THE CALIFORNIA HOLOCAUST & KITSEPAWIT

The Chumash Indians, who lived north of the modern city of Los Angeles, suffered devastating population declines long before the Spanish invaded California from their colonial stronghold in Mexico.

Plagues introduced by visiting sailors who landed on the Chumash islands (Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, Anacapa) swept through the coastal seaports of the Chumash with heartbreaking speed. As a result, the Spanish succeeded in 'reducing' these coastal regions without the expense and loss of life to their soldiers. A full scale military operation against the powerful Chumash alliance, was untenable at this early date of European colonial expansion.

It is probable that diseases that ravaged California were also spread by contacts with native travelers and refugees, who [routinely] traveled to the Pacific coast [from the contemporary states of Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico]. The Colorado River tribes, such as the Mohave and the Yuman, first contacted the ravaging European diseases as they spread north from Mexico. In turn, they dispersed these diseases to the coastal tribes with whom they traded.

F.L. Kitsepawit, a leading Chumash historian, cited three holocaustal "plagues" which devastated the Chumash people prior to the invasion of California by American troops.

N. Wech, a Lulapin Chumash from the town of Simomo, taught Kitsepawit this ancient history (Eye of the Flute, page 31). Simomo was a very large seaport, located on the Mugu slough a little east of Oxnard.

Catastrophe One A pestilence started in Simomo [on the Mugu Slough east of Oxnard; presumedly as a result of deseases spread by Spanish ships visiting the Chumash channel towns]. Many families fled the mass deaths and resettled nearby at Mitskanaka, next to the important seaport of Shisholop (Flute, 11). Shisholop was located on the beach at Ventura, California, and Mitskanaka was located at what later became the San Buenaventura mission site.

Catastrophe Two This pestilence hit Mitskanaka, after the Simomo refugees multiplied. "People went about feeling sick, until they fell backwards, dead" (Flute, 11).

Catastrophe Three Civil war was the third pestilence to hit the Chumash living along the coast of Ventura county. K. Kipikip taught Kitsepawit about this bitter civil discord, when Kipikip was so old that he could no longer walk (Flute, 11),

* Information on these events appears in Kitsepawit's historical account called The Eye of the Flute, which was published by the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History in 1997. The divisive civil war was presumably brought on by massive population relocations brought on by diseases spread by Spanish sailors visiting the Chumash coast. At the time of the 1769 Spanish invasion of California, the town of Simomo had recovered much of its population and was very influential among the Chumash living on the coast of Ventura county. It served as a center of resistance to the Spanish 'mission' that was built at Mitskanaka in 1782 [John Anderson, March 2000].

Catastrophe Four

Chumash narratives typically are divided into four phases or elements. The first three introduce the subject matter, such as a moral dilemma or an unresolved historical process. When I read Kitsepawit's commentary about the three catastrophes, therefore, I find myself looking for the fourth phase, which so often completes a narrative process.

The brutal occupation of California by the Spanish, Mexicans, and Americans almost certainly is the fourth and culminating catastrophic event in modern Chumash history. Kitsepawit hints at this explanation, but apparently was too polite to say so directly to his American interviewer [John Harrington].

What Kitsepawit did say was that he and other Chumash living in the 1910's were the fourth generation who were living when "all is lost" (Flute, 31). Kitsepawit described this historical period as "the conquest" (Flute, 31). Events that were prophesied by earlier spiritual leaders, such as N. Wech, had come true, and traditionalists like Kitsepawit complained that many Chumash no longer paid attention to the "old traditions" [Anderson, March 2000].