THE PREHISTORIC CONEJO VALLEY
The Chumash
The Chumash were hunter-gatherers and were adept at fishing at the time ofSpanish colonization. They are one of the relatively few New World peoples who regularly navigated the ocean. Some settlements built plank boats called tomols, which facilitated the distribution of goods and could even be used for whaling.
They were also skilled at making remarkable baskets, stone cookware, and shell beads. Chumash settlements were scattered between the mountains and the sea, and the tribes traded between themselves and with outsiders. The Chumash had a tiered society, from manual laborers to skilled crafters, to the chiefs, and to the shaman priests.
Photograph of Rafael Solares, chief of the Santa Inez Chumash group, in ceremonial apparel. Taken in 1878 by Leon de Cessac.
Shamanism involved individual practitioners, usually men, who were believed to maintain direct and personal links with the supernatural world. Within Native California tribes, shamans were known by names that translated as ”doctor”, “dreamer”, and “Man of Power”. Shamans forecast the weather, cured the sick, named children, and interpreted dreams. They were respected or feared by most tribal members.
Chumash rock art was highly developed and it’s possible that much of it was produced by shamans.
“The California Indian was…an introvert, reserved, contemplative and philosophical. He lived at ease with the the supernatural and mystical which was pervasive in all aspects of life. He felt no need to differentiate mystical truth from directly evidential or “material” truth, or the supernatural from the natural; one was as manifest as the other within his system of values and perceptions and beliefs.” -Theodora Kroeber, Ishi (1961, pg. 23)
