5 - How the Chumash turned the wayward sun around

Part 5:  The Chumash Origin Stories

 

One of the things I enjoy most  about studying ancient cultures is the stories explaining how things originated.  The Chumash are no exception.  To conclude this series, I want to share some of those great Chumash stories.

Chumash Sun God

As mentioned before, the Sun is a man who carries a torch and gathers up children as he travels and stuffs them in his head band and an occasional adult, as well.  He lives in a crystal house with his two daughters.  He has two wives, the evening star and the morning star.  When he snuffs out his torch, the sparks form the stars.  In the evening, he throws down the people he has collected and he and his daughters pass the bodies over the fire several times and then eat the people half cooked.  To quench their thirst they drink blood.

Pleiades Constellation

As I have reported in other articles, all Native American cultures seem to have stories about the constellation we call the Pleiades.  In the Chumash story, seven young boys were abandoned by their parents and rescued by Raccoon who taught them to dig roots to eat.  The boys decided to go north and wanted to take Raccoon with them.  They sprinkled goose down on themselves and sang songs and danced around the “temescal’ (sweathouse) for three days and as they did so, they began to rise up higher and higher except for Raccoon who couldn’t fly.  When their mothers saw what was happening, they felt bad for abandoning them and begged them to come back down, but the boys turned into geese and flew away north becoming the seven stars of the Big Dipper.  Their mother’s tried to follow them and became the seven stars of the Pleiades.  That is why when geese cry, they sound like little boys.



Interestingly, there is a second version of the Pleiades.  In this story, there were eight men who decided that they would fare better if they lived together and pooled their various talents.  One was a better hunter, one was a better fisher, one was a good cook, etc.  The plan worked very well and they were happy with the arrangement except for one who just disappeared.  This story is particularly significant to astronomers because the Pleiades was, in fact, once made up of eight bright stars until one of them faded over time. 



Also similar to other cultures, the Chumash believed that there is an upper world, center world (where they lived), and underworld.  The center world was supported by two giant snakes and when we feel the earth move (earthquake) we are feeling the snakes moving.  The upper world is held up by the great eagle who must stand immobile forever.  So, to keep from getting tired he slowly stretches his wings which blocks the moon and causes the phases of the moon.

 

The Chumash people came from seeds planted by Hutash (in this case "Mother Earth") planted on the channel islands west of the California coast.  Sky Snake saw her creations and decided to pitch in by giving them fire by sending down lightning bolts.  The people were happy, food was bountiful, and they produced many babies.  But as the population grew the happy people also grew noisier.  Hutash and Sky Snake could not sleep they were so noisy.  The next morning, Hutash placed a rainbow connecting the island to a mountain peak on the mainland and told the people that some would have to crossover to live on the mainland.  The people were afraid to cross because the rainbow was so high.  Hutash told them to keep their eye on their destination and they would be alright.  But some did look down and got dizzy from the height and fell into the ocean below.  As they fell, they cried to Hutash to save them.  She felt bad since she had forced them to take the rainbow bridge so as they hit the water she changed them into dolphins.  That is why the Chumash say the dolphins are their brothers.

Game of Tshung-kee similar to Hoop-and-Pole

The water for rivers and streams was provided by the frogs urinating.   Thunder is the sound of the Thunder Brothers playing the Chumash “Hoop-and-Pole” game.  One brother roles a hoop across the ground causing the sound of thunder, the other brother tries to throw a pole (speer) through the rolling hoop.  After a long game, one brother sat to rest forming a deep depression in the ground.  A local villager was incensed by his action and shouted insults while the other villagers were afraid and ran away.  When they looked back,  their friend was gone and there was a lake filling the depression.  They call it Lake Zaca today.

These wonderful and imaginative stories were told for centuries from generation to generation.  It is a shame so few stories survive today.

 

Link to Part 1

 

Link to Part 2

 

Link to Part 3

 

Link to Part 4

 

-- Courtney Miller



4 - How the Chumash turned the wayward sun around

Hutash -- Chumash sunstick
 

Part 4: The Chumash Winter Solstice Ceremony

 

After the season of Hutash (autumn), the Chumash people became more and more fearful as the winter solsctice approached (around December 20th each year).  Guided by their astronomer/priest, the Alchuklash, and his twelve helpers, everyone participated in preparing for the winter solstice ceremony.  All the powers of the individual and the supernatural powers of the priests would be required to stop Sun from his journey south and turn him back to them.   Over many years of observing, they knew that the sun would rise and set at the same spot for two days before starting its progression back north.  So the winster solstice ceremony lasted for two days.

On the first day of winter solstice, the Antap (the Alchuklash and assistants of the various Chumash villages), prepared for the ceremony by digging a hole in the plaza where they would place a Hutash (sunstick, refer to Part 3) the next day.

