Chumash
History
The Chumash are a Native American people in present-day southern California that spoke at least six different languages, members of the Chumashan language family.
Geography and Climate
The Chumash occupied the region from San Luis Obispo to Malibu Canyon on the coast, and inland as far as the western edge of the San Joaquin valley. In addition to this land, they occupied the Santa Barbara Channel Islands: San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, and Anacapa. There are three different types of environments in Chumash territory: an interior, the coast, and the Northern Channel Islands. The interior includes the land outside of the coast, spanning wide plains, rivers, and mountains. The coastal area covers the cliffs and land close to the sea, and also the areas of the ocean from which the Chumash harvested resources. This area has a Mediterranean style climate due to incoming winds from the ocean. The mild temperatures year round save for winter made gathering easy.
Pre-European Contact
Native Americans have lived along the California coast for at least 13,000 years. The long habitation of humans in the Chumash region is attested by archeology and by linguistics. In California, there are two major language families (their validities are still disputed among linguists): Penutian and Hokan. The Chumashan languages have been determined to belong to neither, which may indicate that they were in southern California before the speakers of the Penutian and Hokan languages arrived (as well as those speaking languages in the vast Uto-Aztecan family). The Chumash coastal villages relied more on maritime resources, which were procured by using the tomol or plank canoes. The Chumash living inland would rely more on terrestrial resources. Deer was the most important land mammal pursued by Chumash hunters. Plant foods, especially acorns, were part of the Chumash diet. They were a sedentary people, despite their lack of agricultural practices, due to the abundant resources and a winter rarely harsh enough to cause concern.
Contact with Europeans
The Chumash were the first major group of California Indians to be discovered by Europeans. On October 10, 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, landed on the coast near the present site of Ventura. Cabrillo visited many points on the mainland and on the Channel Islands, noting the names of the settlements he encountered. The next encounter with Europeans was 60 years later when Sebastian Vizcaino entered and named the Santa Barbara Channel. In 1769, an expedition commanded by Captain Gaspar de Portola passed through the Chumash coastal region to head north for Monterey Bay, reported by Vizcaino in 1602. Accompanying him were Lt. Pedro Fages, the engineer Miguel Constanso, and the Friar Juan Crespi. All four men wrote accounts of the appearance and activities of the Indians they encountered. Several more accounts follow this before the beginning of the 19th century: the 1775 diary of Father Pedro Font (diarist of the Juan Bautista de Anza expedition), Father Francisco Palous account of 1778, naturalist Jose Longinos Martinezs 1791-1792 journal, and the first account of the Chumash people in English by Archibald Menzies (the naturalist for the George Vancouver expedition). These early accounts describe only the heavily populated Santa Barbara channel coast.
The Spanish Missions and Their Impact
In 1772, San Luis Obispo, the first of the Franciscan missions in Chumash territory, was founded. Four other missions followed: San Buenaventura (1782), Santa Barbara (1786), La Purisima Concepcion (1787), and Santa Ynez (1804). By the early 1800s, the entire Chumash population, except for those who fled in the mountains and inland valleys, were under the Spanish mission system. The missionaries were determined to make the Chumash peoples into industrious farmers and artisans. One-fourth of the 21 missions in California were devoted to the large Chumash population, but historical references are mainly confined to statistics in the mission registers. Other information on the Chumash during this period are founded in the questionnaires which the mission fathers were required to send to the civil authorities in Mexico. The mission period in the Chumash region lasted from 1772 to 1834, when they were secularized. In 1831, the Chumash who were registered at the five missions numbered 2,788, with 726 people at the Santa Barbara mission. This was a great decline from the large population described by European explorers in the centuries before. The basic cause for the decline was the mission system itself. The Chumash neophytes were crowded into compounds near the presidios and mission buildings. There, they were exposed daily to the European diseases to which they lacked immunity to. Smallpox and syphilis were the major killers, but even the common cold could rapidly develop into some deadly form of pulmonary disease. Scholarly estimates of the Chumash population before the decline range from 10,700 to 22,000.
