UC Merced Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology Title Chia and the Chumash: A Reconsideration of Sage Seeds in Southern California Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7d33504g Journal Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 8(1) ISSN 0191-3557 Author Timbrook, Jan Publication Date 1986-07-01 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 50-64 (1986) Chia and the Chumash: A Reconsideration of Sage Seeds in Southern California JAN TIMBROOK, Dept. of Anthropology, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, 2559 Puesta del Sol Rd., Santa Barbara, CA 93105. A-IURING several years of research on Chu­ by a brief comparative summary of sage seed mash ethnobotany, I have sought information use among other southern California peoples. from a wide variety of sources. The most It is then suggested that the prevailing fruitful of these have been John P. Harring­ views in the archaeological literature have ton's unpublished ethnographic and linguistic been derived from incorrect interpretations field notes, ^ the extant plant specimens in of ethnohistorical data and from errors in the Harrington collection at the National historical documents. Finally, I comment on Anthropological Archives, and historical resource availability and food preferences as documents written by early observers of they relate to the question of sage seed Chumash culture. exploitation. When the available data were compiled on This problem is important because it Chumash use of sages (the genus Salvia), it affects our assumptions that settlement loca­ became apparent that information collected tion depends on accessibility to critical by Harrington did not agree with the picture resources such as water and food supplies. presented in most published writings on the The identification of these food resources is Chumash. On the one hand, the archaeolog­ a key to interpreting the archaeological re­ ical literature generally asserts that the cord and, in turn, to developing an under­ Chumash and their ancestors ate seeds of all standing of subsistence and settlement pat­ four of the most abundant local sage species: terns in prehistoric southern California. one annual herb (commonly known as chia CHIA AND THE CHUMASH [Salvia columbariae]), and three perennial shrubs (black, white and purple sages [Salvia Chumash methods of preparing food from mellifera, S. apiana, and 5. leucophylla], chia seeds are described repeatedly through­ respectively). Archaeologists have begun to out Harrington's notes: the seeds were apply the vernacular term "chia" to the toasted in soapstone oUas or with hot coals seeds of all these species of sage plants. in a basket, then pounded before being eaten But, according to Harrington's consultants, either mixed with water into a thin gruel or the Chumash ate the seeds of only one sage molded into dry cakes. According to species, the annual Salvia columbariae, and Harrington's Chumash consultants, the that was the only one to which they applied pounding was done in a mortar, not in a me- the name "chia." In this paper the term tate or on a shallow milling stone. Both "chia" refers only to that species, following Fernando Librado of Ventura and Maria So- the usage of Harrington's consultants and lares of Santa Ynez said that chia meal or most botanical reference works. drink was consumed a little at a time, be­ The available information on Chumash tween bites of other foods, to vary the taste use of sage seeds is presented first, followed and cleanse the palate (Harrington MS). [50] CHL\ AND THE CHUMASH 51 Harrington's notes offer little evidence to as itepesh, "chia" or "chia fina" ["fine" or support the use of seeds from the three lo­ "delicate chia"], and paj, "chia gruesa" cal sage species which are large, woody ["coarse chia"]. Harrington's Kitanemuk shrubs. The plant from which chia seeds consultants also spoke of "chia" and were collected was described by Fernando "another kind of chia," the latter being less Librado: "The chia is low and never grows preferred. This "other kind" has been over two feet high." Several consuUants identified from a specimen as thistle sage discussed methods of harvesting chia seeds (Salvia carduacea). (Harrington MS): Chia may be considered an item of high They just put a basket under it and hit it cultural significance, according to linguistic with a seedbeater. It is easy to pick. clues. Most of Harrington's consultants provided names for chia in one or more They beat it into a basket 1 ft. in diam­ Chumashan languages (Table 1), but few eter and 6-8" high. Empty this mto a larger basket... knew names for any of the other species. Lucrecia Garcia, the Barbareiio consultant They would pile chia and thrash chia with who collected the specimens, was the only the seedbeater. one who provided names for Salvia leuco­ The use of a hooked pole to pull the seed phylla and S. mellifera. These appear to be heads