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Written by Josh Smallwood (Cherokee) While I stood at the kitchen counter with my wife’s blender set on high, I watched the deer brains being blended into a thick strawberry-colored milkshake consistency and wondered how this must have been done by my Native ancestors. As a kid, my dad was the first to pique my interest…

Written by Josh Smallwood (Cherokee) I stumbled across Chumash Science Through Time while researching where in the Chumash Nation my wife and I should go for stargazing. I came across a video of respected elder Alan Salazar talking about Chumash astronomy and the summer solstice, recounting the Chumash story of the Pleiades constellation. In short,…

The Chumash Science Through Time blog features guest blogs from Indigenous writers.  The following essay from Michelle and Kim Perez explores Chumash ecological knowledge in the context of broader conversations about Traditional Ecological Knowledge.  Before we begin this article, we ask for forgiveness from our elders and relatives with more knowledge and experience than us.…

The Arborglyph is a tree carving in nitspu tiƗhin ktityu (in the world of the yak titʸu titʸu yak tiƗhini), representing a map of the movement of the stars throughout the year. It was left by an`Alchuklash or Chumash astronomer, reminding us of the ways that our traditional knowledge connects us with our place in…