Samala
"Rafael Solares"
A Chumash Shaman
"The Temescals of Arroyo Conejo"
by Thomas J Maxwell
Samala was an informant for the French anthropologist Leon de Cessac in 1874-1876. Candalaria was interviewed by John P. Harrington in 1914; much of her story was collected and published by George Henley in that same year.
Kitsapawit was a centenarian who served as Harrington's chief Venetureno informant, 1912-1915. Juan Faustero's story has been told by Wallace E. Smith. Fasutero died in 1921. Maria Solares, Harrington's chief Inezeno informant, died in 1922.
Samala's ancestors had moved to Santa Inez. He was born sometime in the spring of 1822 as the legitimate son of Vitaliano Samuyauta and Nicolasa. Vitaliano, his pa, had died the preceding October and his mother, Nicolasa, died in August, just three years later.
Later Samala helped in the construction of the mission there, being baptized at birth as Rafael Solares. In 1874 he met Leon de Cessac and Alphonse Pinart and joined them in an archaeological dig at Tajiguas and at Soxtonokmu near Santa Barbara.
Samala, or Rafael, became a dancer and had taken part in Maria Pomposa's famous fiesta at Saticoy in 1869. The first dance had been the Blackbird dance and he had been there to watch the two dancers accompanied by a singer and two whistlers.
The dance had originally been introduced by Mupish, (bard) an older brother of Kitsapawit's great grandfather, also named Kitsapawit. On the fifth to de Cessac and performed some of his repertoire before that expedition's members.Kitsapawit said in describing the bear dance, wansak:
" In the land of our Indian people there was nothing so strong as the bear. The Indians respected the world, and because the bear was strongest, they respected him, too. The bear, although he is so strong, does have one thing which he must appreciate and respect - the wild grape or nunit. The bear knows that if he eats too much fruit, it will ferment in his insides and cause him to become intoxicated. For this reason the bear has respect for the wild grape."
As the dance began, Samala's companion used split sticks of elderberry to keep time as he sang, "Huyuhuyuna. Huyuhuyuna. Huyuhuyuna. Huyuhuyuna." When he had finished, Samala was announced by a clown who cleared a path for him and recited:
" Greetings, fellow countrymen, kinfolk and everybody! I beg of you: the bear will enter to dance, bringing with him all the fierceness of the wild, so if anyone even makes a noise, the bear could pounce on him and bite him. "
Entering the ring from the south, Samala crouched down and imitated a
frightened bear. He then pointed his feather staff or plumero to the
east. .In his left hand, he held a headdress ringed with feathers and
topped by long magpie plumes. Three singers accompanied him with turtle
shell rattles with asphaltum and filled with pebbles. They sang:
Listen to what I am about to sing.
Listen to my breathing on high.
Listen to my stamping.
I tear up the ground.
Listen to my groaning.
Look! Listen!
He grunts on high.
The ground shakes.
In the night he makes a noise
like a thunderclap.
I yaka mi ha mi.
Clear the way!
Clear away the dirt which obstructs
when I step forth with pride.
The feathers fold up.
I am a creature of power.
I stand up and begin to walk to
the mountain tops, to every
corner of the world.
I am a creature of power.
Samala had painted his face and he wore a short grass skirt. From a cord around his neck hung a bear paw, an honor reinforced by his having incised bear-paw petroglyphs at a remote shrine which he visited only at the winter solstice. He circled the dance area and shook his plumero in all corners. If anyone got out of order, he lunged at them, sometimes biting them on the shoulder.
As a dancer, Samala had been initiated as an antap and was considered knowledgeable in astronomical, pictographic, and datura lore. He was also a faithful Catholic having been baptised and buried with church cermony. His brother, Gregorio Ayehuiya, was baptized at Soxtonokmu the year the Santa Inéz mission was founded, when he was about three years old.
De Cessac asked Samala to help him gather a collection of
Chumash tools and other cultural artifacts for Ie Musée de l'Homme in
Paris.
Samala complied and began searching among relatives for heirlooms
from which they might consent to part.
Finding few who would cooperate, he offered larger sums of money and eventually purchased three wooden bowls in good condition; although none of them were heirlooms. He bought several baskets; one of them was a kind of hamper which his sister had been using as a hope chest for her daughter's trousseau. It was easier obtaining stone artifacts for they were now less used than steel tools. Some people considered the stonework as antiques.
Samala was buried in the mission cemetery at Santa Inez. The mission record reads:
Rafael: Indian Chief
September 6, 1884. I gave Christian burial to the body of Rafael -
Indian aged 62 years. He received the sacraments and answered in Latin
all the responses of the ceremonies. For 60 years, he attended and
served mass, rang the bells, -etc. He died full of grace, the happiest I
ever saw. His family - wife and thirteen children died before him.
Kitsapawit says, "Thus Rafael lived simultaneously two lives: an Indian
life that culturally enriched the Chumash and a Christian life that
inspired admiration among Christians."
A life-sized portrait of antap
Samala is on display at the Stagecoach Inn Museum in Thousand Oaks. The
original is in the Musee de I'Homme in Paris, France.
Semu Huaute, a full-blooded Chumash medicine man, originally from the Conejo-Simi area, in 1980, continues to serve his people in San Luis Obispo.
Still living in the Conejo is another Gabrielino-Chumash Indian, Charlie Cooke. We include him in the long line of the Temescal clan to end our tale where it began - in the Conejo Valley, with a Chumash heroic figure living an adventurous life, following his dreams, and seeking recognition of his colleagues.
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