Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Teacher Field Reports

Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Teacher Field Reports

J. Gallatin/Madison School: . . . . Tue, Aug 28, 4:38PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Destination 1 --- Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (Internet site-buttonbutton Elevation 12 ft Latitude 34.44395 Longitude -119.78819 …………….. ……. …….. ……..

J. Gallatin/Madison School: . . . . Tue, Aug 28, 4:39PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Tuesday, July 17, 2001 Anthropology Exhibit: Two femurs from a female human were found in Arlington Canyon on Santa Rosa Island. These 14,000 old bones are the oldest human remains found in North America. 14,000 years ago, North America was still covered with too much ice to allow humans to cross the land bridge. It is now believed people came to North America by watercraft, and settled along California. Different settlements would account for the 60 different languages among the California Native Americans. button The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History has the second largest collections of baskets made by the Chumash. button One basket, decorated with images copied from Spanish coins, was made as a gift for the governor of Mexico. A dedication was later added to the rim. . Tuesday, July 17, 2001

J. Gallatin/Madison School: . . . . Tue, Aug 28, 4:42PM PST (-0800 GMT)
button One of the unique characteristics of the Chumash basket is that baskets were made always coiling to the right. The plant used for the structure of all Chumash baskets was the juncus plant. The black coloring used to create the stylized designs was made by burying the harvested juncus in mud. The darker brown coloring comes from the lower portion of the juncus. ..

J. Gallatin/Madison School: . . . . Tue, Aug 28, 4:43PM PST (-0800 GMT)

J. Gallatin/Madison School: . . . . Tue, Aug 28, 4:44PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Dr. Johnson took us to the storage area where we saw the seven baskets that the museum wishes to purchase from a private party. The acquisition of these baskets will make the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum's collection of Chumash baskets the largest in the world.

Lynda Bloomquist-Madison School: . . . . Fri, Aug 31, 12:04AM PST (-0800 GMT)
On Tuesday, July 17, we went to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. There were several areas of interest to me in exploring life in early California. I am especially fascinated with the Pygmy Mammoth… As a child I felt that everything that had been discovered about prehistoric life was complete. I was always disappointed that there was not much written about the discoveries in the United States. The discovery of the Pygmy Mammoth has made me realize the dynamics of the study of paleontology and anthropology. It is speculated that the mammoths swam to the islands during the time before glaciers began to melt about 40,000 years ago. button Perhaps they were enticed to the islands by the scent of vegetation. At that time the Channel Islands formed one large island referred to as Santarosae.

Lynda Bloomquist-Madison School: . . . . Fri, Aug 31, 12:08AM PST (-0800 GMT)
button The distance between the mainland and the island was, perhaps, only about ten miles. During the period between 40,000 years ago and 10,000 years ago, the mammoth underwent a change in size. It is interesting to look at the timeline to see when the first human life is evident as compared to the age of the Pygmy Mammoth remains. The age of the last Pygmy Mammoth bones discovered are about as old the oldest human bones that have been discovered.

Cressa, Miramonte: . . . . Wed, Aug 8, 11:24AM PST (-0800 GMT)
Museum of Natural History…… button Our second destination was the Museum of Natural History. Here I visited the Chumash room, Marine exhibit, Pygmy Mammoth exhibit and last, the butterfly exhibit. When entering the Chumash room I pondered, “What might my generation and the Chumash have in common. As I looked through the room and read the inscription on each of the exhibits I discovered finally that we do have one thing in common. We both use and have used the technology of our time to adapt to our own environment. They developed bows and arrows to be more effective hunters while we have developed self-service check stand to accommodate the high volume of customers in convenient stores. Thus making them more convenient. A camp internet resource connected to the Pygmy mammoth is button

Wendy Morrison/Charles Mack Elementary: . . . . Wed, Aug 8, 11:57AM PST (-0800 GMT)
Wendy Morrison………….. Field Report………………. Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara…………… On August 8, 2001, I visited the Museum of Natural History in Santa Barbara. button This is a wonderful museum of many different displays. My main focus is the Chumash Indian display. The Chumash were wonderful for making baskets that were used to carry their food such as acorns, fish, tuna, shell fish, nuts and plants native to the area. The Santa Barbara Museum has the second largest collections of baskets made by the Chumash. One basket was made as a gift for the governor of Mexico. One interesting fact about the baskets were that they were made always coiling to the right, made from the juncos plant. button The Chumash did beautiful work on their baskets. The Chumash were the first settlers here in the Santa Barbara area. They wore animal skins over the womens bottom half of their bodies, and some jewelry. The Chumash did not use clay pottery, they were pots used from soapstone. button

