Canalino

Santa Catalina Island has been inhabited for up to 6800 years B.P. The earliest inhabitants are of uncertain affiliation but up to historic times and the discovery of the island in 1542, the island was inhabited by the Pimuvit. This culture resembles the coastal Chumash tribes south of Santa Barbara. The material culture has been termed Canalino, as definite affiliations are unknown in the more distant past. The Canalino people were dependent upon marine resources as well as gathered and hunted foods from the island interior. The Canalino controlled trade in the important status good resource of steatite or soapstone. The island has a significant outcropping of this mineral which is the only one in the region. Trade was important to the Canalino and they used plank canoes made of driftwood to reach the mainland.

They exchanged steatite vessels and carvings as well as marine mammal meat, shell beads, feathers and baskets for venison and chert for tools that the island lacked. The Canalino lived in dome- shaped homes made of bulrushes bent over willow supports and moved from the coastal bays in the summer to inland valleys in the winter. The island population was decimated by disease, murder by sea lion hunters and eventual forcible relocation to the mainland by the Spanish where their culture disappeared.

Photo is courtesy of "Dr. William Bushing/Santa Catalina Island Conservancy" http://www.catalinaconservancy.org/

References:

Gay, Misty. "Santa Catalina's Native Peoples" Education Docent Training Manual Part I-J. 5 Jun 1998. Catalina island Conservancy Intranet. 10 Nov 1999. http://www.catalinaconservancy.org/educ/docents/docman1j.htm

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