over the basket was confirmed by descriptive terms rather than true names, as some consultants and denied by others. one component of the binomial ['olkopkop Some described holding the gathering basket "herb"] was also applied to several kinds of between the knees, or "beating the bush" grasses. If no true names existed for the with the seedbeater, which might indicate a woody perennial sage species, or if the relatively large plant. names could not be recalled by Harrington's Nonetheless, most of the evidence favors consultants, it might indicate these plants chia being a low, herbaceous plant. The two were less important to the Chumash. local sage species which best fit this When California Indian people began to description are Salvia columbariae, commonly speak Spanish, a second set of vernacular called "chia," and S. carduacea, thistle sage names was introduced. People seem to have (Fig. 1). A third herbaceous species, 5. applied these new names to the indigenous spathacea, hummingbird sage, has a sticky categories. Harrington's Chumash consul­ involucre which would prevent harvesting of tants used the Spanish common name "chia," seeds with a seedbeater. like the Chumash word 'itepesh, to refer to At least two Chumash consultants men­ both the seeds and the plant itself. I have tioned that there were two kinds of chia, not found any indication in Harrington's although no labeled specimens are extant to field notes or plant specimens that the Chu­ confirm this. A Ventureno consultant said mash people themselves applied the term that "there are two kinds of chia, a coarser "chia" to the seeds of more than one kind and a finer kind. The finer kind is pre­ of sage. While the Chumash did eat the ferred" (Harrington MS). In addition to his young shoots of woody perennial sages and own notes, Harrington's collection contains used the leaves and shoots in medicine and some notebooks written by Ventureiio Juan offerings, Harrington's notes do not indicate Estevan Pico, who worked with Henshaw in that the seeds of these plants were ever the 1880s. Pico listed the two kinds of chia collected. 52 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY Chia (Salvia columbariae) Fig. 1. The "two kinds of chia" described by Chumash and Kitanemuk consultants (3/8 natural size). CHIA AND THE CHUMASH 53 Table 1 CHUMASH NAMES FOR SALVIA SPECIES Species BarbareAo Ventureno Ineseno Spanish 5. ap(an<i* (white sage) xapcix salvia real S. carduacea (thistle sage) pax chia gruesa S. columbariae (chia) 'ilepesh 'itepesh 'i'lepesh chia S. leucophylla* (purple sage) 'olkopkop lunepepez salvia [ ='herb'~'gray"] S. mellifera* (black sage) 'alastaxcuy, salvia verde 'olkopkopjilxulapcan [ = 'heib' 'green'] S. spathacea* qimc diocita (hummingbird sage) no name recorded identified from specimen collected and labeled by Harrington's consultant Lucrecia Garcia, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. Harrington (MS) went through Jepson's All of the southern CaUfornia groups for 1925 manual and noted that the sage family whom information is available ate the seeds included the following plants: "chia, white of at least one to as many as all four of sage, black sage, yerba buena." He equated these species. Cahuilla and Luiseiio ate all chia with Salvia columbariae and the four kinds (Bean and Saubel 1972:136; Spark- Barbareiio Chumash name 'ilepesh, but did man 1908:196). The Tubatulabal and Kitane­ not give Spanish or Chumash names for the muk ate seeds of two species, chia sage and other species. He, too, apparently was thistle sage (Voegelin 1938; Harrington MS); certain that the category "chia" did not the Costanoan ate only chia (Levy 1978:491; include the other sage species listed. Bocek 1984:253). None of the groups sur­ veyed seem to have eaten seeds of purple SAGE SEEDS sage (5. leucophylla). IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Most southern California peoples made Is the Chumash information gleaned from distinctions between one kind of sage seeds Harrington's notes consistent with patterns and another. Preference was usually ex­ among other southern California Indian peo­ pressed for chia, S. columbariae. For ex­ ples? A survey of the ethnographic litera­ ample, species of sages were used for seed ture turned up fairly good data for six flour by the Diegueiio, "especially Salvia groups (Cahuilla, Luiseiio, Diegueiio, Tiibatu- columbariae, chia" (Luomala 1978:600); and labal, Costanoan, and Kitanemuk), and less among the Luiseiio the seeds of chia were adequate for four more (Salinan, Fernan- "much more esteemed than any other" deiio, Gabrielino, and Serrano). (Sparkman 1908:196). Kitanemuk consultants Both the seeds and green parts of various Magdalena Olivas and Eugenia Mendez said sage species were employed in food, medicine that the "other kind of chia," thistle sage, and ceremony by Indian peoples throughout was "not very good-tasting but [they] used much of California.