Prior to European contact (pre-1542)

Indigenous peoples have lived along the California coast for at least 11,000 years.^[6] Sites of the Millingstone Horizon date from 7000 to 4500 BC and show evidence of a subsistence system focused on the processing of seeds with metates and manos.^[7]

During that time, people used bipointed bone objects and line to catch fish and began making beads from shells of the marine olive snail (Callianax biplicata).^[8] The name Chumash means "bead maker" or "seashell people" being that they originated near the Santa Barbara coast. The Chumash tribes near the coast benefited most with the "close juxtaposition of a variety of marine and terrestrial habitats, intensive upwelling in coastal waters, and intentional burning of the landscape made the Santa Barbara Channel region one of the most resource abundant places on the planet."^[9]

While droughts were not uncommon in the centuries of the first millennium AD, a population explosion occurred with the coming of the medieval warm period. "Marine productivity soared between 950 and 1300 as natural upwelling intensified off the coast."^[10] Before the mission period, the Chumash lived in over 150 independent villages, speaking variations of the same language. Much of their culture consisted of basketry, bead manufacturing and trading, cuisine of local abalone and clam, herbalism using local herbs to produce teas and medical reliefs, rock art, and the scorpion tree.^[11]

The scorpion tree was significant to the Chumash, as shown in its arborglyph: a carving depicting a six-legged creature with a headdress including a crown and two spheres. The shamans participated in the carving which was used in observations of the stars and in part of the Chumash calendar.^[9] The Chumash resided between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the California coasts where a bounty of resources could be found. The tribe lived in an area of three environments: the interior, the coast, and the Northern Channel Islands.^[12]

The interior is composed of the land outside the coast and spanning the wide plains, rivers, and mountains. The coast covers the cliffs, land close to the ocean, and the areas of the ocean from which the Chumash harvested. The Northern Channel Islands lie off the coast of the Chumash territory. All of the California coastal-interior has a Mediterranean climate due to the incoming ocean winds.^[13]

The mild temperatures, save for winter, made gathering easy; during the cold months, the Chumash harvested what they could and supplemented their diets with stored foods. What villagers gathered and traded during the seasons changed depending on where they resided.^[14] With coasts populated by masses of species of fish and land densely covered by trees and animals, the Chumash had a diverse array of food.

Abundant resources and a winter rarely harsh enough to cause concern meant the tribe lived a sedentary lifestyle in addition to a subsistence existence. Villages in the three aforementioned areas contained remains of sea mammals, indicating that trade networks existed for moving materials throughout the Chumash territory.^[15][16] The Chumash were connected to extensive trade networks reaching into modern-day Arizona, from which pottery and textiles were traded in exchange for shell beads.^[17] The emergence of this trade network within the Chumash territory was facilitated by the existence of three distinct Chumash ecological groups including the island, coastal, and mainland Chumash. Access to distinct resources for these different groups made inter-Chumash trade a large part of life. Villages along the mainland coast emerged as intermediaries between groups.^[18]

The closer a village was to the ocean, the greater its reliance on maritime resources.^[19][20] Due to advanced canoe designs, coastal and island people could procure fish and aquatic mammals from farther out. Shellfish were a good source of nutrition: relatively easy to find and abundant. Many of the favored varieties grew in tidal zones.^[21] Shellfish grew in abundance during winter to early spring; their proximity to shore made collection easier. Some of the consumed species included mussels, abalone, and a wide array of clams. Haliotis rufescens (red abalone) was harvested along the Central California coast in the pre-contact era.^[22] The Chumash and other California Indians also used red abalone shells to make a variety of fishhooks, beads, ornaments, and other artifacts.

Ocean animals such as otters and seals were thought to be the primary meal of coastal tribes people, but recent evidence shows the aforementioned trade networks exchanged oceanic animals for terrestrial foods from the interior. Any village could acquire fish, but the coastal and island communities specialized in catching not just smaller fish, but also the massive catches such as swordfish.^[23] This feat, difficult even for today's technology, was made possible by the tomol plank canoe. Its design allowed for the capture of deepwater fish, and it facilitated trade routes between villages.^[23]

Some researchers believe that the Chumash may have been visited by Polynesians between AD 400 and 800, nearly 1,000 years before Christopher Columbus reached the Americas.^[24] The Chumash advanced sewn-plank canoe design, used throughout Polynesia but unknown in North America except by those two tribes, is cited as the chief evidence for contact. Comparative linguistics may provide evidence as the Chumash word for "sewn-plank canoe", tomolo'o, may have been derived from kumula'au, the Polynesian word for the redwood logs used in that construction. However, the language comparison is generally considered tentative. Furthermore, the development of the Chumash plank canoe is fairly well represented in the archaeological record and spans several centuries.^[25][26] The concept is rejected by most archaeologists who work with the Chumash culture, and there is no evidence of a genetic legacy.^[27]

