Local News
Voyage will connect Chumash to roots
9/8/05
By NORA K. WALLACE
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
Tribal members to cross channel in traditional canoe
Descendants of the Central Coast's earliest settlers will re-create a historic ocean crossing Saturday morning, paddling across the choppy seas in a plank canoe.
It is only the third time in the past 150 years that members of the Chumash nations will attempt to cross the Santa Barbara Channel aboard a tomol, the traditional mode of Chumash transportation.
"The tomol crossings have become a symbolic testament of the modern Chumash connection to the rituals of our Chumash ancestors," explained Reggie Pagaling, a Santa Ynez Chumash tribal member who has participated in all three crossings. "The tomol has a special meaning for us, and the Santa Barbara Channel trip is significant because it places us on a journey that our ancestors took regularly so many years ago."
Tomols are plank canoes between 8 and 30 feet long, and are made using redwood trees.
Around 4 a.m. Saturday, Mr. Pagaling and members of the Santa Barbara Chumash Maritime Association will start the 21-mile voyage from the Channel Island Harbor in Oxnard. They expect the crossing to take about 10 hours, depending on the weather and sea conditions.
The paddlers, sitting on their knees for the entire voyage, will land at Scorpion Bay on Santa Cruz Island, where they expect to be met by supporters and other tribal members for a welcoming ceremony.
During the toughest part of the crossing, as they make their way across the open ocean, 10 paddlers will work in shifts. As the tomol nears the landing, a group of about 10 others -- those with less experience -- will be given a chance to participate, according to Mr. Pagaling.
During last year's crossing, an estimated 200 people met a group of paddlers at the landing site known as Limuw, once the largest Chumash village on the island and now part of Channel Islands National Park.
Chumash lived on the Channel Islands for thousands of years before Europeans arrived, and the tribe is known as a true maritime culture, National Park experts said. The tomol is the oldest known oceangoing watercraft in North America, according to the park service.
Frances Snyder, spokeswoman for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, said tomols were used to create an extensive trading network among villages. The last tomols used for fishing were made in the mid-1800s, she said.
In 1913, a Chumash man named Fernando Librado made a tomol for well-known anthropologist John P. Harrington. Mr. Harrington's extensive notes were used as blueprints for the making of modern tomols, Ms. Snyder said.
On Sept. 8, 2001, Chumash paddlers crossed the channel in a tomol for the first time in 150 years.
Supporters of the paddlers can travel to the landing site via Island Packers Cruisers of Ventura. A celebration will take place when the paddlers arrive.
"There is tremendous pride and profound joy after such a crossing," said Mr. Pagaling.