Chumash people
The Chumash are a Native American people of the central and southern coastal regions of California, in portions of what is now Kern, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, extending from Morro Bay in the north to Malibu in the south to Mt Pinos in the east. Their territory includes three of the Channel Islands: Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and San Miguel; the smaller island of Anacapa was likely inhabited seasonally due to the lack of a consistent water source.[2][4]
Not to be confused with the Chuvash people.Modern place names with Chumash origins include Malibu, Nipomo, Lompoc, Ojai, Pismo Beach, Point Mugu, Port Hueneme, Piru, Lake Castaic, Saticoy, Simi Valley and Somis. Archaeological research demonstrates that the Chumash people have deep roots in the Santa Barbara Channel area and lived along the southern California coast for millennia.
Worldview[edit]
Chumash worldview is centered on the belief "that considers all things to be, in varying measure, alive, intelligent, dangerous, and sacred." According to Thomas Blackburn in December's Child: A Book of Chumash Oral Narratives published in 1980, the Chumash do not have a creation story like Tongva, Acjachemen, Quechnajuichom, and other Takic-speaking peoples. Rather, as summarized by Susan Suntree, "they assume that the universe with its three, or in some version five, layers has always been here.
Human beings occupy the middle region, which rests upon two giant snakes. Chronological time is unimportant, though the past is divided into two sections: the universal flood that caused the First People to become the natural world and, thereafter the creation of human beings, the arrival of the Europeans, and the devastating consequences that followed."[41]
The middle region (sometimes referred to as 'antap), where humans and spirits of this world live and where shamans could travel in vision quests, is interconnected with the lower world (C'oyinahsup) through the springs and marsh areas and is connected to the upper world through the mountains. In the lower world live snakes, frogs, salamanders. The world trembles or has earthquakes when the snakes which support the world writhe.
Water creatures are also in contact with the powers of the lower world and "were often depicted in rock art perhaps to bring more water to the Chumash or to appease underworld spirits' at times of hunger or disease." Itiashap is the home of the First People. Alapay is the upper world in Chumash cosmology where the "sky people" lived, who play an important role in the health of the people. Principle figures of the sky world include the Sun, the Moon, Lizard, Sky Coyote, and Eagle. The Sun is the source of life and is also "a source of disease and death."[42]
Barbareño Chumash, affiliated with the Taynayan missions and the Kashwa reservations.
Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation, their historical territory, north of Los Angeles, includes parts of the coastal counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Kern, and Ventura. The Coastal band of the Chumash Nation applied for recognition in 1981.
[44]
Cuyama Chumash, from the .
Cuyama Valley
Island Chumash, from the .
Channel Islands
Kagismuwas Chumash, from the southwesternmost region of the ancestral Chumash land. Their historical lands are now part of .
Vandenberg Space Force Base
Los Angeles Chumash, formed when members of the historic Malibu, Tejon, and Ventura bands were relocated in the 19th century.
Malibu Chumash, from the coast of Malibu. Descendants of this band can now be found among the Ventura, Coastal, Tejon, and San Fernando Valley bands.
Monterey Chumash, from the .
Monterey Peninsula
. The Santa Ynez Chumash people in 2012 went to federal court to regain more land. The Bureau of Indian Affairs approved the request; the land was to go toward tribal housing and a Chumash Museum and Cultural Center. Protesters and anti-tribal groups have spent approximately $2 million to disrupt or stop the land acquisition.[45]
Samala, or Santa Ynez Chumash
San Fernando Valley Chumash, once laborers at the . They intermarried other tribes who also worked at the mission.
Mission San Fernando Rey de España
Yak Tityu Tityu Yak Tilhini Northern Chumash, homelands from coastal to Morro Bay. They are the northwesternmost Chumash people, located in San Luis Obispo County.
Avila Beach
Tecuya Chumash, most of this band of Chumash tribe were probably Kagismuwas. This band was established as an anti-colonial group, who took residence in the Tecuya Canyon along with the Tejon Chumash.
part of the Kern County Chumash Council. Tejon is the Spanish word for "badger", and its name was given to the Tejon Rancheria.
Tejon Chumash
Ventura Chumash, lives in the traditional Chumash domain of the Owl Clan.
