Santa Barbarians get pleasure from shouting “Viva La Fiesta!” as we have a good time Previous Spanish Days — however what if we additionally celebrated Previous Chumash Days? What would we shout then? Talking for myself, I knew nothing about Chumash tradition till I started researching it. So right here’s a part of what I discovered — within the type of a quiz.
(1) Who constructed Previous Mission Santa Barbara?
(a) Google this query and you’ll learn that it was based by the Franciscan Friars, which gives the look that just a few previous Spanish guys had been in a position to roll and carve all of the stones wanted to construct the Previous Mission. To seek out out who the precise builders had been, it’s important to dig a bit deeper — as in, learn the subsequent sentence.
(b) A rock band known as Barbareños. Barbareños is what the Friars known as the Santa Barbara Chumash. I didn’t make that title up. However I did substitute the synonym “band” for “tribe.” The “rock” reference within the reply comes from the truth that the Chumash had been well-known to be rock artists — clearly not in the identical sense because the Rolling Stones, although the Chumash did, in reality, roll stones.
(2) The Friars reorganized the California tribes, changing their conventional Indigenous names with Spanish names, a colonial renaming which mirrored the missions they labored at. The California Chumash had been divided into different teams known as:
(a) The Padres, the Angels, and the Warriors.
(b) The Ineseño, the Barbareño, and the Ventureño, to call solely three. Respectively, these had been Chumash who constructed and ran the missions in Santa Ynez, Santa Barbara, and San Buenaventura. Along with their sensible rock artwork, the Chumash had been additionally well-known for his or her complicated basket weaving — their work is displayed in museums around the globe. They had been additionally identified for an financial system they invented, and for which they had been apparently named.
(3) What does “Chumash” imply?
(a) “Eat Drink Man Lady”
(b) “Shell Bead Cash Maker” — The Chumash created shell beads which they used as cash, known as ’alchum, which they used to commerce for items with different tribes. ‘Alchum has been discovered as far-off as New Mexico. The Chumash constructed plank canoes (which they known as tomols) as a substitute of the extra frequent dugouts as a result of tomols had been higher suited to touring alongside the coast and will carry extra of the merchandise the Chumash traded and bought.
(4) How did the Chumash water-proof their tomols?
(a) They used a glue instructed to them by the useful clerks at our downtown Residence Enchancment Heart — these guys actually do know every part!
(b) They used malak. Chumash generally used “pismu,” or uncooked petroleum, of which their language described two varieties: “wogo,” discovered on land, and “malak,” which washed up on seashores close to their villages and which they used to waterproof their tomols. Their villages normally consisted of some hundred individuals, had a taking part in subject known as a malamtepupi the place they performed tikawich (just like lacrosse), and plenty of villages had a paxa’ (a non secular chief), and a wot.
(5) What’s a “wot”?
(a) Clearly, “What’s a wot?” is the title of a long-lost Abbott and Costello comedian dialogue, a sequel to their “Who’s on first?” routine.
(b) A wot is a chief of a tribe, normally hereditarily decided; they had been principally males, however girls had been additionally wots.
(6) Did the Chumash use ‘aps?
(a) ’Aps had been units on Chumash telephones which allowed them to search out the closest malamtepupi, play digital tikawich video games, and call their wots and paxa’s.
(b) ‘Aps had been their houses, dome-shaped shelters made from willow branches and tule reeds which held 4 to 50 individuals, and had been ventilated and divided into separate areas. Their ‘aps had been a part of a sustainable way of life which developed for 13,000 years. Till 1769.
(7) What occurred in 1769?
(a) Keith Richards was born. (A human Rolling Stone. See Query 1.)
(b) Spain started establishing missions in California, and plenty of Chumash had been made to reside and work on their grounds. Chumash land was taken away, and their freedom of motion ended — in brief, their village way of life was destroyed.
(8) On the “Mission and Historical past” web page of the present official Previous Mission web site, what number of occasions does the phrase “Chumash” seem?
(a) Too many to rely.
(b) Zero
(9) Based on the Previous Mission web site, the Mission “bears witness to the Franciscan custom, training radical hospitality.” What does the time period “radical hospitality” imply?
(a) “Radical hospitality” is an outline of what occurred when one of many Chicago Seven invited you over for dinner.
(b) “Radical hospitality,” in Christian theology, is usually outlined as an “extraordinary effort and emphasis on making individuals really feel welcome.” Thus the Spanish Friars made the Chumash really feel welcome by taking their land, forcing them to depart their villages, altering their sustaining diets and cultural practices, and altering their spiritual beliefs — so the Chumash might construct and preserve missions for the Friars. That definitely places the “radical” in “radical hospitality”.
(10) When California was taken over by the USA, how did the therapy of the Chumash change?
(a) They lived fortunately ever after.
(b) It bought worse. On January 7, 1851, the Governor of California, Peter H. Burnett, said, “{That a} battle of extermination will proceed to be waged between the races till the Indian race turns into extinct…”
Viva La Fiesta.
Notice: Clearly, the right reply to all these questions is “b.” Nonetheless, after studying what sort of “radical hospitality” the Chumash acquired from the Friars, I believe the extra correct reply to query 9 may truly be “a” — to have had dinner at Abbie Hoffman’s.
