UC Merced The Journal of California Anthropology Title Chumash Canoes of Mission Santa Barbara: the Revolt of 1824 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6362h81j Journal The Journal of California Anthropology, 3(2) Author Hudson, Dee Travis Publication Date 1976-12-01 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Chuniaisli Canoes of Mission Santa Barbara: the Revolt of 1824 DEE TRAVIS HUDSON ISTORICAL records of Me.xican The purpose of this paper is to fill in some H California are somewhat detailed of the missing information about these two in their accounts of the Chumash Revolt of Chumash canoes from Mission Santa Barbara 1824. This armed confrontation between two and what we know at present about the men different cultures was captured in letters and who built and used them. My principal source reports penned by military and missionary is the 3,200 pages of notes on Chumash canoes men. From them historians are able to recon­ collected for the Smithsonian Institution by struct the complex chain of events associated anthropologist John Peabody Harrington, with the uprising at Missions Santa Ines, La who recorded considerable data on Chumash Purisima, and Santa Barbara, and the subse­ culture from about 1912until hisdeath in 1961. quent retreat and pursuit inland of these His principal informant on canoes was Fer­ people by Mexican military forces (Bancroft nando Librado, a Santa Cruz Island Chumash 1885; Englehardt 1923, 1932a, 1932b; Geiger born in 1804 and raised at Mission San 1970; Stickel and Cooper 1969). These ac­ Buenaventura. After working as a vaquero and counts are the Mexican version. Except for handyman at various places in Santa Barbara Blackburn's (1975a) recent publication per­ County in later years, Fernando Librado died taining to one Chumash account of this in Santa Barbara in 1915 (Blackburn 1975b: conflict, little is known about Chumash 18). In his last years he imparted to Harrington participants in the revolt or their side of the considerable information on Chumash plank story. canoes that he had seen in his youth and many In still another way, the Mexican reports stories and events pertaining to the men who are biased, for all have concentrated on the built and used these boats. The canoes of events taking place on land. Few people realize Mission Santa Barbara were built by one of his that two Chumash plank canoes also partici­ relatives, and Fernando Librado had seen pated in the Revolt of 1824. These canoes, them himself. though not involved in naval battles at sea, We are currently preparing all of the were manned by neophytes fleeing from Harrington Chumash canoe data for publica­ Mission Santa Barbara. Their destination was tion as a book (Hudson, Rempe, and Tim- Santa Cruz Island, some 30 miles across the brook, n.d.), which will cite the appropriate channel. sources that follow in this paper; 1 fail to do so JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA ANTHROPOLOGY here, however, since the references are too whale bone wedges, each plank received numerous and complex to include in this brief careful work with bone, shell, and stone tools and general paper. to shape, size, and smooth it, and to remove In addition to Harrington's voluminous undesirable features, such as cracks or knots. notes on Chumash canoes, I have also relied Only the best wood could be used, and from upon materials in the SantaBarbara Mission many logs only a few good boards would be Archive Library and research conducted by produced. These were, in terms of Chumash Barbara Collins, a student at the University of economics, expensive lumber. Once complet­ California, Santa Barbara, and a volunteer at ed, all the boards were standardized to uniform the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural Histo­ thickness and smoothed with sharkskin sand­ ry. I wish at this time to thank her, as well as paper. Fr. Maynard Geiger, O.F.M., for making this Supervising this and all boatbuilding tasks material available. I also wish to thank Janice was the 'altomolich or "maker of canoes." As Timbrook, Assistant Curator at the museum, the master boatbuilder, he directed the activ­ for proofreading and comments on this paper. ities of a half dozen men engaged in the project To provide a better understanding of the and undertaking a variety of skilled tasks— Chumash plank canoe and the social and boardmaking, fitting planks, drilling holes, political importance ofthe men connected with tarring, sewing, caulking, and decorating. He it, I will start with a brief description of its held an elite position in Chumash society, construction, followed by its use in both distinguished by wearing a waist-length cape of aboriginal and Mission times. This will be bearskin (Bolton 1930:252). He was also highly followed with a description of Mission Santa respected, not only for his knowledge and skills Barbara's two canoes and information about in boat construction and use, but also for his the men who built and used these boats. The wealth, for only a rich man could afford the paper will conclude with a reconstruction of expensive materials and labor charges needed the events associated with these canoes in the to build a plank boat. It would take as much as Chumash Revolt of 1824. six months to build a tomol or plank canoe. The 'altomolich held a position of consid­ THE CHUMASH PLANK CANOE erable economic authority in his community, since his finished boat would be used for The Chumash plank canoe of the Santa procuring food—fishing, collecting abalones, Barbara Channel was frameless, lacking an sea mammal hunting—as well as for distant internal structure of ribs, and was made from voyages across the channel for the purpose of planks split out of driftwood logs. The conducting trade. There were only a few men preferred building material was redwood, for it associated with canoes in his village, and of was relatively light in weight, durable, strong, them, the 'altomolich represented the local and easy to work. But redwood was rare head or leader of an elite professional group. among the wood which drifted into the channel This group was a guild called the "Brother- and washed ashore. More common were hood-of-the-Canoe." It was not uncommon various pines and fir. and they were likewise for the 'altoniolich to be associated with the used. Driftwood itself was the important mainstream of Chumash political power, for consideration; stranded on beaches above high he could also bethe village chief or wo/, or hold tide for years, it would be naturally seasoned membership in an elite religious-political and highly desirable for boat construction. organization called the 'antap. After the logs were split into planks, using With finished planks stacked and ready for CHUMASH CANOES use, the 'altomolich directed his men to Heating the woqo refined it, driving off the construct the bottom board for the canoe—a naturally present water by evaporation. Then long, heavy plank, dished out on its upper the correct amount of pine pitch was mixed in surface. A supporting frame was next con­ and heated. When completed the yap was structed to anchor the bottom board in place— tested on spare planks before it was used on the the tomol would be built right-side-up by canoe. adding rounds of hull boards, the first of which The hull was given additional strength by rested directly upon the bottom board. Work­ "sewing" the boards together. This was done ing from the shaped bottom and its supporting by drilling pairs of holes, each pair connected frame, Chumash boatbuilders strung lines in a by a groove, to receive several wrappings of complex pattern to serve as a guide for the twine which bound the boards together, both form of the canoe-to-be. end-to-end and side-to-side. The twine itself The first round of boards, usually 6 or was waxed lok. a vegetable fiber cordage made more in number, had to be twisted and bent to by women from the stalks of the red milkweed fit the bottom board. This was done by placing plant. Animal sinew was not used, for it would the boards in a clay-lined pit filled with water. stretch when wet and was subject to rot. Fire-heated rocks were added to bring the Usually only three wrappings of twine water to a boil. A few hours of soaking made were necessary to tie the boards together the rigid planks pliable, and they could then be securely. The wrapping itself fit into the groove twisted and bent to desired shape. On some between the holes. After the twine was pulled occasions, it would not be necessary to use this tight and the ends terminated in two separate technique, for splitting a board out of a curved knots, yop was applied to seal the holes, log or hewing it to shape with stone and shell wrappings, and grooves from the sea. tools would likewise produce the desired form. After completing the first round of boards, Fitting was not simple, for while boards the 'alionwlich directed his workers in rested edge-to-edge on top of one another, they repeating the above processes for the subse­ were bevelled to overlap end-to-end, thereby quent rounds. The builders varied the shapes giving the canoe greater strength. Hull boards and sizes of the hull boards as necessary so that were also bevelled on the outside to form a the work would develop into the desired form groove where they joined together; this of the canoe. Angles, bends, seams, ties, bevels, allowed a caulking material to be placed in the and countless other points occupied their hull seams of the boat later.