One Chumash band, the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Mission Indians of the Santa Ynez Reservation is a federally recognized tribe, and other Chumash people are enrolled in the federally recognized Tejon Indian Tribe. There are 14 bands of Chumash Indians.[43]
(1921–2011), former director Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, founder of the Cabrillo Whalewatch, and founding member of the American Cetacean Society[67][68]
John Olguin
Chumash activist and historian, working on reviving the Barbareño language.[75]
Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto
(October 7, 1845 - June 15, 1917), last known fluent speaker of the tiłhini language who shared cultural and linguistic information with linguist and ethnographer John P. Harrington.[78]
Rosario Cooper
(c. April 29, 1834 – September 7, 1902), a skilled basket weaver and previous figurehead of the Ventureño Chumash Community.[79]
Petra Pico
This is a list of notable Chumash people:
Albinger Archaeological Museum in Ventura – Chumash artifacts and history
in Carpinteria – cave paintings depicting Chumash life
Carpinteria State Beach
and Historical Society in Carpinteria – Chumash artifacts and history
Carpinteria Valley Museum of History
in Thousand Oaks – exhibitions of artifacts and recreation of Chumash houses
Chumash Indian Museum
in Santa Barbara – cave paintings
Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park
in San Luis Obispo – Chumash artifacts and exhibits
Hollister Adobe Museum
– place of Chumash cultural significance
Iwihinmu (Mount Pinos)
in Lompoc – displays of mission life in reconstructed buildings
La Purísima Mission State Historic Park
in Lompoc – Chumash artifacts and history
Lompoc Museum
in Los Angeles – anthropology and guided tours for Chumash natural history
Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History
Museum – Chumash artifacts and exhibits
Mission San Luis Obispo
Morro Bay Museum of Natural History – docent presentations and Chumash exhibits
– exhibits on Chumash history
Museum of Ventura County
Ojai Valley Museum and Historical Society in Ojai. Inland Chumash history.
Carrizo Plain Natural Heritage Reserve in San Luis Obispo County – cave paintings
Painted Rock
Port Hueneme Historical Society Museum in Port Hueneme - Chumash speakers (Distinguished Speaker Series) exhibit on Chumash history and artifacts
Museum in Ventura – exhibits on Chumash history
San Buenaventura Mission
– Chumash artifacts and exhibits.
San Luis Obispo County Historical Museum
Santa Barbara Historical Society in Santa Barbara. Guided tours.
in Santa Barbara. Local Chumash history and guided tours.
Santa Barbara Mission
Santa Barbara Mission Archive-Library. Records of all California mission Indians. < >
https://web.archive.org/web/20191127055954/https://www.sbmal.org/
– exhibits on Chumash Indians and natural history of Native Americans
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
– historical exhibits
Santa Barbara Presidio
– cave paintings in Olsen's Cave:[81] More than 300,000 Chumash objects have been collected in the Channel Islands,[82] which was home to 10 villages and more than 1200 Chumash residents.[83]
Santa Cruz Island
– Chumash artifacts and exhibits
San Luis Obispo County Historical Museum
in Solvang – site of an early Spanish mission
Mission Santa Inés
Santa Maria Valley Historical Society Museum – Chumash artifacts and exhibits
– cave paintings in Jones Cave. Thousands of artifacts of the island, which has been populated by the Chumash for more than 13,000 years, have been found.[84]
Santa Rosa Island
in Highland Park
Southwest Museum
– place of Chumash cultural significance
Toshololo (Frazier Mountain)
Places of significant archaeological and historical value.[80]
Burro Flats Painted Cave
Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park, California
Chumash traditional narratives
Polynesian navigation
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
Shalawa Meadow, California
Arnold, Jeanne E. (ed.) 2001. The Origins of a Pacific Coast Chiefdom: The Chumash of the Channel Islands. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Arnold, Jeanne E. (1995). "Transportation Innovation and Social Complexity among Maritime Hunter-Gatherer Societies". American Anthropologist. 97 (4): 733–747. :10.1525/aa.1995.97.4.02a00150.
doi
Brittain, A.; Evans, S.; Giroux, A.; Hammargren, B.; Treece, B.; Willis, A. (2011). "Climate action on tribal lands: A community based approach (resilience and risk assessment)". Native Communities and Climate Change. 5: 555.
Brown, Alan K. (1967). "The Aboriginal Population of the Santa Barbara Channel". University of California Archaeological Survey Reports. 69: 1–99.
