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I
stand in the silence of a sacred wooded area near the summit of San Marcos
Pass, southeast of the Santa Ynez Valley. My imagination removes the iron
gate that separates me from a reflection of a magical time hundreds of
years ago. I see a legacy from Chumash past painted on the walls of the
cave in front of me, a living record of unknown artists and their times.
The five-foot wide pictograph is haunting, symbolic
of the unknown. Who painted it? Why? What does it represent? This is Painted
Cave, now part of the California State Park System. We can all visit it,
but to fully appreciate it, we need to know more about its creators. The
book The Rock Paintings of the Chumash by Campbell Grant provides much
still-current information, even though it was originally published in
1965. This book has stood the test of time and provides a solid foundation
for understanding Chumash life and its rock art.
Since before recorded history, the Chumash Indians occupied
the Central Coast from Malibu to San Luis Obispo, including the Channel
Islands and east to the Bakersfield area. In 1961, at an archeological
dig on Santa Rosa Island, Phil Orr of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural
History found female human bones underneath the bones of a dwarf mammoth
estimated to be 10,000 years old.
The earliest written history of the Chumash begins with
the landing of Juan Rodrigo Cabrillo at Ventura in 1542, as documented
by Juan Paez, a diarist of the expedition, which was seeking a northern
passage to Europe. The Spaniards were greeted by canoes carrying Chumash
with fish for barter.
When the missionaries arrived in the 1700’s the
Chumash people had one language, but each village spoke its own dialect.
The Chumash were not farmers, nor were they migratory in the broadest
sense. They moved to different established locations based on the seasons.
These hunter-gatherers were able to establish permanent sites because
food and other resources were plentiful. They harvested seeds, berries,
roots and other indigenous vegetation, but a dietary staple was made from
acorns, which were split, dried and pounded to powder by mortar and pestle.
(Many mortar holes can still be found in bedrock slabs throughout the
mountains.) The Chumash hunted with bows and arrows and spears, and the
coastal villages were blessed with an abundant supply of fish and other
marine life.
Abundant resources encouraged trade between Chumash
villages and with other tribes further east. Because of the importance
of trade, the Chumash developed a monetary system. They broke clam or
purple olive shells (olivella) into pieces, drilled and strung them, and
ground them down to make disks, which became the primary source of “legal
tender.” The size, thickness and sheen of these disks determined
the value of the bead money or ‘anchum, a word which seems to be
related to “Chumash.” In fact, the name “Chumash”
is most frequently defined as “Beadmaker” or “Seashell
People.” The Chumash called themselves the “First People,”
alluding to their belief that their origin was the Pacific Ocean.
The Chumash were accomplished craftsmen, making cooking
vessels or ollas by hollowing out softer types of steatite rock with flint
scrapers. They carved many implements of native woods, and their finely
woven baskets are works of art. They are beautifully decorated with horizontal
bands and geometric designs. They were used for gathering and winnowing,
grinding and fishing, and even cooking. Many were waterproofed with a
layer of asphaltum and performed all the tasks of clay pots. Unfortunately
few baskets have survived, but the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
has the second largest collection of Chumash baskets in the world. Our
own Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum has five baskets on display as
well as a steatite bowl.
The Chumash people developed a deep connection with
their environment—the earth and its elements, plants, animals, water
creatures, weather, indeed, the entire universe and its supernatural forces.
They believed there was power everywhere, in all things. Shamans or priests
from the old religious cult (‘antap) were the go-betweens who had
access to this supernatural power. These shamans used dreamhelpers and
charmstones, holistic medicine, astronomy and symbolism.
One theory about Chumash rock art is that the symbols
were drawn during religious ceremonies–in essence, power made visible–but
the true intent and meaning of the figures remains a mystery. The figures
are abstract and they do seem to suggest an important link to an inner
vision of the spirit world and its forces.
This spiritual connection and a deep pride of heritage
are highly significant and important to today’s Chumash people.
In fact, “Tribal members often perform private traditional ceremonies
for spiritual renewal at these sites and take an active role in their
protection,” says Pete Crowheart Zavalla, the Representative for
the Tribal Relations Program of the United States Forest Service. Zavalla
further explained, “The Tribal Relations Program is important because
it creates a bridge between the Forest Service and the descendants of
the people who created this legacy, to facilitate communications and to
partner in the conservation of these culturally significant areas.”
Throughout the Los Padres National Forest, in the Santa
Ynez Mountains and in the back hills, there may be as many as 300 locations
displaying Chumash rock art. Some are petroglyphs, which are images or
patterns created by carving or digging lines into the rocks, while others
are pictographs, or paintings applied to the surface of the rocks with
various colors of pigment.
Most Chumash pictographs are near permanent water sources,
in wind-blown caves under deep sandstone outcroppings, or in crevices
in remote, difficult to access spots. Because of this isolation, the pictographs
were probably viewed by few people, sometimes only by their creators.
Chumash pictographs differ in style and application method from other
Native American pictographs found throughout the western United States.
However all have images that represent real world creatures like bears,
coyotes, salamanders, and condors, and all use common symbols for natural
forces, such as water, rain and the sun.
The most common Chumash style is red linear pictures.
Many are linear black and white, too, with a few even containing yellow,
blue and green pigment. The red paint was obtained from hematite deposits,
white from clay-like diatomaceous earth or limestone from ground-up marine
shells, yellow from limonite, and blue and green from serpentine. Black
was created from oak or ash bark charcoal, manganese or graphite. These
pigments were ground into a powder with a mortar and pestle and stored
in leather bags, or the powder was mixed with water and formed into dried
balls or cakes. Before application, a binder of squirrel fat or juice
from milkweed or cucumber seeds or blood was mixed with the color agent,
either in a small container or in a recess in a rock near the painting.
