The Santa Ynez Chumash Museum and Cultural Center, which opened less than a month ago with a construction budget of $32 million, represents 8,000 years, or 350 generations, of Chumash life and culture to the present day.
It is fitting to start at the exit, where visitors leave the exhibit area through a glass-lined corridor painted with silhouettes of tribal ancestors, also walking. They see themselves reflected among the tribe, journeying together.
The museum’s design is based on curves, from the dome-topped Welcome House to the meandering layout of exhibits, echoing the intricate baskets that are a hallmark of the tribe. It was designed by JohnPaul Jones, a Native American architect who was the lead consultant on the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.
There are no linear paths here; instead, visitors enjoy a sense of unfolding, discovery and ultimately welcoming into the continuing journey of local Native people.
The museum, at 3500 Numancia St. in Santa Ynez, is open Thursday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Objects on view come from a collection of more than 24,000 items, drawn from a territory once encompassing 7,000 square miles, including Santa Barbara County, parts of Ventura, San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles and Kern counties, and four northern Channel Islands.
However, it isn’t just a look backward as much as it is a spotlight on the tribe’s resilience, enduring traditions and current circumstances.
“This museum is the Chumash’s rendition of what they are today, which starts with an immersion into their past,” Chumash Museum Director James Bier said.
That immersion begins with a blessing in Samala, the language spoken by Chumash who lived along the Santa Ynez River and, later, at Mission Santa Inés.
A large photograph of the tribe’s sacred Grass Mountain covered in poppies hangs above ceremonial offerings of acorns, chia seeds, and feathers displayed in ancient baskets and pottery. A Prayer Pole, like one on display, is taken to the mountain’s top each year.
Upon entry, a non-linear flow of exhibits is easily followed, naturally winding along a blue fabric “stream” embedded in the carpet.
Visitors are introduced to the tribe’s traditional world view in an intricate painting by Christopher Leith Evans. His large-scale realistic paintings also include six Chumash dancers in the Welcome House, and depictions of daily village life farther inside the museum.
Bier said Evans was chosen because of his ability to translate from the written word to visual media, which Bier attributes to the artist’s background in film creating matte paintings used in pre-CGI special effects for the early “Star Wars” movies and other films.
Evans’ painting of the Chumash world shows three levels, and each level has an exhibit area and its own interactive elements. In the Underworld, the push of a button activates an earthquake made by the giant rattlesnakes, as early Chumash believed, and the spooky “nunasis” (demonic entities) can be identified.
The upper world, shown atop the back of a flying hawk, is inhabited by Sky Coyote, Old Man Sun, Sky Eagle and other traditional figures. Their stories can be heard in both English and Samala through an interactive screen.
The middle world provides a deep dive into Chumash village life before the arrival of the Spanish in the 18th century. Five local villages are shown, anchored by Evan’s paintings, each shown in a different season and time of day.
Visitors can take a deep dive into one of many subjects as exhibits are presented thematically, grouped by food preparation, hunting, tool-making, clothing and regalia, fun and games, and more.
Costumes worn by the traditional dancers seen in the Welcome House paintings are on view, including one with a bear’s head. Detailed swordfish and barracuda dancers’ regalia are also shown. A huge California condor, important in Chumash mythology, hangs as if surveying its former domain.
Visitors not only see but also hear traditional musical instruments. Bier pushed the buttons to hear a deeply resonant bullroarer, a loud whistle made from a deer tibia, and a delicate bird-bone whistle.
“Kids love this,” he said.
The carpet’s blue pathway curves around a wall and brings visitors to the Land of the Dead, presented in song and legends, before moving into a large area focused on the tribe in the Mission era. Carefully selected artifacts and first-person accounts, both historic and contemporary, from tribal members tell this story.
A baptismal dress, worn by 14 boys and girls, is of special significance to Kathleen Marshall, chair of the museum’s board.
“It was made by my great-great-great-grandmother, and worn by my mother and three of my aunts,” she said. “My grandparents appear in one of the photographs.”
A basket woven by her grandmother, Rosa Cota, is displayed with other significant pieces from the museum’s basket collection. A touch screen allows visitors to learn more about each basket.
The recovery of the Samala language is detailed here, and visitors can enter a large “ap” (traditional building) to trigger projections of animated animals and hear their Samala names.
“It was important to us to share the whole story, which for me is one of resilience. It was a hard road, but we’re still here,” Marshall said. “Our goal is to educate the outside community and our community, and to allow our children to learn.”
An archive (and a future library) is open to tribal members “when they are ready to learn,” she added. “This will be a space for them to pull out the artifacts to study and see how our ancestors created them — a place to open doors.”
Bier noted, “Everything in this museum is authentic; nothing is a reproduction. Even if something is new, it was still made by a tribal member. It’s all real.”
The outside gardens feature a creek that meanders through 3.5 acres of native plants and trees, as well as live oaks with “family stones” honoring departed tribal members. The tribe’s 30-foot tomol (traditional redwood plank canoe), handmade in 2009, is here when not in use by the tribal maritime paddling group.
It is named “Muptamai,” which means “deep memories.”