far and wide traveled to the market to buy and trade goods.

Poverty and recovery

After the Spanish and later the Mexicans came, the Chumash people worked as slaves for nearly one hundred years. Some Chumash later worked on ranches or farms as servants or laborers. Those who fled into the interior of California faced many hardships and struggled to find enough food to live. When the U.S. government finally set aside a tiny reservation for the Chumash, some families moved there, but there was never enough land to support many people.

By the 1990s the area surrounding the reservation had become a thriving tourist and farming region, but poverty remained a serious problem among the Chumash. Many families were headed by women (who often earned less money than men), and both women and men had to find work in nearby towns to support their families.

After the tribe opened its casino in 1994 and then turned it into the Chumash Casino Resort in 2004, the economy improved. In the early twenty-first century the resort is the largest employer in the Santa Ynez Valley, providing jobs for more than 1,500 residents. In 2004 the casino payroll exceeded $58 million. The tribe has used gaming revenues to fund tribal housing and road improvements, educational programs, and cultural activities. They have also donated millions to help the surrounding communities through their Santa Ynez Chumash Foundation.

Daily life

Families

Chumash families were large and usually consisted of a husband and wife, their married sons and their wives, their unmarried children, and other close relatives of the husband. As many as forty to seventy people lived together in the same house.

Buildings

Most Chumash built large, dome-shaped houses—some up to 50 feet (15 meters) wide. These homes were situated in long neat rows separated by narrow streets. (The Chumash who lived in the interior of California built smaller, single-family homes.) The coastal people covered their houses’ willow frames with mat shingles made of tule (pronounced TOO-lee; a cattail) or other grasses. In the center of each home smoke from the cooking fire vented through a hole in the ceiling. They divided sleeping quarters with grass mats hung from the ceiling to serve as curtains. This type of sleeping room was unusual among California tribes.

Most villages had sweathouses—secluded houses or caverns heated by steam and used for ritual cleansing, meditation, and purification. Chumash sweathouses, located partly underground, were entered through a hole in the roof. Men and women usually used separate sweathouses. Other buildings included houses for storing goods, a place for ceremonies, and another place for gambling. Villages might also contain dance grounds, game fields, and cemeteries.

Clothing and adornment

Because the climate in Chumash territory is mild, the people’s clothing was very simple. Men generally wore nothing more than a string around the waist; from it they hung tools and food. Sometimes they wrapped an animal skin around their hips if the weather was cool. If it was very cold, they might wear cloaks made from animal skins. Only the rich and powerful wore bear and other fur; an ankle-length fur cloak was a sign of a man’s high position in the village. The poor wore clothes made from grasses and shredded bark.

Women wore two aprons—a large one hung from the waist in back and a smaller one from the front. They made these of buckskin, shredded bark, or grass and hung a fringe of shells from them. Although people usually went barefoot, sometimes they wore deerskin socks or fiber sandals. Moccasins were used only on special occasions.

Some Chumash males had pierced noses and many had pierced ears; the ear holes were large enough to hold containers for carrying tobacco. For special occasions they painted their entire bodies. The paint served a practical purpose, since it acted as a sunscreen. Ceremonial costumes representing animals and birds might be made from an entire bearskin or from all the plumage taken from the giant California condor.

Food

The Coastal and Island Chumash were blessed with abundant food and water. They had to move to follow the food supplies as the seasons changed, but the moves did not take them very far. Life was harder for the Chumash who lived in the rugged California interior. For the most part, Chumash women gathered food and men hunted, but sometimes widows became hunters in order to provide for their families.

By far the most important item on the Chumash menu was acorns. The Chumash encouraged the growth of oak trees by setting fires to burn out the plants with low fire resistance. This practice also encouraged large deer populations. (Since the practice of selective burning has been abandoned in California, the state’s forests are no longer dominated by oak trees.) During acorn-gathering season, people from several Chumash villages joined forces, dividing into small groups to make sure the entire region was harvested. Acorns were then ground into flour.

