Who Are the Chumash Indians?
On Tuesday morning, October 10th, 1542, two small Spanish caravels, La Victoria, and San Salvador sailed into the Santa Barbara Channel. On board, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, commander of the expedition stood tall against the deck railings looking expectantly towards the distant beach (Miller, 1988, p. 17). When Cabrillo arrived in California, members of his expedition wrote the first descriptions of the Chumash people. Other explorers and missionaries followed, each adding their own observations to a growing historical record. Important details of Chumash life during Mission and Post-Mission times were told by the Chumash who survived into the Twentieth century: Fernando Librado, Kitsepawit, Juan de Jesus Justo, Luisa Ygnacio, Maria Solares and many others (Santa Barbara, 1982 & 1991, p. 4). The purpose of Cabrillo’s voyage, which started at Navidad, Mexico, on the 27th of June, was to explore the coast of New Spain and look for a new route to China. Three months later he had sailed far
