A ''tomol'' or ''tomolo'' ( Chumash) or ''te'aat'' or ''ti'at'' (

Tongva The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous peoples of California, Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Channel Islands of California, Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . In the precolonial era, the peop ...

/ Kizh) are plank-built

boat A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size or capacity, its shape, or its ability to carry boats. Small boats are typically used on inland waterways s ...

s, historically and currently in the

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara (, meaning ) is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States excepting A ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

area. They replaced or supplemented

tule reed ''Schoenoplectus acutus'' ( syn. ''Scirpus acutus, Schoenoplectus lacustris, Scirpus lacustris'' subsp. ''acutus''), called tule , common tule, hardstem tule, tule rush, hardstem bulrush, or viscid bulrush, is a giant species of sedge in the ...

boats. The boats were between in length and in width. The Chumash refer to the ''tomol'' as the "House of the Sea" for their reliability. Double-bladed

kayak ] A kayak is a small, narrow human-powered watercraft typically propelled by means of a long, double-bladed paddle. The word ''kayak'' originates from the Inuktitut word '' qajaq'' (). In British English, the kayak is also considered to be ...

-like paddles are used to propel the boat through the ocean. Some sources suggest the boats may have origins at Santa Catalina Island (California), Catalina Island and have been in use for thousands of years. Others suggest an origin on the Northern Channel Islands during the first millennium CE. The ''tomol'' has been described as "the single most technologically complex watercraft built in North America" and as being unique to "the

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

." The boats are still constructed by Chumash, Tongva/Kizh, and

Acjachemen The Acjachemen () are an Indigenous people of California. Published maps often identify their ancestral lands as extending from the beach to the mountains, south from what is now known as Aliso Creek (Orange County), Aliso Creek in Orange County, ...

people today.

Construction

''Tomols'' were preferably built out of

redwood Sequoioideae, commonly referred to as redwoods, is a subfamily of Pinophyta, coniferous trees within the family (biology), family Cupressaceae, that range in the Northern Hemisphere, northern hemisphere. It includes the List of superlative tree ...

that had drifted down the coast. When supplies of redwood were lacking, local native

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

was used. When splitting the wood with whalebone or antler wedges the crafters would seek straight planks without knotholes, then sand them with sharkskin. To bind the wood together, small holes were drilled in the planks so they could be lashed to one another. Finally, the seams were caulked with 'yop', a mixture of hard tar and pine pitch melted and then boiled. A crossplank at midship reinforced the boat and functioned as a seat. Another coat of 'yop' was used to waterproof the boat, followed by a coat of red ochre paint, followed by a final coat of

sealant Sealant is a substance used to block the passage of fluids through openings in materials, a type of Seal (mechanical), mechanical seal. In building construction ''sealant'' is sometimes synonymous with ''caulk'' (especially if acrylic latex or ...

. Shell mosaics were often added as decorations. This style of boat is unique in the Americas, though researcher Yorem Meroz notes that a simpler plank boat is found in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

and

strake On a vessel's Hull (watercraft), hull, a strake is a longitudinal course of Plank (wood), planking or Plate (metal), plating which runs from the boat's stem (ship), stempost (at the Bow (ship), bows) to the stern, sternpost or transom (nautica ...

s were sewn onto dugout boat bases in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

and

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

. The boats could take up to 500 days to be constructed by an experienced boatmaker. ''Tomols'' are propelled with kayak-like paddles with the user in a crouching position, unlike kayaks where sitting is the norm. They are highly maneuverable.

Significance

Eva Pagaling ( Santa Ynez Chumash) described the process of paddling in 2018: "During the crossing, a deep memory that’s shared among paddlers is that each pull of the oar is a prayer. And this year, I prayed for my loved ones, as well as everyone else in this world. I prayed for strength and healing for all people, wherever they may be on their path in life. Historically, we are water people and our medicine for the world can be found in the sacred and life-sustaining power of water." Cindi Alvitre, co-founder of Ti'at Society, described the boat in 2019 as "a vessel that allows humans to connect to the underworld." According to an Indigenous worldview, as Alvitre describes: "You have the underworld, which is watery existence, those deities that live underneath the ocean in their caves, the middle world, that's the existence of human beings, to the upper world, that's ancestral space. The ''ti'at'' is like an observation point, it's like you're hovering over the heavens of the underworld and being able to still have that connection to that ancestral space, to the stars, to the

Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...

History

''Tomols'' were an integral part of a widespread trading network between tribes who lived at what is now referred to as Point Conception, Santa Monica Bay, and the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They are divided into two Crown Dependencies: the Jersey, Bailiwick of Jersey, which is the largest of the islands; and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, ...

. There were designated shipping routes and signal fires were utilized on the land were used as aides for navigation. Most trade occurred between what are now two of the largest trading ports,

and

Long Beach Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

, which was about a day's paddle. The use of plank canoes would have been critical for reaching the most outlying Channel Islands including San Nicolas and San Clemente.Mikael Fauvelle & Alvaro Montenegro (2024): Do stormyseas lead to better boats? Exploring the origins of the southern Californian plank canoethrough ocean voyage modeling, The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology. https://doi.org/10.1080/15564894.2024.2311107 ''Tomols'' were so useful as to give rise to a new class in Chumash society: a

guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular territory. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradespeople belonging to a professional association. They so ...

known as the 'Brotherhood of the Canoe' which was "responsible for the construction of each new tomol, its boat-building knowledge handed down through the generation from senior craftsman to

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in ...

. Only male members of leading families were allowed to own ''tomol''.

Grizzly The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America. In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horr ...

or black bearskin identified the owners. When carefully maintained, the boats could last for decades and were passed down from one generation to the next. By 650 A.D., it is believed the ''tomol'' or ''te'aat'' was already of central importance to the Chumash and Tongva/Kizh respectively. In 1542, Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo recorded that he saw so many ''tomols'' hauled up at a particular wealthy village—a location eventually to be referred to by later

settler A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a Human settlement, settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among ...

s as Malibu—that he named it ''pueblo de las canoas'' or "town of canoes." Another explorer recorded the brotherhood doing boat carpentry in another village, and named it Carpinteria. Some scholars report that sewn plank technology may have been introduced by early Polynesian navigators sometime late in the

first millennium File:1st millennium montage.png, From top left, clockwise: Depiction of Jesus, the central figure in Christianity; The Colosseum, a landmark of the once-mighty Roman Empire; Kaaba, the Great Mosque of Mecca, the holiest site of Islam; Chess, a ne ...

, who had constructed sewn plank boats and had been known to have reached

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. Scholars state that "three native Californian boat terms are argued to be Polynesian loans: Chumashan ''tomol(o)'', and Gabrielino ''tarainxa'' (or ''taraina'') and ''ti?at''." Some modern Chumash and Tongva/Kizh state that “this is something we have always known happened." This was further explained in a short documentary episode by KCET produced in 2019. Partially intact tomols have been found in ancient Channel Islands

midden A midden is an old dump for domestic waste. It may consist of animal bones, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human oc ...

s along with dolphin bones, seal and fish bones, and abalone, clam, and limpet shells. The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, and The Chumash Maritime Association of California house reconstructed ''tomols'' created by contemporary Chumash.

Gallery

File:Chumash Tomol 'Elye'wun paddlers, CINMS.jpg, Paddlers making the crossing to Santa Cruz Island aboard the reconstructed ''tomol'' ''‘Elye’wun'', in 2006. File:Tomol Crossing Channel Islands (43101684130).jpg, ''Tomol'' crossing Channel Islands in 2012

References

Resources

"Dark Water Journey: Power of memories guides paddler on historic crossing''"''
by Eva Pagaling
S2 E1: Rethinking the Coast with the Ti'at Society
from ''Tending Nature'' on

KCET KCET (channel 28) is a secondary PBS member television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the Public Media Group of Southern California alongside the market's primary PBS member, Huntington Beach–licensed KOC ...

Baby Ti’at: The Making of a Traditional Canoe
ibid. {{Ancient seafaring Native American culture Chumash Tongva Indigenous boats Wood products Maritime history of California Native American history of California Cultural history of California