VENTURA : Museum Lets Children Meet the Chumash

Children from across Ventura County are spending part of their summer learning about the Chumash and their history in a program sponsored by the county’s Museum of History and Art.

The fourth- and fifth-grade students, who gather at the Ventura museum during the morning, are finding out about games Chumash children played and how to make arrowheads, whistles and Chumash musical instruments, said Gerry Browning, director of the museum’s Chumash youth program.

“Those are the ages when they are interested in making things,” Browning said. “It is the best time for them to learn, and they love the Indians.”

The program began in 1987, when the museum’s docents decided to emulate a program sponsored by the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. “We have extended that program to be more in-depth,” Browning said.

The program has become so popular in the last few years, Browning said, that they decided to hold two sessions this year instead of one.

“We had a very long waiting list because we can only take 20 children in each session,” Browning said.

During the hands-on program, two Chumash descendants and other museum docents show the children how to make clapper sticks out of elderberry wood, from a tree the Chumash called the music tree. Clapper sticks were used by the Indians as a percussion instrument, Browning said.

The children are also taught how to make string out of yucca and beads out of soapstone.

Docents strive for authenticity even in the refreshments they serve, concocting them with ingredients that the Chumash used in cooking. The delicacies include corn cake, pine nut cookies and chia muffins, Browning said.

The museum charges $25 a student, but that fee barely covers the expense of putting the program together, Browning said.

Courtney Arthur, 9, is attending the program this week, said she enjoys the program because of its learning opportunities.

“I like it because I learn new things every day,” Courtney said. “We do fun things.”