LOCAL CHUMASH HERITAGE CELEBRATED.Byline: Jesse Hiestand Daily News Staff Writer Eleven years old and brimming brim n. 1. The rim or uppermost edge of a hollow container or natural basin. 2. A projecting rim or edge: the brim of a hat. 3. A border or an edge. See Synonyms at border. with energy, Joe Black has started what he hopes is a long career as a tribal dancer. ``It's like one big family - you know everybody,'' Joe said before joining his sister in a traditional dance Sunday at the second annual intertribal in·ter·tri·bal adj. Existing or occurring between tribes. Adj. 1. intertribal - between or among tribes; "intertribal warfare" powwow powwow American Indian ceremony or gathering of various kinds. Powwows originally were healing ceremonies, but the word could also refer to exuberant celebrations, with dancing and singing, of success in hunting or victory in battle. at the Chumash Interpretative Center in Oakbrook Regional Park. ``The kids have fun and play, and the adults get together and talk,'' he said. ``Every day, you learn something new at powwow.'' Joe and his family were among members of more than 40 tribes who came to celebrate the legacy of the Chumash who inhabited the region before Europeans arrived. ``This felt more like home than any other powwow I've been to in the nation,'' said 35-year-old Mike Big Wolf of San Bernardino San Bernardino, city, United States San Bernardino (săn bûr'nədē`nō), city (1990 pop. 164,164), seat of San Bernardino co., S Calif., at the foot of the San Bernardino Mts.; inc. 1854. . ``People here are being Indian, not commercial.'' Organizers scaled back the number of arts, crafts and other booths around the dance arena, an open patch of ground amid a grove of majestic oaks. Vendors at 30 booths, fewer than last year, displayed everything from crystals and jewelry to an ax with a carved stone blade. But dancing, storytelling, music and an animal show were the big attractions of the powwow, which about 6,000 people attended over the weekend. With the scent of sage drifting through the air, Mary Katz of Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks, residential city (1990 pop. 104,352), Ventura co., S Calif., in a farm area; inc. 1964. Avocados, citrus, vegetables, strawberries, and nursery products are grown. , her two children and their friend sat near the arena, taking in the sights and sounds from their perch on a log. Katz, 41, said she wanted her children to hear the tribes' songs and to see their dances, ``their art and their way of being.'' Katz said she also likes the beauty of the 430-acre park on Lang Ranch Parkway. Besides bringing people to the tranquil setting, the road marks a dividing line Noun 1. dividing line - a conceptual separation or distinction; "there is a narrow line between sanity and insanity" demarcation, contrast, line differentiation, distinction - a discrimination between things as different and distinct; "it is necessary to between two worlds. On one side are row after row of towering, earth-toned homes that dominate the horizon. Across the street is the park, a former Chumash settlement complete with pictographs and caves. Big Wolf said he senses ancestral spirits in the park. ``They're everywhere They're Everywhere is an episode of The WB drama series, Charmed. Synopsis Prue and Piper give in to their fears that the men in their lives may be Warlocks and cast a mind-reading spell to find out the truth. ,'' he said. ``They put thoughts in all of our minds and help us all learn to share.'' Sharing is an important part of the powwow, he said, as is opening the event to all drummers. Hour after hour on the weekend, the rhythmic thump of sticks on skin reverberated through the canyon while as many as 50 dancers at a time moved ceremonially. The drum was an important symbol of the gathering, Big Wolf said. ``It doesn't have a song other than its own heartbeat - that's the only language it knows,'' he said. ``The feeling you put into it is what you receive.'' Alan Salazar, a Chumash/Tataviam Indian from Ventura, acted as a spiritual guide for the powwow. He said many Chumash descendants themselves are among those who know little about the pre-European culture, but are becoming interested. ``Like the bear, the Chumash people The Chumash are a Native American people who historically inhabit mainly the southern coastal regions of California, in the vicinity of what is now San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, extending from Morro Bay in the north to Malibu in the south. have been in a hibernation for a long while, but we have awakened and are hungry,'' he said in his Saturday morning invocation invocation, n a prayer requesting and inviting the presence of God. . ``We are hungry for respect, for knowledge and for our way of life, which is a tribal way of life.'' CAPTION(S): 2 Photos Photo: (1-2--Color only in Simi edition) Alesavder Little Bow, at left, and his grandson attend an intertribal powwow in Thousand Oaks, where Lew Silver, above, plays an American Indian American Indian or Native American or Amerindian or indigenous American Any member of the various aboriginal peoples of the Western Hemisphere, with the exception of the Eskimos (Inuit) and the Aleuts. flute. Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News |
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