Intricate decorations of seashells adorn the outfits of dancers from the Chumash Council of Bakersfield who entertained the crowd following the solemn prayer ceremony atop Iwihinmu, the Chumash name for Mount Pinos. Photo by Louis Medina

Alan Salazar, a Chumash tribal elder and resident of Pine Mountain Club, blows on ceremonial sage and tobacco that burn inside an abalone shell. In his right hand is an eagle feather fan he uses to direct the smoke over prayer participants for ceremonial cleansing purposes. Photo by Louis Medina

Prayer staffs are made of willow and other types of tree branches and the feathers of birds such as eagles, wild turkeys and woodpeckers. Woodpecker feathers, particularly, are considered to have strong healing powers, according to Chumash tribal elders. Photo by Louis Medina

By Louis Medina

Mount Pinos – Every year, the Chumash Council of Bakersfield holds its annual summer solstice ceremony in a clearing near the trailhead at the top of Mount Pinos, near Pine Mountain Club. And every year, the mood is different.

Some years, plenty of traditionally dressed dancers celebrate Mother Earth and its large variety of creatures in festive music and movements. Others, humorous storytelling elicits laugh after laugh from ceremony participants, said tribal elder and storyteller Alan Salazar, a Pine Mountain Club resident.

This year’s ceremony, however, held at midday Saturday, June 19, was dressed in quiet solemnity for two reasons. The first, according to Elaine Schneider, who traveled to Mount Pinos from the Santa Ynez Chumash Indian Reservation, was the need to remember many tribal members who have died over the past year.

Schneider, who calls herself a “traditional practitioner” of spiritual arts (“I remove shadows from people that need to be lifted up,” she said), brought offerings of tobacco and sage, loose and in marble-sized bundles wrapped in bits of cloth, for burning in a ceremonial fire in the middle of a sacred prayer circle drawn on swept earth.

“This is for the people who’ve passed on,” she said. “This is your gift to give them to take on their journey.”

The other reason for the somber mood despite a bright day blessed with benevolent sunshine and light breezes under a cloudless sky, was a deep concern over the ecological destruction in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the millions of gallons of crude oil that continue to spill out of a failed BP underwater well. Several among the ceremony’s 60 participants publicly shed tears and offered prayers to the Creator on behalf of the countless affected fish, birds and other creatures whom they referred to as “our brothers and sisters.”

A prayer circle in the Center of the World

Iwihinmu is the Chumash name for Mount Pinos, considered the “Center of the World” by this tribe whose reach extends from west Kern to San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, and across the Santa Barbara Channel to the Channel Islands.

The mountain is considered a spiritually powerful place. Indeed it was uncanny how following several of Saturday’s most moving prayers – for the departed, for the troubled wildlife in the Gulf, for the physical healing of ailing tribal members – the wind picked up as if on cue, almost as if wanting to carry each petition to the Chumash Creator, also called “Grandfather.”

Tribal elder Juanita Lomas knows the power of the mountain and the holy prayer circle. The grandmother, who said she is ill, broke her three-year absence after her cousin, tribal councilwoman Arianne Chow-Garcia of Bakersfield, encouraged her to attend the solstice ceremony and pray for healing. Lomas‘ emotional prayer drew tears and hugs of support from several participants.

Praying the Chumash way

Following a potluck lunch, the prayer circle was blessed by Salazar, Schneider and drumming elder Ernie Morin, who instructed young men to place “feather staffs” – polished wooden staffs topped with the plumes of eagles, wild turkeys, roadrunners and woodpeckers – in the four cardinal directions on the edge of the circle, as well as on opposite sides of the central fire.

Once the tribal elders had prayed, all other participants were invited to enter the holy space. “The entrance is to the east,” Salazar said, “where the sun rises at the beginning of the day, the beginning of a journey.” Salazar “cleansed” participants stepping into the circle by fanning the smoke from burning sage over their body using a fan made from eagle feathers.

Participants were invited to take a pinch of sage and tobacco and deposit a little of it as prayer offerings in abalone shells set at the base of the feather staffs. They walked clockwise inside the circle, stopping at the east, south, west and north points before dropping the last of their sage and tobacco into the ceremonial fire. Some prayed silently beside the fire; others offered prayers out loud while the rest listened respectfully. Salazar fanned more cleansing ceremonial smoke on participants as they exited the circle backward, facing the fire that was kept alive by two young men designated as “fire tenders.”

Rainbow Bridge and Brother Dolphins

After the ceremony, a group of dancers dressed in traditional buckskin costumes adorned with seashells and feathers danced and sang in honor of the dolphin, bear and the rainbow.

According to Chumash legend, the Rainbow Bridge was created by the Earth Goddess Hutash to help the people cross from the Channel Islands to the mainland of California. Some, however, didn’t make it across and fell into the ocean. To keep them from drowning, Hutash turned them into dolphins.

Therefore, Schneider said, “When we see a dolphin in the ocean, it’s one of our people coming to say hi.”

To learn more about Chumash culture

Visit www.centeroftheworldfestival.org to find out about a Chumash traditional storytelling and modern amateur playwriting competition called “Center of the World Festival” that will take place Aug. 20-22 in the Pine Mountain Club village center.