Missions Revolt and Secularization
In 1824, the Chumash neophytes revolted at Santa Barbara, Santa Ynez, and La Purisima. This was due to the mistreatment by the mission soldiers and the endless toil which they were forced to do. After brief hostilities in which several Chumash and Spanish were killed, many fled to the Tulares to take refuge with the Yokuts people. Some of them were persuaded to return to the missions. In 1833, a party of American fur trappers found a village of the renegade Spanish-speaking Chumash living near Walker Pass in Kern County, growing corn and riding horses. The intention behind the secularization of the California missions in 1834 was to transform the mission centers into Pueblos. The Indians, with their knowledge of trade and agriculture, were to become Mexican citizens. Civil administrators would oversee the orderly changeover and allot land to all the former neophytes. However, what happened was actually far different. With the removal of authority, many Chumash fled to the interior and others refused to labor for the Mexican rancheros. Those who attempted to farm for themselves were harassed by whites and driven off the land. The Chumash who remained at the missions were enslaved by the administrators. The mission system which practically destroyed the indigenous culture, now left the Chumash survivors to fend for themselves. In the 1840s, some small parcels of land were given to individual Chumash. However, these lands were soon lost through gambling or traded to Whites for whiskey and blankets. By 1838, alcoholism were widespread among the Chumash, becoming a problem for many years. Many of them finally found work on the large ranches acquired by Mexican citizens through grant or by purchase from the administrators.
Coming of the Anglo-Americans, and Cultural Revival
During the period of secularization, disease continued to decimate the remaining Chumash. In 1844, a serious epidemic caused the deaths of most of the Chumash at Purisima. From the earliest Spanish contact, there was intermarriage between the whites and Chumash. By 1900, few Chumash with complete indigenous ancestry were alive. After the Anglo-Americans came to the area, the Chumash were exploited as cheap labor or ignored except when drunk and disorderly, or caught stealing horses. The Chumash that remained near the settlements worked as vaqueros, house servants, or farm laborers. In 1855, a small piece of land (120 acres) was set aside on a creek near Santa Ynez Mission. One hundred and nine Chumash settled there. This reserve, Zanja de Cota (later reduced to 75 acres), eventually became the smallest official Indian reservation in the state of California. In 1972, about 40 mixed-ancestry Chumash occupied the land. Many more descendants were scattered about in southern California. Traditional culture and the Chumashan languages had died out by this time (the last speaker of a Chumashan language, Mary Yee, died in 1965). This was to change with a rediscovery of indigenous culture among the Chumash descendants. The first modern tomol was built and launched in 1976 as a result of a joint venture between the Quabajai Chumash and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. The second tomol was launched in 1997. On September 9, 2001, the first modern crossing in the tomol from the mainland to the Channel Islands, was sponsored by the Chumash Maritime Association and the Barbareno Chumash Council. The channel crossings have become a yearly event hosted by the Barbareno Chumash Council.
The Present and the Future
Today, the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash is a federally recognized Native American tribe. Their reservation is located in Santa Barbara County, near Santa Ynez. Other Chumash groups are attempting to gain federal recognition, like the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation and the Barbareño/Ventureño Band of Mission Indians. There are yet more Chumash groups, like the Northern Chumash Tribal Council and the Barbareno Chumash Council. Interest in the Chumashan languages has culminated in the publication of the first Chumash dictionary in 2008, which is 600 pages long and contains 4,000 entries. A reconstruction of a Chumash village is present in Malibu, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Forced into a Mission system which eventually caused a devastating population decline, the Chumash have rediscovered their heritage and continue to exist as a people in the 21st century.
Chumash Factoids
Among the Chumash, stools made of whale vertebrae were often used.
According to Longinos Martinez (who visited the Chumash in 1792), there was the practice of forcing an abortion during the first pregnancy, because of the belief that if there is no abortion or the child does not die immediately, the mother will never conceive again.
