@california_history: The Chumash Crossed the Open Ocean 1,000 Years Ago A thousand years before any European ship reached California, the Chumash people were building sleek, seagoing canoes and paddling them straight out into the open Pacific, all the way to islands you can barely see from shore. And they built these boats without a single nail, or a drop of glue. 🛶 This is the story of the tomol. The Chumash lived along the coast of what's now Santa Barbara and Ventura, and out on the Channel Islands, and they were master mariners, among the finest ocean-going people in all of North America. Their masterpiece was a boat they called the tomol. Here's what made it a marvel: coastal redwoods didn't grow near them, but the ocean delivered driftwood logs onto their beaches, and the Chumash split that wood into thin planks using only tools of bone, stone, and shell, then carved, sanded, and fit those planks into the shape of a canoe. But how do you hold a boat together with no nails? They drilled tiny holes along the plank edges and literally sewed them together with cordage made from plant fiber, then sealed every seam watertight with a mix of pine pitch and the natural tar that bubbles up along their coast. The result was a lightweight, fast, remarkably seaworthy canoe up to 30 feet long that could carry a crew and tons of cargo across miles of open, dangerous water. The tomol was the heart of their world, letting the Chumash trade, fish the deep ocean, and connect their mainland towns with their island villages, building one of the most advanced maritime cultures on the continent. And here's the best part: the tomol never disappeared. Today, Chumash people build them again by hand in the traditional way, and every year they paddle across the channel to their ancestral island, just as their ancestors did for thousands of years. Comment "Tomol" to honor them, and paddle into the past with California History, where the first Californians were master mariners. 🌊 #CaliforniaHistory #Chumash #Tomol #NativeAmerican #tiktokhistory

California History

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Friday 23 October 2026 21:49:17 GMT