All about the ancient tribes
Dress Men wore few or no clothes. Women wore tule aprons, cloaks of rabbit or otter skin, and basket hats. Both sexes painted and possibly tattooed their bodies and wore abalone shell earrings. War and Weapons Frequent combatants included Chumash and Costanoan Indians.
Originally, Chumash people didn’t wear much clothing– women wore only knee-length grass or deerskin skirts, and men usually went naked except for a ceremonial belt. Shirts were not necessary in Chumash culture, but the Chumashes sometimes wore deerskin capes or feather robes when the weather became cooler.
The Chumash house, or ‘ap, was round and shaped like half an orange. It was made by setting willow poles in the ground in a circle. The poles were bent in at the top, to form a dome. Then smaller saplings or branches were tied on crosswise.
The Chumash were skilled artisans: they made a variety of tools out of wood, whalebone, and other materials, fashioned vessels of soapstone, and produced some of the most complex basketry in native North America. The Chumash were also purveyors of clamshell-bead currency for southern California.
How do you say hello in Chumash? Cahuilla: Míyaxwe! ( pronounced “mee-yakh-way”) Chumash: Yawa! ( pronounced “yah-wah”) Cupeno: Miyaxwa! ( pronounced “mee-yakh-wa”) Hupa: He:yung! ( pronounced “hay-yung”) Karuk: Ayukii! ( pronounced “ah-yu-kee”) Diegueno: Haawka! ( Luiseno: Míyu! ( Miwok: Oppun towih? (
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.
The Chumash and Gabrielino-Tongva peoples were the first human inhabitants of the Channel Islands and Santa Monica Mountains areas. Our peoples are known to have lived here for thousands of years; numerous archaeological sites have been uncovered in the past decade some of which date to 15,000 years.
Types of Tools The Chumash had many different kinds of tools. They made bows and arrows usually for hunting. They used these bows and arrows to kill animals for food, clothing, and to make other tools. They also used spears and knives to kills animals, skin animals, clean fish, and cut things like food.
Smaller tomols were used for transportation and catching smaller fish. The Spanish invaded their lands in the late 1700’s and forced the Chumash to convert to Christianity become slave-like ‘Mission Indians’. The harsh treatment by the Spanish and then the Mexicans led to the short-lived Chumash Revolt of 1824.
Human history in California began when indigenous Americans first arrived some 13,000 years ago.
Plank canoes, called tomols, allowed the Chumash to access villages up and down the coast and to reach the Channel Islands. A tomol could carry up to 350 pounds of fish. Two important traditions among the Chumash were basket weaving and rock art. The Chumash made some of the most complex baskets in North America.
1: a member of an American Indian people of southwestern California. 2: the family of languages spoken by the Chumash people.