A CHUMASH HALLOWEEN

"Demon: One Leg
"A one-legged demon of the middle world, who utilizes a stick (crutch) to roam about. The Chumash call him the Paka Asil and he is presumably one-legged because the other half of him is in the supernatural realm. Compare Demon: Spear-throwing. Terms: Pa'ka As'i'l means a one-legged being. Pak'a means one (Yee/Whistler, Dictionary, 22; "one-legged spook" and "another name for xuy"). 'I'l means a leg (12; also means a foot). Thus Saqipakas means to go on one leg (Samala). Compare Xuy.

Demon: Cat
A number of Chumash demons are in the cat family. The Maxulaw (Crying demon) looks like a cat (Blackburn, December, 94; Qiliqutayiwit) and is presumably a mountain lion.

Poxono
The Poxono demon wore woman's clothing and carried a walking stick which he threw to kill from a great distance. The Poxono... caused earthquakes. Kwan Xustu explained that: "You thought it was a woman, but it's a man! It only dresses like a woman..." (Blackburn, December, 222). In Another tale by M.S. Qiliqutayiwit, the Pohono tried to get two brothers to believe it was their parental aunt, while it tried to seize them and throw them into its boiling basket of tar. This demon had its back open between the shoulder-blades so that its heart was visible (Blackburn, December, 111).

Witch
The Chumash, like many of the European Christians who invaded California, believed in witchcraft (which often occurred within one's own family, or among neighbors). The Chumash cultural hero often confronts a "witch" who was killing the people, as in A Chumash Christmas (Anderson, 1995). Some witches are blind [their vision is directed to the supernatural world] as in Qilikutayiwit's grabbing witch (Blackburn, December, 107) See Two Hearts and Demon: Grabbing for related discussion. Compare Warlock (male witch).

Mosquitoes: Heavenly.
One of the guardians of the 'portal' located in the central sky [an entrance into the supernatural realm] were giant mosquitoes, which attacked unwelcomed visitors to the heavens and sucked their blood until they died. Terms: Pi'wi means a mosquito (Yee/Whistler, Dictionary, 23); one root may be 'U'w meaning to take a bite (53).

Night
Qiliqutayiwit explained that the demons came out only "after night falls" (Blackburn, December, 93). They cease their demonic activity before dusk, when they enter the streams of the earth (middle world) to cleanse themselves and thereby made these bodies of water steam in the early morning light. The Nunashish faded away at daybreak because they were stars out-shown by the rising brilliance of the Sun (compare the stars which dip below the horizon at some point in their rotations). See Supernatural for related discussion. Compare Moon for the neutral supernatural who serves as a judge (referee) in the nightly competition (gambling) of the other gods. Terms: Ulkuw means to be night (Yee/Whistler, Dictionary, 35; also means to be early in the morning; thus Sulkuw means to be night). Ulkuw has the connotation of being other worldly, as in 'Alulkuy which means to be of the spirit world.

Atishwin
The term Atishwin means power in Chumash, and refers specifically to supernatural power of the spirit. Humans, who dwell in the Middle World have relatively little spiritual power, as compared to the powerful supernaturals of the Upper and Lower Worlds.

To understand the Chumash demons (Nunashish) and other frightening beings such as ghosts, one needs to understand the nature of 'Atishwin, or power. Applegate argues that power is a "dangerously amoral force" in the cosmology of the native Californians (Atishwin, 15). Blackburn repeats this cosmology, in his argument that power is amoral. "Morality is egotistic and essentially situational in nature (December, 68). But both Applegate and Blackburn are probably incorrect, in that power obtained by humans from the supernaturals of the Upper world apparently differs from power obtained from the supernaturals of the Lower World. The supernaturals of the Upper world (upper heavens, consisting of stars which rotate around the pole star and never touch the earth during their rotation) do obey 'rules.' These beings, however, are withdrawn from normal human contact.