Hoover&NietoVic: . . . . Thu, Aug 9, 12:26AM PST (-0800 GMT)
DESTINATION #3 SANTA BARBARA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY FIELD REPORT 08/09/2001 TEAM #9 JOE NIETO & HOWARD HOOVER Our third and final destination during the Camp Internet training was the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. There were many scientific aspects to discover in this museum, but we were the most interested in the Chumash hall exhibit. There was a wide array of exhibits pertaining to this particular Native American tribe. Just outside the museum entrance was a whale skeleton display. It is believed that the Lone Woman used such bones as building materials. The exact location of the museum is as follows: Latitude = 34.44116° Longitude = -119.71488° Elevation = 299 feet The Chumash were primarily a hunter and gatherer culture. There were abundant amounts of tuna, acorns, seeds, bulbs, green plants, deer, bears, and pine nuts in the area. It is also said that there were herds of antelope and elk to be hunted. There were various preparation and storage containers on display in the museum hall. We viewed baskets and large mortars and pestles that were used by the Chumash for pounding food. Below is a sketching of a Chumash steatite pot used for cooking. The clothing and housing of the Chumash people came directly from natural sources of hunting and gathering. The loincloth type clothing consisted of animal hides and skins. The babies appeared to be dressed in small game furs such as rabbit and fox. Their homes were made of reeds that were gathered in the area. The dwellings are circular in shape and look somewhat like a dome. The house is built by first erecting a skeletal structure out of willow. This was covered with layers of overlapping reed, starting from the bottom and working toward the top. There was an opening left at the top so smoke could escape during the winter months when fires where kept burning inside the dwellings for warmth. For more information, log onto the museum’s web page at

jzalom: . . . . Wed, Jul 18, 1:48PM PST (-0800 GMT)
.....We visited the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum (button and listened to an interesting presentation by interpreter John Johnson about the Chumash way of life. We observed the design and use of basketry and other tools for food preparation and storage. We listened to the Chumash language which was recorded in the early 1900's by an anthropologist who worked with the Chumash people for many decades. Many records were preserved at the missions and he used these to elucidate Chumash geneology.

Irene of SB High: . . . . Wed, Jul 18, 2:04PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Irene's visit to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History..... button here is the exhibits page button is the website for the museum...... The Chumash Hall had a very good display of the materials that the Chumash used ......

Lisa: . . . . Wed, Jul 18, 2:07PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Trip to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History button ……… Yesterday we visited the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. We were fortunate enough to have John Johnson, Curator of Anthropology, as our guide. He is an expert on the Chumash people and taught us a lot……….Many scientists believe that the First Americans entered North America by an ice bridge that extended the Bering Strait. They were then thought to have traveled south between two receding ice sheets. Dr. Johnson told us about a theory that they may have traveled down the coast, implying a need for a craft to travel on the ocean. A very interesting idea……..The Chumash people were excellent basket weavers. Their baskets were tightly woven and had beautiful designs and patterns. The museum has a wonderful collection. We were even able to view several baskets the museum is hoping to purchase. These baskets were so tightly woven that they were able to hold liquids. Acorn mush was boiled in these baskets by hot rocks that were added………I was also excited to learn about the Gabrielinos. They were the Chumash who lived on the Channel Islands……… ……… Check out this site for more info on the Gabrielinos button

Irene of SB High: . . . . Wed, Jul 18, 2:09PM PST (-0800 GMT)
This is my report. Here’ the address of the museum button here’s a picture of the chumash

Pam Shetler: . . . . Wed, Jul 18, 2:20PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Posting #3! Sorry. The Santa Barbara Museum has a wealth of information Its permanent collection includes tremendous information on the Chumash Indians. button . The Chumash did not make pottery. They hollowed out bowls from whale spinal bones. They were additionally excellent weavers... Baskets were very important in their lives for "gathering, storing, preparing and serving food, holding water, keeping money and other valuables, measuring acorns for trade, carrying babies, in gambling, as gifts, and for ceremonies." button ...The museum currently has an excellent special exhibit on butterflies. There are areas specialized for children. The most interesting exhibit is an outdoor 'aviary' of live butterflies. The museum has planted butterfly attracting vegetation. The butterflies gently fly throughout the area, occasionally lighting on the visitors....The Camp Internet website also has tremendous information about the Indians of the Southwest, including the Chumash. You can find that information here. button …The museum has a large zoological collection as well. The information on the pygmy mammoths is especially interesting. The museum store has a small book on the pygmy mammoths and their interesting story for only $5.95.

Dante: . . . . Wed, Jul 18, 2:12PM PST (-0800 GMT)
At the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum, we had the opportunity to observe the "behind the scenes" laboratory where the anthropoligists do their work. button We learned the four tenants of anthropology, all of which are conducted at the Museum: archeology, linguistics, ethnology, and alkdjfkljd. We saw samples of baskets the museum is trying to buy from a private collector as well as shell jewelery in the climate-controlled room. Visit this site to see the entrance to the museum.

