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This is our first guest blog post! Welcome to the next phase of the Chumash Science Through Time blog where we will feature guest blogs from Indigenous writers talking about Indigenous Science. The following essay from Nazbah Tom gives us a chance to reflect on the ways that ceremony and kinship are key parts of…

Indigenous cultures all over the world use their knowledge of the solar system to navigate land and water, keep calendars, predict weather, and inform culture. Like most forms of indigenous science, storytelling carries traditional astronomical knowledge from generation to generation. Unfortunately for many indigenous people like the Chumash, colonization has taken a toll on our…

The Chumash Science Through Time Project developed a 5th grade lesson plan that combines the objectives of understanding the Earth’s place in the universe and understanding indigenous knowledge as scientific and relevant. This lesson uses Next Generation Science Standards combined with astronomical knowledge associated with a Chumash tree carving.  It can be adapted into more…

Starting at Mission Santa Ines and spreading to Mission Santa Barbara, and Mission La Purisima the Revolt of 1824 was the largest organized resistance movement to occur during the Spanish and Mexican periods in California. There is a significant body of work surrounding this uprising, but here are four things you should know: #1 The…

In Alan Salazar’s work as a storyteller, he speaks with young people about the ways of the Chumash people and the importance of not only thinking of Chumash people as hunter-gathers but also business people. Chumash people shaped Olivella shells to produce beads that were traded like money. A Chumash called for this bead money…