LA HABRA : Discovering the Original Californians

Like the American Indians who lived in Southern California thousands of years ago, Loren Whan, 8, chanted for good luck before each throw of the dice.

Loren was playing a Chumash dice game with five other children in a Saturday workshop at the Children’s Museum at La Habra.

Peter Rice, an expert on the culture of the Chumash, explained to the children how the game is played.

Six wooden sticks are used as dice. Each of them has a flat side which is painted black. The rounded side of the stick is left unpainted.

All six sticks are thrown into a basket on the floor, and if three of the six sticks show black, the thrower earns a point.

“The Chumash believed it is good luck to chant before throwing dice,” Rice said as he led each chant to the giggles of the children.

Rice calls himself an “ethnobotanist,” one who studies how various cultures utilized the plants and trees around them.

Saturday afternoon at the museum, Rice demonstrated to about 20 children and their parents how those first Americans used plants growing in the wilderness for food, for making rope, and even soap.

“I try to gear my program to families and children,” Rice said. “And make it as hands-on as possible.”

Rice let the children’s hands roam over feathers, baskets, shells, rocks, and musical instruments like those used by American Indians.

The group also made sand paintings using a brush, glue and colored sand to create designs and patterns in the manner of American Indians.

The children listened closely as Rice talked about culture and demonstrated games played by the Chumash, who settled in the Santa Monica Mountains thousands of years ago.

“We did learn things from Indians,” Loren said. “And I think we were too mean to them when we took their land.”