Chumash: A Picture of Their World

This concise and comprehensive book gives good information in understanding the Chumash tribe of California. It covers the beginnings to the Spanish and American. Contrary to what Hollywood shows, The First Americans were not savages but with their own heritage in terms of their crafts in basketry, wooden bowls and jars. They live in Turtle Island for a long time using stone tools. They keep their tribe alive in harmony with nature in hunting and fishing. On page 77, they make canoe and call it tomol (sound Chinese?) Of particular interest is on page 89 that Chumash was blessed with "honey" from heaven same as Moses and Israelites were provided in wilderness for forty years. Chumash developed their religion with their sacred people, times and places. However, they were converted by the Mission to change their belief, way of thinking and life and value system. Indian saying comments that "we used to have land and they have the Bible, and now, we have the Bible and they have land"! Luckily, they are federal recognized tribe. Through the thousands of years, they leave their masterpiece on rocks in symbolic representations of cultural ideas, beliefs, natural laws and other abstract concepts of tim, death or fertility. This book is a good orientation for further study and research on Chumash Tribe.

It was a brief but a very informative book and at the same time was very entertaining to read.