Before contact with Europeans, coastal Chumash relied less on terrestrial resources than they did on maritime; vice versa for interior Chumash.^[28] Regardless, they consumed similar land resources. Like many other tribes, deer were the most important land mammal the Chumash pursued; deer were consumed in varying amounts across all regions, which cannot be said for other terrestrial animals. Interior Chumash placed greater value on the deer, to the extent of developing unique hunting practices for them.

They dressed as deer and grazed alongside the animals until the hunters were in range to use their arrows.^[28] Even Chumash close to the ocean pursued deer, though in fewer numbers. The villages also relied on smaller animals, such as rabbits and birds, to supplement their meat needs. Plant foods composed the rest of the Chumash diet, especially acorns, which were the staple food despite the work needed to remove their inherent toxins. They could be ground into a paste that was easy to eat and store for years.^[29] Coast live oak provided the best acorns; their mush would usually be served unseasoned with meat and fish.^[30]

Spanish/Mexican era (1542–1846)

The maritime explorer Juan Cabrillo was the first European to make contact with the coastal Alta Californian tribes in the year 1542.^[31] Cabrillo died and was buried on San Miguel Island, but his men brought back a diary that contained the names and population counts for many Chumash villages, such as Mikiw. Spain claimed what is now California from that time forward, but did not return to settle until 1769, when the first Spanish soldiers and missionaries arrived with the double purpose of Christianizing the Native Americans and facilitating Spanish colonization. By the end of 1770, missions and military presidios had been founded at San Diego to the south of Chumash lands and Monterey to their north.^[32]

With the arrival of the Europeans "came a series of unprecedented blows to the Chumash and their traditional lifeways. Anthropologists, historians, and other scholars have long been interested in documenting the collision of cultures that accompanied the European exploration and colonization of the Americas."^[9] In 1770, Spain settled in Chumash territory. They founded colonies, bringing in missionaries to begin evangelizing Native Americans in the region by forcing Chumash villages into numerous missions that emerged along the coast.

The Chumash people moved from their villages to the Franciscan missions between 1772 and 1817. Mission San Luis Obispo, established in 1772, was the first mission in Chumash-speaking lands, as well as the northernmost of the five missions ever constructed in those lands. Next established, in 1782, was Mission San Buenaventura on the Pacific Coast near the mouth of the Santa Clara River. Mission Santa Barbara, also on the coast, and facing out to the Channel Islands, was established in 1786.

Mission La Purisima Concepción was founded along the inland route from Santa Barbara north to San Luis Obispo in 1789. The final Franciscan mission to be constructed in native Chumash territory was Santa Ynez, founded in 1804 on the Santa Ynez River with a seed population of Chumash people from Missions La Purisima and Santa Barbara. To the southeast, Mission San Fernando, founded in 1798 in the land of Takic Shoshonean speakers, also took in large numbers of Chumash speakers from the middle Santa Clara River valley. While most of the Chumash people joined one mission or another between 1772 and 1806, a significant portion of the native inhabitants of the Channel Islands did not move to the mainland missions until 1816.^[33]

Radiocarbon dating of artifacts on the southernmost of the Channel Islands, San Clemente Island, suggests that the Chumash people lived without significant contact from Spanish settlers and missionaries until the 1870’s. This island shows a clear lack of Spanish influence on its archaeology up until this point. Because of its remoteness, it was perhaps the last Chumash area to be colonized.^[34]

Mexico achieved independence from Spain in 1821, but the mission system remained. Tribespeople continued to be relocated to missions, often forcibly, and many fled into the interior to avoid virtual enslavement in the mission system. The Mexican Secularization Act of 1833 seized control of the missions, and tribespeople still living at the missions were freed by 1840. Many, however, continued highly exploitative work on the large privately-owned ranches created from the former mission-controlled lands.

American era (1846–present)

After the United States seized control of the area in 1846, in the Mexican-American War, most remaining Chumash land was lost to Americans amid a declining population, due to the effects of violence, disease, and anti-indigene California laws.