Cook, Sherburne F. 1976. The Conflict between the California Indian and White Civilization. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Cook, Sherburne F. 1976. The Population of the California Indians, 1769–1970. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Coombs, G.; Plog, F. (1977). "The conversion of the chumash Indians: An ecological interpretation". Human Ecology. 5 (4): 309–328. :10.1007/bf00889174. JSTOR 4602423. S2CID 153680246.
doi
Cordero R. The Ancestors Are Dreaming Us. News From Native California [serial online]. Spring2012 2012;25(3):4–27. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed March 22, 2014.
Dartt-Newton, D.; Erlandson, J. M. (2006). "Little Choice for the Chumash: Colonialism, Cattle, and Coercion in Mission Period California". American Indian Quarterly. 30 (3/4): 416–430. :10.1353/aiq.2006.0020. S2CID 161990367.
doi
Erlandson, Jon M.; Rick, Torben C.; Kennett, Douglas J.; Walker, Philip L. (2001). "Dates, demography, and disease: Cultural contacts and possible evidence for Old World epidemics among the Island Chumash". Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly. 37 (3): 11–26.
Gamble, Lynn H. (2002). "Archaeological Evidence for the Origin of the Plank Canoe in North America". American Antiquity. 67 (2): 301–315. :10.2307/2694568. JSTOR 2694568. S2CID 163616908.
doi
Gamble, L. H., & Enki Library eBook. (2008). The chumash world at European contact (1st ed.). Us: University of California Press. Retrieved from
http://sjpl.enkilibrary.org/EcontentRecord/11197
Glassow, Michael A., Lynn H. Gamble, Jennifer E. Perry, and Glenn S. Russell. 2007. Prehistory of the Northern California Bight and the Adjacent Transverse Ranges. In California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity. Terry L. Jones and Kathryn A. Klar, editors. New York and Plymouth UK: Altamira Press.
Hogan, C. Michael. 2008. Ed. A. Burnham.
Morro Creek.
Jones, Terry L.; Klar, Kathryn A. (2005). "Diffusionism Reconsidered: Linguistic and Archaeological Evidence for Prehistoric Polynesian Contact with Southern California". American Antiquity. 70 (3): 457–484. :10.2307/40035309. JSTOR 40035309. S2CID 161301055.
doi
King, Chester D. 1991. Evolution of Chumash Society: A Comparative Study of Artifacts Used for Social System Maintenance in the Santa Barbara Channel Region before A.D. 1804. New York and London, Garland Press.
Kroeber, A. L. 1925. Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. Washington, D.C.
McLendon, Sally and John R. Johnson. 1999. Cultural Affiliation and Lineal Descent of Chumash Peoples in the Channel Islands and the Santa Monica Mountains. 2 volumes. Prepared for the Archeology and Ethnography Program, National Park Service by Hunter College, City University of New York and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-23228-9.
ISBN
Pritzker, Barry M. A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. 978-0-19-513877-1.
ISBN
Pritzker, Barry M. (2014). Chumash. In The American Mosaic: The American Indian Experience. Retrieved February 25, 2014, from
http://americanindian2.abc-clio.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/
Sandos J. Christianization among the Chumash: an ethnohistoric perspective. American Indian Quarterly [serial online]. Winter91 1991;15:65–89. Available from: OmniFile Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson), Ipswich, MA. Accessed March 22, 2014.
Black Gold Library System, 1997, Native Americans of the Central Coast (historic photographs). Ventura, CA, Black Gold Libraries
Hudson, D. Travis and Thomas C. Blackburn. 1982–7. The Material Culture of the Chumash Interaction Sphere Volumes I–V. Anthropological Papers No. 25-31. Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press.
Hudson, D. Travis, Thomas Blackburn, Rosario Curletti and Janice Timbrook. 1977. The Eye of the Flute: Chumash Traditional History and Ritual as Told by Fernando Librado Kitsepawit to John P. Harrington. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
Hudson, D. Travis, Janice Timbrook, and Melissa Rempe. 1977. Tomol: Chumash Watercraft as Described in the Ethnographic Notes of John P. Harrington. Anthropological Papers No. 9, edited by Lowell J. Bean and Thomas C. Blackburn. Socorro, NM: Ballena Press.
Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians
Inezeño Chumash Language Tutorial
Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation
Northern Chumash Tribal Council
Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park
Map of Chumash towns at the time of European Settlement
. Archived from the original on December 22, 2012.