The Chumash also ate nuts, wild seeds, and roots. They ate pine nuts and wild strawberries raw, ground buckeyes and chia seeds into flour, and roasted nuts from the California laurel. The people hunted the abundant deer, mule deer, elk, rabbit, squirrel, duck, and goose on their land. The rivers teemed with fish, and the ocean supplied saltwater fish, clams, mussels, abalone (a type of shellfish), crab, and crayfish. Hunters in canoes harpooned seal, sea otter, and porpoise.

Acorns: Once a California Staff of Life

Acorns were as vital to the California tribes as corn was to southern tribes. A special system was developed for processing the acorns, which were extremely bitter in their natural state and contained substances that could be toxic. (These are lost after many washings.) Acorns are high in protein and make an excellent meat substitute. According to author E. Barrie Kavasch, who offered this modern adaptation of a typical California acorn bread, these days acorn flour can be found in Korean supermarkets.

California Pathfinder Bread

• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 Tablespoon Anaheim chili pepper, roasted and finely chopped [see note]
• 1 package dry yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 Tablespoons hazelnut or sunflower seed oil
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup acorn meal flour or ground hazelnuts
• 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
• 1/2 cup fine yellow cornmeal

Pour the boiling water over the maple syrup and mix well with the chili pepper in a medium bread bowl. Let cool. Sprinkle the yeast over the mixture and stir in gently. Wait 5 minutes, sprinkle the salt over the surface of the mixture, add the oil, and stir well.

Carefully add the flours and cornmeal one at a time, stirring well with a wooden spoon until the dough begins to get thick. Turn the dough out onto a floured bread board. Knead for 5 to 10 minutes until no longer sticky, adding more flour as necessary.

Place dough in a lightly oiled bread bowl and turn it over once to make sure that the whole surface of the dough is glazed with oil. Cover with a clean towel. Let rest and rise in a warm place for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until nearly double in size.

Punch risen dough down and knead it for a short time on a clean, lightly floured dough board. Divide in half and shape into 2 oblong loaves. Place each in a warm, clean, well-oiled tin can (1-pound coffee cans are perfect) or 8-inch clay flowerpots. Cover again and allow to rest in a warm spot for another hour until double in size.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake the 2 loaves (uncovered) for about 45 minutes until the bread sounds hollow when tapped lightly on top. Breads should be a deep brown color. Remove from the oven and place on racks to cool for 10 minutes. Loosen and remove from pans or cans, then cool further on bread racks. The bread will cut best when cool, but it is so good you may want to serve it warm with hazelnut butter and fresh berry jams.

Makes 2 loaves.

[Note: Fresh hot peppers can cause severe burns. When cutting them, wear rubber gloves or plastic sandwich bags to protect your hands. Always wash your hands thoroughly when you are finished. Never rub your eyes or touch your face with fingers that have been exposed to the juices of a hot pepper.

To roast a pepper, cut it in half, remove the seeds, and place skin side up on a broiler pan. Broil 2 to 3 inches from the heat under a preheated broiler until the skin blackens. Transfer to a plastic bag using tongs, seal the bag, and let the peppers steam inside the bag for 15 to 20 minutes. Then, remove the peppers from the bag and peel off the skin.]

Kavasch, E. Barrie. Enduring Harvests: Native American Foods and Festivals for Every Season. Old Saybrook, CT: Globe Pequot Press, 1995, p. 247.

Education

Although few details are known about the education of Chumash children before the arrival of the Spanish, they probably learned mostly by observing their elders and through apprenticeships to adults. During the mission period, Native American children were taught the fundamentals of the Catholic religion. They also learned about farming, weaving, and potterymaking—trades the Spanish considered useful. The European settlers did not want to teach the Chumash to read because they feared that a young generation of educated Native Americans might become restless and dissatisfied with the mission system. In fact, teaching Native American children to read was outlawed in California until the 1920s.

The U.S. government established a school on the reservation early in the twentieth century, but it did not stay open for long. Chumash children—the majority of them speaking only broken English—later attended public schools at Santa Ynez near the reservation, where they faced racial prejudice. By the mid–1990s little more than half of the reservation population had completed high school.