The Chumash were great gamblers, with the men constantly wagering shell money, which was kept strung around their topknots.
The Chumash are well-known for their rock paintings, an example being the Painted Cave of San Marcos Pass, located a few miles from Santa Barbara.
Pomo
History
The Pomo are a Native American people in Northern California. They spoke seven distinct and mutually unintelligible languages, classified as the Pomoan language family. The most divergent Pomoan languages are about as distantly related as the Athabaskan languages Navajo (in Arizona) and Tanaina (in Alaska).
Geography and Climate
The Kashaya occupied about 30 miles of the coast of northwest Sonoma County and extended inland for 5 to 13 miles. They held no rich valleys. The aboriginal territory of the Southern Pomo lay in Sonoma County and extended from about five miles south of Santa Rosa northward for 40 miles, and from the eastern drainage of the Russian River westward to Kashaya and Central Pomo territory, with a narrow extension to the coast between the two. The territory of the Central Pomo lies in southern Mendocino County in an irregular band from the coast to about 40 miles inland and a border with the Eastern Pomo at the crest of the range east of the Russian River. The Northern Pomo had territory in central Mendocino County and from a frontage of 22 miles on the coast, extended in an irregular band inland nearly 50 miles to a region on the northwestern shore of Clear Lake shared with the Eastern Pomo. The Northeastern Pomo lived in a compact area on the eastern side of the Coast Range, primarily in the drainage system of Big Stony Creek before its confluence with Little Stony Creek. They were separated from the rest of the Pomo by land generally accepted to belong the Yuki and Patwin peoples. Eastern Pomo lived on the northwestern and southern shores of Clear Lake. On the eastern shores of Clear Lake, the Southeastern Pomo lived. The territory of the Western and Northeastern Pomo (Kashaya, Southern, Central, Northern, Northeastern), consisted of two ecozones: coast-Redwood and valley-foothill. The coast-redwood zone was the least favorable of the habitats exploited by the Pomo due the heavily eroded nature of the coast beachline backed by an unbroken redwood forest. Temperatures there ranged from midday summer highs of 80 degrees Fahrenheit to well below freezing during the winter. Rainfall of 40-50 inches annually was usual, and fog was common during most of the year. In the valley-foothill region, summer temperatures occasionally ranged as high as 100 degrees F, with winter daytime temperatures averaging 50-60 degrees F. Rainfall was approximately 30 to 40 inches annually. The Clear Lake area has a Mediterranean style climate with considerable rainfall in the winter, and a long, hot, dry period during the summer. The annual rainfall in Lake County is 21.6 inches, with rainfall amounting to only 0.53 inches from June to September.
Pre-European Contact
The Pomo spoke seven languages: Southwestern Pomo (or Kashaya), Southern Pomo, Central Pomo, Northern Pomo, Northeastern Pomo, Eastern Pomo and Southeastern Pomo. The most divergent of the Pomoan languages differ from one another more than do the Germanic languages ( which include German, English, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Icelandic). This gives a sense of how long ago the Pomo people used to speak one language (definitely more than 2,000 years ago). The early Pomo are suggested to have lived on the shores of Clear Lake in four branches: Western, Eastern, Southeastern, and Northeastern. The Western Pomo migrated across the range of mountains just to the west of Clear Lake over on the Russian River. There, they spread north and south through the string of valleys along the course of the River. Speakers of the Yukian languages were probably displaced. The Western Pomo split into Northern and Southern groups, with the latter differentiating into three languages (Kashaya, Southern, Central), and the Northern group split into several dialect units.