Thus, it is the supernaturals of the Lower world (lower heavens, consisting of stars which rotate in the heavens and touch the earth's horizon) which demonstrate relatively egotistic and essentially situational ethical behavior. Unfortunately for mankind, these are the supernaturals which are the most accessible to humans, causing great joy and pain. The demons called the Nunashish are the most damaging of these lower heaven supernaturals (stars). They have great 'Atishwinic power, but it is damaging to mankind.

Flute
The flute is the preeminent Chumash musical instrument, capable of white magic. It could chase away demons, and resurrect the dead (Blackburn, December, 108; Qiliqutayiwit). See the flute-playing demon slayer (Blackburn, December, 110, Qiliqutayiwit). Lizard in Enememe's Friends (Anderson, 1998) for further discussion. Also see Tales For the Christmas Season (Anderson 1996) for narratives about the Mohave and Chumash flute-playing heroes. Compare Demon: Medicine to Counteract.

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Onokok Qiliqutayiwit: Onokok is the granddaughter of M.S. Qilikutyaiwit, a leading Chumash historian who is best known by her Spanish name Maria Solares. Onokok is a Samala (Inezeno) Chumash and the director of the Inezeno Chumash Revitalization Project.

Onokok emailed me to say that some of the titles of my web pages "made me cringe." One of these cringing titles was this web page on Halloween. She wrote: Those stories [from her ancestors] have passed down through many generations orally, and never has the content or meaning been misconstrued until the last thirty years or so. You see [they have not been misconstrued before that] because they have been passed the way they have been [originally told]. That is what has kept them alive, kept us alive, kept us with an understanding of who we are and what we are supposed to do and say and feel. When you twist them, to make them user friendly, what do you think you are doing? Those stories are for our teachings. And we understand them. We don't need translations; it wasn't meant for anyone else to understand, but us... All we have left as Indian people is what could be told orally. Please don't white-wash it. For example- if a Chumash person was trying to find more out about who they were and looked at your page, they would come to believe we celebrate X-mas or Halloween. They wouldn't be learning the real reasons why these stories are told. They would settle for something they read instead of seeking out a Chumash person to find out the real stuff. People believe in what people write, especially authors with degrees. There is a whole other world, separate from that which is written about us. I mean this on a spiritual level..." (December 31, 1998, email).

Response: Onokok has made some good points here, and she is not the first Chumash person to contact me to discuss these and related matters. One of the problems is that the focus of most of my books is on a non-Indian readership. The books with Chumash themes are meant to speak to people who have little, and often virtually no, background information about the Chumash. Yet they are interested in learning more, and are willing to overcome the prejudices embodied in the curriculum of California schools for generations.

Given the fact that most of us who went to high school and college in California were taught that the Chumash were extinct, very often we have shown indifference to their culture out of programmed ignorance. But times are changing, and I get letters and emails from non-Chumash who feel they need some interpretative help in understanding the old songs, poems, folk tales, speeches, and histories written down by anthropologists and other scholars who have worked with the Chumash. Hopefully, my writing provide some help.

The problem goes deeper. Onokok speaks with great sensitivity of the importance of accurate preservation of the Chumash oral heritage. And, as she points out, growing up in a Chumash family gives her and others like her a unique insight into her ancestral heritage. I acknowledge that I cannot partake of this unique insight, but what I can do is present a view of Chumash traditional culture that is unique to my 'outsider' background.

Actually, many Chumash have struggled with this type of problem for the last two hundred years as they have been forced through a series of European invasions to adjust to an dual cultural existence. Kitsepawit, for example, discussed the participation of Chumash in All Saints Day celebrations at the missions. In Ventura, for example, the Lulapin Chumash "placed candles on all of the graves in the cemetery. "The cemetery outside was a blaze of light" The Chumash paid the priest twenty-five cents for each requiem song that the three singers performed for the repose of someone's departed ancestor(Hudson, Breath, 74). So we can see that, for some Chumash, Halloween was an active part of their lives. 'Alls Saints Day is a commemorative holiday for all the saints of the church, celebrated on November 1. By the medieval ages of Europe, the festival was known as All Hallows, and its eve came to be known as Halloween.