With casino profits, the tribe funded educational programs intended to reverse this situation. They provide scholarships for college students. They also offer tutoring and academic mentoring to encourage students to remain in school. Vocational training programs, a computer lab, language and culture classes, and a partnership with Allan Hancock College in California offer additional opportunities for tribe members of all ages.

A new generation of Chumash people is working to save the tribe’s sacred cultural sites. They have organized special education classes where historians and archaeologists teach their methods of preservation. These classes are important to the Chumash, who wish to learn more about their ancestors and traditional ways. They also want to take control of their ancient sites, because tribal cemeteries were looted in the nineteenth century, and the artifacts were sold to art collectors.

Healing practices

The Spanish who first encountered the Chumash described them as healthy; many lived to a very old age. The person responsible for curing the sick was the shaman (medicine man; pronounced SHAH-mun or SHAY-mun). The shaman’s medical kit included herbs, charmstones (highly polished rocks believed to have great power), and a special tube for blowing or sucking out a disease-causing object. (The object might be a stone or even a small animal that the healer had brought along.) The shaman then performed a ritual that included singing and dancing over the patient. Today many people on the reservation receive dental, medical, and mental health care at the Santa Ynez Tribal Health Clinic. Others travel to Santa Barbara for medical, dental, and hospital care.

Arts

The Chumash have always had a rich artistic life. They are probably best known for their pictographs. (See “Religion.”) Historians believe these brilliantly colored images of humans, animals, and abstract circles were part of a religious ritual. The Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park near Santa Barbara preserves samples of this art.

Beautiful bowls and animal figures were carved from a type of soft stone called steatite (pronounced STEE-uh-TITE; also known as soapstone). The people made watertight fiber baskets interwoven with twine that they dyed black. Most of the baskets that survive date from the mission period; they were admired by the Spanish and are prized by museums and art collectors.

Customs

Class system

Chumash society had an upper, middle, and lower class. Shaman, priest-astrologers, and the brotherhood of the tomol (the guild that made cedar-plank canoes) belonged to the upper class. Skilled, healthy workers belonged to the middle class. The lower class consisted of people lacking special skills or those in poor health.

Festivals

Two of the most important festivals celebrated the autumn acorn harvest and the winter solstice (the longest night of the year, marking the beginning of winter). Other ceremonies honored animals, the First Beings. Men and women applied body paint for these occasions, played flutes and whistles, and scattered seeds. Descendants of the Chumash host several annual festivals; at some, they still perform the ancient Crane Dance, the Blackbird Dance, the Dolphin Dance, and the Bear Dance.

Although powwows were not originally part of Chumash culture, in modern times the people hold an annual one to introduce others to their culture. The powwow is a celebration that includes singing and dancing, as well as other activities. One tradition the tribe has revived is the Santa Barbara Channel Island crossing. Tribe members paddle a tomol, the plank canoe used by their ancestors. A trip in 2005 was only the third time in more than 150 years that the journey had been undertaken. The people see this as a way to reconnect with their heritage.

War and hunting rituals

The Chumash did not wage war often, but if a conflict could not be avoided, they would sometimes hold a mock battle. The opposing sides—dressed in full war costume—lined up facing one another. Taking turns, one member from each side shot an arrow at the other side. When one person was killed, the battle was over.

Before a hunt, men purified themselves in the sweathouse. Some Chumash hunters even slept in the sweathouse because sexual contact with women was believed to diminish a man’s hunting abilities. The hunters rubbed their bodies with special substances to disguise their natural human scent. To keep from frightening deer, they wore deerskin headdresses and horns and made movements like those of a deer as they approached their prey.

Puberty

As Chumash girls approached puberty, they had to observe certain rules, one of which was refraining from consuming meat and grease. Both boys and girls celebrated reaching puberty by taking toloache, a drug that sent them into a trance, where they encountered their guardian spirit (see “Religion”).