K Roberts at Hawaiian: . . . . Wed, Jul 18, 2:33PM PST (-0800 GMT)
TRIP TO SANTA BARBARA NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM button On Tuesday, July 17, 2001, our Camp Internet group was given a tour of the museum by anthropologist, John Johnson. He led us to many fascinating rooms, buildings, and Chumash Indian exhibits …….. ……… My favorite part of the whole day was visiting the live butterfly exhibit which was housed inside a netted area that reminded me of a bird atrium I visited years ago at the Palm Springs Wildlife Reserve. It was so beautiful just walking around watching butterflies lick/sip nectar from the sunlit garden of flowers and dishes of cut fruit with their long, hair-like unwound tongues. For quite a while, I sat on a wooden bench just taking in the entire scene of hundreds of butterflies floating around, with mothers and children and teachers expressing joy, awe, and thrill to see so many unusual, tame creatures up-close. The docent volunteers were more than happy to help me and others identify each butterfly that landed nearby using a preprinted field guide sheet as they discussed this creature’s brief life cycle: mating (which went on right before us); egg laying; caterpillar-ravenous-eating and genetically-driven cocoon spinning; larva transforming to butterflies which were finally brought to this flower filled, nectar abundant haven to start the cycle all over again. It was a moment out of time, out of normal existence to sit and watch. I wish I could have stayed there all day, but our schedule pulled me away to reality and back to work.

margo mccormick johnson school: . . . . Wed, Jul 18, 2:34PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Margo's report from Santa Barbara Natural History Museum. 7-18-01... There website is: buttonNow lets get started DrJohns is a wealth of information. I found it amazing that the Northern Channel Island inhabited by the Chumash spoke a very different language that the natives of the Southern Islands . The chumash created tightly woven baskets which are extremly rare, currently there are three tribal members who are trying To revive this craft...Next we learned about the oldest fossil remains found in the North American. These remains of a woman were found on Santa Rose Island next to a pigmy mammoth. button The museum was a wondrous place to just explore and quietly set by mission creek and imagine how the chumash lived. It would have been interesting to visit one of the Island to understand how the chumash embraced Their environment.

Gaby: . . . . Wed, Jul 18, 2:34PM PST (-0800 GMT)
The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, has a huge variety of learning resources. As well as the exhibits of the history and anthropology of the Chumash Indians, button there is a changing exhibition, such as the butterflies showing now, and an extensive library of books on California social studies...... The exhibit on the Chumash Indians will be most useful to me when I begin teaching the 4th graders in my class about the history of California and how they fit into the geography of the Earth. How the first humans came to the continent of North America is clearly visualized in pictures and words. This concept was even more clearly realized by the map John Johnson showed. He said that the most recent theory says that the first humans to migrate from Asia to N. America came along the coast, probably in sea craft. This has been supported by the discovery of the Santa Rosa, woman who must have had some type of sea craft to get to the island where she lived 13,000 years ago. button ………………………The exhibit also shows the cultural changes that the Chumash society experienced to the present time including examples of the oral language and a phonetic version researched by John Harrington, one of the foremost scholars of the Chumash. Some examples of objects in the exhibit are a boat made with the help of a man who made boat as a boy, cooking vessels and baskets made by the Chumash. Clothes and houses, beads made of olive shells which were used for money and a wide variety of other things.

. . . . Wed, Jul 18, 2:36PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Howdy All! I want to welcome you to the latest report from the WAKE Center in Goleta. We have been asked by out fearless leaders to write a field report about our adventures yesterday at the Museum of Natural History. Check out their web site, it’s really cool. button While we were at the museum we were with a scientist by the name of Dr. Johns. His field of expertise is anthropology, with emphasis in the history of the Channel Islands and it’s in habitants. His is passionate about the Chumash Indians, their genealogy, cultural history, and much more. While he was giving us the tour through the museum a women walked in. He greeted her and she him, then he introduced her to us and explained that she was Chumash. She then greeted us and began to share with us about her personal story and how she new very little about her culture until she was well into her twenties. button She was teaching a Chumash cultural class for kids, kind of a summer day camp.

Irene: . . . . Wed, Jul 18, 3:30PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Irene’s report from the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History… The website of the museum is button The Chumash Hall has a representation of the history, materials, and life of the Chumash Indians There were a number of examples of food gathering, preparation and storage containers such as milling slabs, hand stones, metates, woven baskets, mortars and pestles, stearite pots for cooking, and abalone shells….Some of the cooking vessels were made from carved soapstone. The items that were used for clothing included, feathers, fur, skins, and items for ornamentation…. The housing consisted of round huts made of willow or sycamore for the frame and tule for thatch…. The location of the museum was N. 34.44099. latitude and –119.7104 longitude. The elevation was 220 feet… Juncus textillis is the scientific name for the basketry rush that the Chumash used for their finely woven baskets… The museum is currently raising money to purchase more baskets for their collection which all have right coiling with a principal band and rim ticking The museum currently has a collection of baskets that is second only to the Smithsonian. Dr. John Johnston of the Anthropology section was our guide. He provided a wonderful insight into the history of the Chumash…..