Brushes were made of yucca fibers, squirrel or other small animal tails,
or duck feathers. Sometimes the paint was simply applied with a finger.
Dating these paintings is difficult to do without damaging
the work itself, but it is estimated that they were completed within the
last 1,000 to 2,000 years.
“Another way of looking at this,” says Wes
Chapin, the State Park District Interpretive Specialist, “Is that
some of the artists were painting when Jesus walked the earth, while others
were contemporary with the Pilgrims.”
The locations of many of these paintings are known, but the Forest Service
and protective hikers will not divulge their whereabouts for fear of vandalism.
Robert Etling, who grew up in the Valley, showed me a photo of a pictograph
at a location he refused to identify. He told me that the Forest Service
has placed steel boxes at quite a few of the sites, some providing interpretive
information and a registration sheet for hikers.
Joan Brandoff-Kerr, an anthropologist for the Forest
Service, told us about Partners in Preservation, which she described as,
“A Site Steward Program, for which interested people undergo special
training. They are then assigned prehistoric sites to periodically monitor
for visitation records and conservation. These people play a vital part
in preservation efforts of Heritage Resource sites in the Los Padres National
Forest. It is crucial that we act as stewards of the land in partnership
with Native Americans in the management of this cultural revival.”
Painted Cave is the most spectacular example of Chumash
rock art in the Santa Barbara area and has been accessible for many years.
Scholars sketched and wrote about it since 1877, and in 1900, Johnson
Ogram opened his Painted Cave Resort. In 1906 G. Gordon Hawes mentioned
vandalism of the site. Then in 1908, Johnson Ogram’s widow, Viola,
bolted and cemented a grill to the opening of the cave. This preserved
the paintings for our generation to see.
In the early 1970’s a citizens’ group was
formed that, with the help of the California State Parks Foundation raised
$10,000 to purchase the seven acres around the cave and in 1976 the title
to Painted Cave was transferred into the public trust as a California
State Historic Park. The State Park system is doing everything it can
to both preserve and make Painted Cave accessible to visitors. The California
Conservation Corps is upgrading the parking area and the short trail to
the cave. Wes Chapin, the District Interpretive Specialist at the State
Park Channel Coast District Office in Santa Barbara said, “There
soon will be an interpretive panel at the road to give visitors more information
before they see the actual cave painting.”
Chapin also said, “Dr. John Johnson, the Curator
of Anthropology from the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Ernestine
DeSoto, a Barbareño Chumash, and I completed a video walking tour
of Painted Cave several months ago that people will be able to view later
this year at the Presidio in Santa Barbara.”
The pictographs in Painted Cave are in two locations
on opposite sides of the cave and are in three colors: red, black and
white. There is no way to document the age of the paintings, particularly
since there has been much over painting of complex designs. These paintings
are not a single work, but a composite that seems to be made up of four
distinct styles. There are narrow lines in black, geometric forms in red,
many circles of various sizes in red, black and white as well as representational
figures. Bold red teeth were added to an existing circle.
We can only speculate as to any possible meaning of
the pictographs. Some say the art is representational and corresponds
to actual objects. Another interpretation struck fear into an old Chumash
man who was told by a former chief that the paintings represented funerary
boats taking the dead to the islands for burial. The art could be symbols
used to invoke positive response from the supernatural and to turn away
negative actions.
The most intriguing possibility to me is that some of
the rock art depicts the position of our sun, the planet Mars and the
star Antares during a documented solar eclipse which occurred on November
24, 1677. The ‘antap cult, who were accomplished astronomers, may
have been trying to “balance the cosmos” in response to this
unique astronomical event. This hypothesis has been lent some credibility
by the work of present-day astronomers who calculated the probable positions
of planets, stars and the sun at that time and found a correlation. Unfortunately,
we have to be content with just admiring the paintings, relating to them
as an amazing prehistoric treasure while remembering how sacred they are
to the descendants of the original artists.
If you are hiking and find examples of Chumash rock
art, remember that they are protected by federal law. The natural forces
of deterioration are always at work destroying rock art sites. Some paintings
that were visible just ten years ago have disappeared without a trace.
But in a few minutes, one person can do more damage than centuries of
natural erosion!
Here are things you should do to help preserve a pictograph
if you approach one:
1.Cool off, put down backpacks
and equipment, and move slowly. Body moisture and dust cling to pigments
and encourage the growth of bacteria.
2.View pictographs in
small groups.
3. Do not touch the paintings
or put water, chalk or paint on them.
4. Don’t burn anything
near rock art sites.
5. If you find damage,
leave it as you found it and report it to the nearest Forest Ranger Station,
or call the Forest Service or California State Parks.
Always remember that all the rock art in National Forest
and State Park Systems is a proud living history and legacy of the Chumash
people. It is sacred and beautiful, spiritual and culturally significant,
a legacy from the past and a reminder of our connection to the environment.
As Travis Hudson says in his book Guide to Painted Cave, “The ‘antap
are no longer here to preserve and care for Painted Cave–this is
now our responsibility. We ask your help in carrying out this task so
that you and others may leave with a sense of appreciation and respect
for the people who conceived and created it.” This request applies
to all rock art of the Chumash, not only to Painted Cave. We all share
this opportunity to examine the past and to witness pictographs through
the proud eyes of Chumash descendants while we accept the responsibility
of preservation and conservation of these priceless, irreplaceable cultural
treasures.
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