Settlement Patterns
Chumash - At the time of European contact several groups of Chumashan people occupied the Santa Barbara Channel Islands and adjacent areas of the mainland from Estero Bay in the north as far south as Malibu, and as far inland as the arid Carrizo Plains. Just how long they occupied this region is unknown, but the archaeological records suggests an occupancy of several thousands of years. Between 1,500 &2,000 years ago the ancestors of the Chumash gradually abandoned a mobile lifestyle and adopted one centered on villages and population densities reached unprecedented levels: by the early 16th century, there were at least 20,000 to 30,000 Chumash people inhabiting some 75 to 100 villages and towns. Some towns were home to only a few single-family dwellings, while other villages had populations of several hundreds. There were even towns with populations of 1,000 or more persons.
These various sized settlements were arranged in districts, and organized into three large regional divisions: island villages, coastal villages, and interior villages and were linked to each other through complex social, political, and economic ties. Each regional group had special resources that were collected and processed by the region's inhabitants and then exchanged with villagers from adjacent regions. For example, island villages had few plant resources but were rich in ocean resources, olivella shells which were made into shell-bead money, and the much prized stone steatite. Coastal mainland villages had abundant supplies of meats, hides, grains and fruits, but lacked certain seafoods, shell-beads, and steatite. Therefore, island dwellers traded these items to the coastal people in exchange for acorns, deer, and other mainland resources. Such exchanges occurred at regularly scheduled trade fairs when traders from villages all over the Chumash speaking world came together.
Coastal villages usually were built on high ground on the borders of a slough area or where a stream ran into the ocean. A typical village consisted of several houses (at one village the Spanish counted 30 large houses), a sweathouse, store houses, a ceremonial enclosure, a gaming area, and a cemetery area placed away from the living area. Homes along the narrow coastal plain from Point Conception to Ventura County often reached diameters of up to 50 feet and housed as many as 70 persons and were much admired by the Spanish. Longinos Martínez described their appearance in 1792: These Indians live in communities and have a fixed domicile. They arrange their houses in groups. The houses are well constructed, round like an oven, spacious and fairly comfortable; light enters from a hole in the roof. Their beds are made on frames and they cover themselves with skins and shawls. The beds have divisions between them like the cabins of a ship, so that if many people sleep in one house, they do not see one another. In the middle of the floor they make a fire for cooking seeds, fish, and other foods, for they eat everything boiled or roasted.
Gabrielino - The Gabrielino were not the first inhabitants of the Los Angeles basin but arrived around 500 B.C., slowly displacing the indigenous Hokan speakers. By A.D. 500 permanent villages had been established in the fertile lowlands along rivers and streams and in sheltered areas along the coast. Population continued to expand with many of the larger, permanent villages having satellite communities lying at varying distances from them and connected through economic, religious, and social ties. On the basis on early Spanish reports, there were between 50 and 100 mainland villages inhabited simultaneously with an average population between 50 &200 people. Homes were domed, circular structures thatched with tule, fern, or carrizo and in some cases so large that each could hold up to 50 or more persons.
Luiseño - Villages were typically located in valley bottoms, along streams, or along coastal stands near mountain ranges, usually in sheltered coves or canyons, on the side of slopes in a warm thermal zone, near good water supplies, and in defensive locations. And like all California Indian settlements, the area surrounding each contained many named places associated with food products, raw materials, or sacred beings. Many of the resource procurement sites were owned by an individual, a family, or the village leader, while many others, such as trails, hunting sites, rabbit or deer drive locations, quarry sites, and areas used for ceremonies and gaming were owned by the community as a whole. Also, many inland Luiseño grups owned fishing and gathering sites on the coast which were visited annually.
A typical Luiseño village contained several types of structures: conical, subterranean homes thatched with reeds, brush, or bark; brush-covered rectangular arbors (known by the Spanish term "ramada") where most domestic activities were carried out; round, semisubterranean, earth-covered sweathouses used for purification and curing rituals; and the all-important wamkish, a ceremonial structure containing an image of the culture hero/god Chengiichngech. The wamkish served as the focal point for a wide variety of ceremonies, including girls' initiation rites, boys' initiation rites, and death rites for initiates of the datura cult.
Ipai - Tipai - In some areas, Ipai-Tipai clans wintered together but dispersed in the spring. Campsites were selected for access to water, drainage, boulder outcrops or other natural protection from weather &ambush, and abundant flora &fauna. Former house sites were avoided through fear of ghost-caused illness.
Houses varied according to locality, need, choice, and raw materials. In generally, summer villages needed only a windbreak, trees, or a cave fronted with rocks. In winter villages houses had a floor slightly sunken with a dome or gable set on the ground. Some houses were rectangular in shape while others resembled large baskets turned upside down. In either case, a pole framwork was covered with brush thatch covered with grass. Tipai-Ipai living along sloughs built rectangular, sand-covered houses while those residing in the mountains wintered in either large caves or bark-roofed, pine slab houses.
Clans cooperated in building brush dance circles during joint agave or piñon harvesting activities. In connection with the mourning ceremony, a special structure, the keruk, was erected. It was a small semi-circular house of brush open to the east in which the images of the dead had been stored. This structure, along with the images, were then burned.
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Coastal Region,
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To comment on this page please send email to Chuck Smith at crsmith@cabrillo.cc.ca.us.
Page last updated: 23 August 1999