Contact with Europeans: Spanish Missions and Russians
The first contact between the Pomo and non-Indians may have occurred as early as 1579, when Sir Francis Drake briefly visited the Pomos southern neighbors, the Coast Miwok. By the late 1700s, European trade goods were arriving from the San Francisco mission-presidio and the Spanish were raiding southern Pomo territory for potential converts. Fugitives from the missions to the south brought various aspects of Hispanic culture into the Pomo area. By 1817, the Spanish founded a mission at San Rafael and extended their influence to Sonoma in Wappo territory in 1823 (Mission San Francisco de Solano). Neophytes were generally badly treated, and the non-subjugated Pomo threatened reprisals. Despite this, the mission succeeded in developing into a prosperous outpost of Hispanic culture. At least 600 Pomos were baptized at the Missions San Francisco de Solano and San Rafael. The Spanish writers characterized the Pomo as savage, more intelligent, and more difficult to convert and control than other Californian Indians had been. In 1809, a Russian trading expedition established friendly relations with Coast Miwok at Bodega Bay. In 1811, the first Russian settlement in California was established at Fort Ross in Kashaya territory. The Kashaya are unique in that they were actually contacted first by the Russians at the Fort Ross colony (as opposed to the Spanish or Anglo-Americans). An agricultural colony was established at Fort Ross, and over 100 local Pomos were employed as agricultural laborers. During this period from 1811 to 1825, many Pomos learned to speak Russian, adopted some aspects of Russian culture and religion, and occasionally intermarried with the Russians.
Mexican Rule and the Arrival of the Americans
In 1822, California became part of the newly created Mexican Republic. Mexican land grants (ranches) were established deep inside Pomo territory, and strict military control was exerted over the area. Colonies were established throughout Southern and Central Pomo territory, with the Pomo being subject to constant raiding for capture and sale. Between 1834 and 1847, thousands of Pomo were captured or died as a result of increasing Mexican military campaigns. Before 1838, all Southern and Central Pomo territory was under Mexican control, with Clear Lake, Big Valley, Sonoma and Napa valleys, and Sonora Valley either settled or about to be settled by Mexicans. By 1836, the trade in Indian slaves reached critical levels. In 1838-1839, thousands of Pomos died during a smallpox epidemic. In 1833, what is believed to be a cholera epidemic devastated many Pomo villages. All of these events set the stage for the rapid decline of the Pomo peoples and their cultural heritage. During the 1850s, American settlers and fortune seekers moved into the area. Some of the Indians worked for the whites, while others were enslaved. All of them were disenfranchised as a new legal system was imposed upon them. Massacres, like that of the Bloody Island massacre of 1850 in retaliation for the deaths of Charles Stone and Andrew Kelsey, were carried out. Many of those slain by the US Cavalry in the Bloody Island Massacre were not even involved with the murders of the two white men (who were abusive settlers). Feelings against non-Europeans ran high, with public efforts to eliminate local Indian populations resulting in the establishment of the Mendocino Indian Reserve near Fort Bragg and the Round Valley Reservation in 1856. Pomo were rounded up, resettled at these reserves, and their lands immediately occupied and deeded to Whites. The Mendocino Reserve was discontinued in 1867, leaving the Pomo there homeless and landless. Pomo people became a source of cheap labor for local ranchers. Several new Christian religious groups moved into the region to begin missionary work. These missionaries were instrumental in forming Indian civil rights organizations, purchasing homes for the needy, stopping the liquor traffic, educating children, providing medical attention and supplies, and in general promoting a pro-Indian sentiment direct toward establishing their basic rights as human beings. Pomo also became converts to the philosophies of the Ghost Dance prophets. Although the prophecies of demise for the whites failed, this new religion laid the foundation for the Bole-Maru cult, which allowed for a continuance of Pomo identity while simultaneously integrating Anglo-American work ethics.
20th Century
In 1904, the Ukiah Rancheria instituted a court case to gain permanent and lasting control over the 120 acres of land they purchased in 1881. In 1907, the California Supreme court ruled in favor of the Yokayo Rancheria when a non-Indian probate officer attempted to acquire ownership of over one-half of the rancherias acreage. By 1901, around one-half of Pomo children were in schools (segregated ones). Still, most local White communities used Indians for cheap labor and even displaced Pomos who were residing on lands legally theirs. After WWI, Pomos began demanding basic rights and services and were active in the formation of various organizations aimed at securing and advancing a peaceful and prosperous existence for all Indians. They shared Americas general economic crisis during the Great Depression. Traditional patterns of economic reciprocity came to dominate subsistence activities. There was a increase in interracial marriages between Pomo and non-Indians in the 1930s and 40s. Post WWII, several Pomo Rancherias were terminated, and many of their communities became neglected and impoverished. In 1973, there were six Western Pomo Rancherias, each with elected officials. Ten others were terminated. All of the Eastern Pomo Rancherias had been terminated in the 1960s. In 1976, some of the Kashaya live on their small 40-acre reservation, with more scattered elsewhere in the Sonoma County. About half of them (200 people during this time) could speak Kashaya. For the southern Pomo, a dozen or so speakers remain of their language. The Central Pomo language had about as twice as many speakers as the Southern Pomo (spoken in two quite divergent dialects: coastal, and the interior dialect of the Yokaya and Shanel). The Pomo participated in both traditional and non-Indian religions. Principal religions included Catholicism, Methodist, Mormon, Bahai, and Pentecostal. The Pentecostals and some Mormons tried to exclude traditional religious practices.
The Present and the Future
The Pomo groups which are federally recognized by the United States government today are based in Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino counties. According to the 2010 United States Census, there are 10,308 Pomo people in the United States, with 8,578 of them residing in California. The Pomo today live normal American lifestyles, but their basket weavers are still heralded and praised within the community for their artistic ability and skill. The Southeastern Pomo language has 7 speakers (as of 2013). The Eastern Pomo had 1 speaker in 2006. Central Pomo had 8 speakers in 1996. Southern Pomo had 2 speakers in 2012. Kashaya had 45 speakers in 1994. The other two Pomoan languages are considered extinct. Living under Spanish, Mexican and American rule (with some interaction with the Russians for the Kashaya), the Pomo have lost the majority of their lands, along with aspects of their culture. Despite this, the Pomo people still exist today and are reclaiming their indigenous heritage.
Pomo Factoids
One of the most basic characteristic features of Pomo baskets, was the use of feathers and beads for outlining or making designs.
The various Pomo groups built three basic types of structures: dwelling houses, temporary shelters, and semi-subterranean houses.
The Pomo generally recognized that they shared a common cultural background, the variations of which they compared and contrasted when establishing their ethnicity vis-à-vis other cultures or among themselves.
Like most north-central California Indian groups, the Pomo practiced the Kuksu, a religious complex centering on the impersonation of a god or gods, which stressed curing rituals or rites of well-being for the entire group.
Nomad
The Western and Northeastern Pomo expertly used the varied and abundant natural resources in their area. Acorns were staple and seven species were collected. Buckeye nuts, a variety of berries, seeds from at least 15 kinds of grasses, roots and bulbs, and edible greens were gathered and eaten fresh or stored. Dried seaweed and kelp from the ocean shore were delicacies. Hunting was one of the most important occupations of Pomo men. They would know every deer in the territory and maintained a balance between herds and the available vegetation to keep the animals from straying outside Pomo territory. Deep, elk and antelope were the chief big game animals. Rabbits and squirrels were important food resources. Many species of birds were taken for food or for feathers, but a certain number of them were tabooed as food (including hawks, crows, owls and seagulls). Lake, stream, and ocean fish were caught in traps. Even grasshoppers, caterpillars, and larvae were eaten. As for the Eastern and Southeastern Pomo, their annual cycle of subsistence was finely adapted to the special characteristics of the environment in which they lived. They focused their fishing activities primarily during the spawning seasons. Fish, acorns for bread and mush, grains for pinole, pepperwood nuts and buckeyes were stored and eaten year round. This was supplemented with fresh meat or waterfowl when available, and fresh greens, roots, bulbs, berries and fruits in season. As with many of the Californian Indians, the Pomo did not practice agriculture. The abundance of food resources made up for it.