Sun God gathered people on his travel

On second day of the winter solstice, the Alchuklash hid indoors so that Sun would not gather him up on his travel across the sky and eat him.  Ceremonies honoring the dead and offerings to Sun were presided over by the Antap.  All peoples settled their debts on this day so that they could start the new year with a clean slate.  In the afternoon, the chief priest of the village who assumed the role of “Image of the Sun” and twelve assistants who were “Rays of the Sun” erected the Hutash in the plaza to entice the sun to turn northward again.  At noon, the Hutash represented the center of the earth where the four cardinal directions intersected.   Once the Hutash was standing by itself, the “Rays of the Sun” encircled it holding goose or eagle down feathers and as the “Image of the Sun” stood, they tossed the down feathers simulating rain.  The “Image of the sun” chanted “It is raining.  You must go in your house”.  Then, he tapped the stone disk attached to the top of the Hutash twice to release its powers and began a ritual speech.  From Ray A. Williamson’s, Living the Sky,

“A miracle!  Here is the force of the Sun – see how it drives this into the earth.  Believe!  Courage!  Pay attention!  Bring all your children to see, so they can see the staff of Hutash.  Look!  It is going to stand!  Observe it in its place and always remember it so!  Yes, always remember!”

Chief Solares
in Dance Costume
1878

The “Image of the Sun” ended with predictions for the year.  The “Rays of the Sun” then danced in honor of the Sun.  That night, all of the villagers returned to dance and decorate “Sun poles” with paint, beads, and feathers.   The dancers would dance around the Hutash in a clockwise direction until midnight and then reverse direction and dance until sunrise. 

During this one night only, any man could sing to any woman, married or not, and at the end of his song, all taboos were lifted and the woman would accompany him to a discrete location for sexual intercourse.

At sunrise, three elders sang to the Sun beckoning him to “Come out to see your grandfather”.  Then six women took up the singing with arms extended to welcome the Sun back and entice it to re-enter the Hutash.  That night, the people remembered the past year and the deceased.   Then they gathered to witness the sunrise and rejoiced when the sun rose north of the solstice point!  The Sun poles they had decorated were carried outside the village and erected  to the west with offerings to the twelve months of the new year.  The priests collected the Hutash and stored it for the next solstice and that ended the ceremony.  The wayward sun had been turned and a prosperous new year assured.

 

Link to Part 1

Link to Part 2

Link to Part 3

Link to Part 5

 

-- Courtney Miller

2 - How the Chumash turned the wayward sun around

 Part 2: The Alchuklash

The ancient Chumash Indians of Southern California (see Part 1), relied on their astronomer/priests to guide them in their daily lives and to protect the harmony of their world.  Each village had an astronomer/priest called the “Alchuklash” who possessed the ability to read the sky and make predictions; exert influence over the forces of nature through their connections with the heavens; resolve or preserve the peace among the villages; heal the sick; control the weather; and on and on.  For instance, at birth the Alchuklash would be on hand to name the child based upon the stars.  He had the power to bring rain or turn away storms.  The Alchuklash did this through his knowledge of the stars, sun, and moon similar to the way astrology is used to tell our fortune today.  Their ability and responsibilities gave them great power in their communities.

As Ray A. Williamson put it in his book “Living the Sky”, “The Alchuklash conducted their lives and made their observations of the skies under the basic assumption that the world of humans and everything else in the world were inextricably bound together.  The appropriate human actions could influence the workings of the rest of the cosmos, and vice versa.”

The greatest force in the sky was the sun.  The Chumash name for the sun meant “radiance of a child born on the winter solstice”.  From “Living the Sky, “The sun lived in the Upper World with his two daughters in a house made of quartz crystal.  His wives were the morning and evening stars.  In his daily travels across the sky, he not only carred the sun torch to light the world but also preyed on humans below.  His only clothing was a feather band around his head, into which he would stuff an occasional Chumash child as he traveled.  …  After reaching his house again at sunset, Sun would dine on the humans he chanced to gather up during the day.

“… Sun was a powerful being who brought life in the form of heat and light but could also bring death – presumably to those who deserved it, for he served as a moral symbol as well. ‘Never do anything that is prejudicial or unlawful and think that no one will see you,’ said the Chumash, ‘For while the sun is shining, an eye is here … .’”

The winter solstice was a time of great foreboding for the Chumash as it was for most ancient cultures.  The autumn equinox was a day of perfect balance – the day and the night were of equal length.  But each day after that, night became more dominant and days grew shorter.  Each day the sun traveled further and further south and left in its wake colder and more dreary weather.  Every year the Chumash relied on the Alchuklash to do something to stop the sun from leaving them for good.  They depended upon their astronomer/priests to stop the sun, turn him around and encourage him to start his travels northward again.

In the next segment of “How the Chumash turned the wayward sun around”, we will look at how the Alchuklash prepared for the winter solstice so that they could influence to the sun to turn around.

 

 

Link to Part 1

 

Link to Part 3

Link to Part 4

Link to Part 5


 

 

 

-- Courtney Miller