Marriage

An ordinary Chumash man chose his bride from his own village or one nearby. A wealthy man might choose a bride from a faraway village; by forming such a relationship, he helped ensure a large and united Chumash nation.

Except for the chief and his assistants, Chumash men had only one wife. After a wedding ceremony highlighted by much singing and dancing, the couple moved into the home of the groom’s family.

Birth

When a pregnant Chumash woman began to feel contractions, she would dig a pit on the exact spot where she stood when the first pain came; then she would lie down in the pit. The woman went through the labor and delivery without physical help, but with a shaman present. After giving birth the mother immediately broke her infant’s nose bone because a flat nose was considered attractive. The child was named by the shaman, who consulted the stars and heavenly bodies for inspiration. Shaman and priests could be either men or women.

Death rituals

The Chumash were extremely respectful of the dead. After several mourners sat overnight by the body of the deceased person, it was carried to the cemetery, which was considered a sacred place. Mourners gathered and smoked tobacco, sang, and cried. Then the body was buried face down. Sometimes a pole was placed atop the grave. From it hung objects that had special meaning to the dead person (such as fishing gear for a fisherman). If the dead person were important enough, his pole was painted. If he were especially important, he might be burned along with his entire house. The Chumash still observe the custom of burning a dead person’s possessions. Every few years a ceremony is held to honor the souls of all the dead.

Current tribal issues

Efforts to keep the Chumash culture alive have been hampered by technicalities. Only the Chumash who live on the reservation are recognized by the federal government. The government will only recognize the rights of and give aid to federally recognized tribes. But the small size of the Chumash people’s reservation allows only fifty to one hundred people to live there at any one time. Off-reservation Chumash have formed groups to preserve and maintain their culture, but they have not been successful in obtaining federal recognition.

Preserving sacred sites against vandals and land developers is a constant concern for the Chumash. In the 1800s,Chumash cemeteries were raided, and many of the artifacts in them were sold to museums and art collectors. A major effort to preserve sacred sites occurred in May 1978; about twenty-five Chumash began a three-day protest at the site of an ancient burial ground where utility companies wanted to construct a billion-dollar facility to hold liquefied natural gas. The plant was never constructed. An agreement was worked out in which the tribe was granted access to the area for religious practices. The tribe was also granted the right to have six tribal members on hand when any future digging took place in former or current Chumash territory.

In the mid-2000s the tribe’s planned casino expansions posed a problem for some members of nearby communities. In spite of Chumash generosity to the surrounding areas (they have given millions of dollars to support off-reservation projects), groups protested the casino’s proposed new additions, claiming that the reservation and casino are a drain on the area’s economy.

Notable people

Pacomio (José) Poqui (c. 1794–1844) was a Mission Indian raised and educated as a carpenter at La Purísima Mission. Unhappy with the way his people were being treated by the Spanish, he helped lead a group of two thousand Native Americans against the missionaries in an 1824 uprising. The Native Americans held the mission for about a month before being forced to surrender. Although he was sentenced to ten years’ labor at a local prison, it is believed that Pacomio was allowed to live out the remainder of his life in Monterey, California.

F. L. Kitsepawit (c. 1804–1915) was born into a leading family in a Chumash town in what is now Santa Cruz, California. As a young man he lived in the mission at Ventura, where he was not able to speak his native language. Later, like other Chumash, he lived in remote areas, working as a ranchhand and carpenter. Kitsepawit worked with John Harrington, a linguist (someone who studies languages) and ethnohistorian (someone who studies the cultures of different groups) from the Smithsonian Institution to record many details about Chumash culture remembered from his childhood. It is in part thanks to him that some of the traditions, history, and language were brought back to the Chumash people.

Bial, Raymond. The Chumash. New York: Benchmark Books, 2004.

Gibson, Karen Bush. The Chumash: Seafarers of the Pacific Coast. Mankato, MN: Bridgestone Books, 2004.

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Sonneborn, Liz. The Chumash. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications, 2007.

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Edward D. Castillo (Cahuilla-Luiseño), Native American Studies Program, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California

Laurie Edwards