The remaining Chumash began to lose their cohesive identity. In 1855, a small piece of land (120 acres) was set aside for just over 100 remaining Chumash Indians near Santa Ynez mission. This land ultimately became the only Chumash reservation, although Chumash individuals and families also continued to live throughout their former territory in southern California. Today, the Santa Ynez band lives at and near Santa Ynez. The Chumash population had been between roughly 10,000 and 18,000 in the late 18th century, but in 1990, only 213 Indians lived on the Santa Ynez Reservation.^[35]

The Chumash reservation, established in 1901, encompasses 127 acres. No native Chumash speak their own language since Mary Yee, the last Barbareño speaker, died in 1965. Today, the Chumash are estimated to have a population of 5,000 members. Many current members can trace their ancestors to the five islands of Channel Islands National Park.

Beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the phenomenon of the neo-Chumash arose, with some descendants of early Spanish and Mexican Californio settlers in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo counties starting to claim a Chumash identity around this time period. They promoted traditions of the Chumash, and are recognized by some local governments and universities, but their assertion of Chumash identity has been criticized by others, including anthropologists.^[36] Genealogical research has found little verifiable evidence of Chumash ancestry in families identifying as neo-Chumash, finding that they mainly descend from Californio settlers with varying Spanish, Mestizo, or Indigenous Mexican ancestors, with only a small portion of families having possible distant Chumash ancestors. According to SUNY anthropologist Brian D. Haley, modern day heritage groups considered to be “neo-Chumash” include the Quabajai Chumash Association, Brotherhood of the Tomol, and the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation. According to Haley, the Chumash identity asserted by Neo-Chumash is generally rejected by members of the established Santa Ynez, Barbareño, Ventureño, and San Luis Obispo Chumash bands.^[37]

The first modern tomol was built and launched in 1976 as a result of a joint venture between Quabajai Chumash of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Its name is Helek/Xelex, the Chumash word for falcon. The Brotherhood of the Tomol was revived and her crew paddled and circumnavigated around the Santa Barbara Channel Islands on a 10-day journey, stopping on three of the islands. The second tomol, the Elye'wun ("swordfish"), was launched in 1997.

On September 9, 2001, the first "crossing" in the Chumash tomol, from the mainland to Channel Islands, was sponsored by the Chumash Maritime Association and the Barbareño Chumash Council. Several Chumash bands and descendants gathered on the island of Limuw (the Chumash name for Santa Cruz Island) to witness the Elye'wun being paddled from the mainland to Santa Cruz Island.

Their journey was documented in the short film "Return to Limuw" produced by the Ocean Channel for the Chumash Maritime Association, Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, and the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum. The channel crossings have become a yearly event hosted by the Barbareño Chumash Council. The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash is a federally recognized Chumash tribe. They have the Santa Ynez Reservation located in Santa Barbara County, near Santa Ynez. Chumash people are also enrolled in the Tejon Indian Tribe of California.

In addition to the Santa Ynez Band, the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation and the Barbareño/Ventureño Band of Mission Indians are attempting to gain federal recognition. Other Chumash tribal groups include the Northern Chumash Tribal Council, descendants from the San Luis Obispo area, and the Barbareño Chumash Council, descendants from the greater Santa Barbara area. The publication of the first Chumash dictionary took place in April 2008. Six hundred pages long and containing 4,000 entries, the Samala-English Dictionary includes more than 2,000 illustrations.^[38] The documentary film 6 Generations: A Chumash Family History features Mary Yee, the last speaker of the Barbareño Chumash language.^[39]

Cosmology and astronomy

The Chumash cosmology is also centered around astronomy. Rock art and arborglyphs that have been found within Chumash sites are thought to have depicted Polaris (the North Star) and Ursa Major (the Big Dipper). Specialists Rex Saint-Onge, John R. Johnson, and Joseph R. Talaugon argues in their article Archaeoastronomical Implications of a Northern Chumash Arborglyph that these two astrological entities were paramount to the Chumash belief system as well as their perception of time. It is believed that the Chumash used these constellations to determine what time of the year it was depending on the position of Ursa Major around Polaris.^[47]

Basketry

Anthropologists have long collected Chumash baskets. Two of the largest collections are at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and the Musée de l'Homme (Museum of Mankind) in Paris. The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History is believed to have the largest collection of Chumash baskets.

