Take a moment and close your eyes. Take a deep breath and imagine your face caressing a low-hanging branch of a tree. You feel the rocky ground beneath you, you follow the path you have taken so many times. You feel a slight cold. Your path leads to a cave where you want to warm up, so you start a fire. You look up at the wall and there you see white walls and shapes that play with all colors.

People of the Chumash tribe

The people of the Chumash tribe are one of many Native American tribes who are ancient inhabitants of today's United States. The people of the Chumash tribe, located in modern Santa Barbara, California, between the coast and the Santa Ynez Mountains, called themselves "first people" and believed that the Pacific Ocean was their "first home." The researchers specified that Chumash had lived in the area for at least 11-000 years and had been thriving in the same place for so long, not only because of the proximity of the sea, but also because of the fertility of the soil between the mountains.

The tribe was characterized by the use of redwood trees to build ships that were much better than the ships of other tribes. While the medieval Vikings in northern Europe used their own remarkable building skills to conquer other, less powerful groups of people, Chumash used similar skills to create thoughtful transportation that allowed them not only to regulate various villages in their tribe, but probably to spread the cultural arts they now defines the southwest coast of California.

Large network of cave paintings

Although their boats and ships are significant and distinctive, one of the most important elements of their culture is the extensive network of cave art that lines the California coast. Initially, the Indians used coal to create paintings. Over time, they learned to create different types of pigments that made their drawings more colorful, more vivid, and also more resistant to damage. Black, white, yellow and red predominated.

The paintings seem to have served as part of religious ceremonies. Sometimes caves full of cave paintings are also considered doors to another realm. Due to the sanctity of the drawings, it is assumed that the drawings were made by tribal shamans.

In addition to their sacred significance, the drawings also had the meaning of capturing or depicting mythological events, recording tribal history, etc. One theory also assumes that the paintings were part of rituals to promote fertility in women and men, as well as rituals to promote soil fertility.

The Chumash tribe today

With the arrival of Europeans, the territory of the Chumash tribe was occupied and efforts were made to Christianize the inhabitants. Therefore, some villages moved to more distant ends along the coast. The gradual reduction in the number of head stems could have come from diseases brought on by Europeans (this is one of the versions) or, naturally, from displacement (the birth rate is falling). Even today we find members of this tribe, but no one speaks the original language.

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You can find more about the Chumash tribe in this video: