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If you missed the Celebration, don't despair.
The museum gift shop features beautiful
items hand-made by all the Celebration
vendors.

The men help the tired paddlers land.

A JOURNEY TO LIMUW
BY CORRESPONDING SECRETARY /HISTORIAN: ANNE KITTLITZ

Off the coast of California there are eight
isolated islands, known as the Channel Islands.
Five of them are now under the protection of
our National Parks. They can be visited easily
for a day or several days for camping,
snorkeling, kayaking and hiking. At the AV
Indian Museum there is a large collection of
The women celebrate with son s and music.
artifacts that represent the Indians who
inhabited these islands. The early inhabitants
On a recent weekend in September, I was
are now called Chumash and they built sturdy
fortunate to witness a reenactment of one of
canoes called Tomols to travel back and forth
these trips to Santa Cruz Island, also known as
to the mainland.
Limuw by the Chumash Indians. The paddlers
started in the dark early from Ventura and
In recent years a group of descendants of the
Chumash Indians, named the Brotherhood of arrived at Scorpion Bay about eight hours later.
the Tomol was formed. This group built a It was wonderful to see them appear in the
distance as a large gathering of Chumash
sturdy redwood plank tomal that was
completed in 1997. It was named Ely'wun and women and children were waiting for them.
made its first crossing from mainland to Santa The people waiting began to chant and played
Cruz Island in 2001. Since then several more stick instruments to welcome them to shore.
Also a large number of men waded into the
journeys have been made.
water to guide the tomol to land.