Bead manufacture and trading

The Chumash of the Northern Channel Islands were at the center of an intense regional trade network. Beads made from Callianax shells were manufactured on the Channel Islands and used as a form of currency by the Chumash.^[60] Shell beads were not just a form of currency, they also played a vital role in the Chumash social system. The beads exchanges helped people build social networks, and accumulated wealth outside of food resources. This allowed the Chumash people to minimize the risk of food shortages in their tribe and were able to fall back on durable beads and their existing friends in other communities. Chumash chiefs and elite members were responsible with the redistribution of the shell beads, subsistence goods, and other items.^[61]

These shell beads were traded to neighboring groups and have been found throughout Alta California. Some items that were traded by the Chumash from the island to the Chumash mainland tribes included shell beads, digging stick weights (stone rings),^[62] and steatite Lolas (stone bowl) which originates mainly from Santa Catalina Island. The mainland tribes would in return export seeds, acorns, bows and arrows, fur, skin, roots, and baskets to the island. There was also trade from the mainland and inland areas whose items consisted of fish and beads. The interior citizens would trade fish, game, seeds, fruit, and fox-skin shawls to the coast. Fernando Librado (Chumash Elder) mentions that all the trade transactions took place on the mainland due to the location since it was between the island and the interior.^[63]

Over the course of late prehistory, millions of shell beads were manufactured and traded from Santa Cruz Island. It has been suggested that exclusive control over stone quarries used to manufacture the drills needed in bead production could have played a role in the development of social complexity in Chumash society.^[60]

The bead-making industry involved two distinct craft specializations: the production of tools used to make beads and the actual manufacturing of the beads themselves.^[64] Central to this industry was chert, a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock. The Chumash crafted small flakes of chert into microblades, which were essential for their bead production. These microblades were then used to create drills, the tools necessary for making holes in shells, transforming them into beads. Thus, chert microlithic tools played a crucial role in the bead-making process.^[65]

The regional diversity present within the Chumash territory spawned an intricate trade system connecting the island, coastal, and mainland groups. The villages of Xaxas and Muwu emerged as the most important trade hubs for the Chumash people. Their positioning relative to coastal and mainland trade routes and resources made these villages particularly powerful within the Chumash trade ecosystem.^[66]

Cuisine, foodways, and subsistence

Foods historically consumed by the Chumash include several marine species, such as black abalone, the Pacific littleneck clam, red abalone, the bent-nosed clam, ostrea lurida oysters, angular unicorn snails,^[67] and the butternut clam.^[68] Acorns, an important plant food, were ground up and cooked into a soup.^[69] They also made flour from the dried fruits of the laurel sumac.^[70] Highly prized seafood such as swordfish were caught through the use of plank canoes and were likely shared by chiefs during communal feasts.^[71]

Feasts are a ritual activity of communal consumption of large quantities of food and drinks along with dances, music, and singing. They played a large role in political and social relations for the Chumash people. The feasts would be prepared over many days, mostly by women, and would coincide with major events such as childbirth, marriages, and chiefs’ birthdays. There are accounts of feasts being held for European expeditions passing through Chumash territories.^[72]

During the time of Spanish colonialism, some diets of the Chumash people living on mission sites shifted to include European plants and animals. Evidence has been found that more sheep and cattle were consumed during the 19th century. Traditional hunting and fishing practices were still maintained alongside the addition of European livestock.^[73]

There is evidence to suggest that a seafaring, fishing economy in the Channel Islands has been around for at least 12,000 years. This can be seen through various types of fishing projectile points as well as animal remains such as seal, shellfish, and fish all found at sites across the islands by archaeologists and researchers. Coastal people of California have been maintaining their food practices in various ways for a very long time.^[74]

Herbalism

Herbs used in traditional Chumash medicine include thick-leaved yerba santa, used to keep airways open for proper breathing;^[75] laurel sumac, the root bark of which was used to make a herbal tea for treating dysentery;^[70] and black sage, the leaves and stems were made into a strong sun tea. This was rubbed on the painful area or used to soak one's feet. The plant contains diterpenoids, such as aethiopinone and ursolic acid, which are known pain relievers.^[76]

The Chumash formerly practiced an initiation rite involving the use of sacred datura (mo'moy in their language). When a boy was 8 years old, his mother would give him a preparation of it to drink. This was supposed to be a spiritual challenge to help him develop the spiritual well-being required to become a man. Not all of the boys survived the poison.^[77]

Rock art

Remains of a developed Chumash culture, including rock paintings apparently depicting the Chumash cosmology, such as Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park, can still be seen.

Scorpion tree

A centuries-old oak tree in California is considered to have a Chumash arborglyph, a carving of a six-legged creature with a headdress including a crown and two spheres. Previously thought to have been carved by cowboys, it was visited in 2007 by paleontologist Rex Saint Onge, who identified the three-foot carving as being of Chumash origin and related to other Chumash cave paintings in California. Further studies have led Saint Onge to believe these are not simply the work of Chumash, but by Chumash shamans who were conscious observers of the stars, and used these carvings to calibrate the Chumash calendar.^[78]