Intro Paragraph on BottomsSignificance of Dolphin Spanish Colonial Revival Questions

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Three massive, friendly bronze dolphins greet thousands of visitors each day at the end of Stearns Wharf. The Dolphin Family, or Bicentennial Friendship Fountain, has been a fixture of downtown since 1985.  Sculptor James "Bud" Bottoms (1928-2018) won a city-wide contest to design a commissioned statue from the city of Santa Barbara.  The Dolphin Family is at the heart of Santa Barbara's famed waterfront, so it is easy to think of merely as a tourist centerpiece. However, the Dolphin Family is the legacy of larger questions about Santa Barbara's past, especially with regards to colonialism and the resiliency of the indigenous Chumash communities. Sculptor: JAMES "BUD" BOTTOMS

Dolphin Family 

This tour was created by the History & Relevancy Project of the UC Santa Barbara History department to explore Santa Barbara's public art and commemorative monuments

Public Art and Commemoration in Santa Barbara

The history of the tympanum as an architectural element goes back to the days of ancient Greece. It was then adopted by the ancient Romans for all kinds of civic monuments and became a prominent feature of medieval European churches. So this decorative space of the tympanum has been used for thousands of years to convey important messages to the public. Wealthy Greeks and Romans were expected to fund the construction of public buildings like temples and bath houses, and they let everyone know who paid for them by displaying their names prominently above the entrance. In the middle ages, the church tympanum was used to convey messages of a different sort: scenes of the last judgment and other biblical events sent a clear message to medieval Catholics that the intercession of the clergy was their only path to salvation.If tympana are traditionally used for communicating messages, what does this one tell us?The central element is the Coat of Arms for the City of Santa Barbara, which features two Spanish galleons sailing the ocean. These rolling green hills represent the Santa Ynez Mountain range, while the rising sun likely signals the dawning of Spain's new age of colonization. We can see the words: "The City of Santa Barbara" written in Latin.The two central figures on either side are Plato and Aristotle, both identified by their names in Greek below. Here, they represent philosophy in its most traditional sense: the love of learning. A perfect theme for a library. On the left stands an elderly Plato, pointing to the heavens in reference to his Theory of Forms. This philosophy, which you might have encountered in Plato’s famous “Allegory of the Cave,” asserts that the physical world is not really the 'real' world; instead, ultimate reality exists beyond our physical world and everything we see is just an imitation. Aristotle, Plato’s young student, stands on the right displaying a book. This likely refers to his belief that knowledge comes from experience. Empiricism, as it is known, theorizes that humans must have concrete evidence to support their ideas and is very much grounded in the physical world.The stance of these two ancient Greek philosophers might look familiar to you: that's because Winslow's design intentionally references Raphael's famous painting "The School of Athens" from 1510, which decorated Pope Julius II's personal library in the Vatican Palace.The library's tympanum is reset, with shields for four other famous European libraries installed along these scalloped arches. From the left, we can see the shield for the University of Bologna (Italy), the Bibliotheque National in Paris, the University of Salamanca (Spain), and the Bodleian Library at Oxford University in England - all established respectively in the 11th, 15th, 12th, and 17th centuries.You can see that Winslow also incorporated other elements of Raphael's painting: here we can see an imitation of the coffered arch, the central keystone, decorative molding, and the pilasters with the same ornamentalized floral relief as the “School of Athens.” The overflowing fruit is another common classicizing element which here likely references the abundant riches of colonial New Spain. The chalice and shining Eucharistic wafer among bunches of grapes is a subtle nod to the role of Christianity and the Catholic church in the colonizing enterprise. Winslow was an active Episcopalian and most well-known for designing churches so he may have discreetly added this religious motif for personal reasons.So the message that Winslow and the city of Santa Barbara are communicating through this tympanum is more complex than you originally might have thought:The iconography is a hybrid of an American romanticized view of Santa Barbara's history of Spanish colonialism, together with an ambitious tribute to European Western Civilization represented by the shields of historical European libraries, and the clear references to Raphael’s famous Renaissance era painting that decorates the pope’s Vatican library. To fully understand and appreciate this tympanum, it is important to acknowledge that it’s the product of early twentieth-century artistic and architectural choices. The library tympanum represents a 1920s characterization and aspiration: The use of classicizing style, the connotations of European artistic and educational superiority, and references to the Spanish colonial project in California all evoke a particular 1920s interpretation of Santa Barbara’s historical character. And that historical character is derived specifically from Western European heritage. We can see this evocation everywhere we look in the downtown area: In the early 1920s, the civic Plans and Plantings committee sought to create a distinctive identity for Santa Barbara as “a New Spain in America.” The use of Spanish Colonial Revival style during the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego, designed by Bertram Goodhue with contributions from Carleton Winslow, set off an artistic movement that influenced civic design all over southern California. Santa Barbara’s planning committee saw this style as a way to connect present-day Santa Barbara to a (largely imagined) historical past. “Our committee aims to preserve the city’s early nineteenth-century Hispanic buildings, remodel or replace the non-Hispanic buildings with Spanish Colonial ones, use this imagery for all new buildings, encourage landscaping compatible with this image, and use planning tools to maintain the scale and size of the community.” Based on a motley of non-specific Mediterranean sources, the Spanish Colonial Revival style was “driven by romantic nostalgia” for an idealized vision of the past. While undeniably beautiful, it is always important to acknowledge that Santa Barbara’s “historic style” is a 1920s construct. To learn more about how Santa Barbara’s city planners used monumental architecture and commemorative inscriptions to shape our city’s civic identity, check out these interesting reads:<ul><li>The Architecture and Gardens of the San Diego Exposition: A Pictorial Survey of the Aesthetic Features of the Panama California International Exposition by Carleton Winslow</li><li> "Style Matters: The Case of Santa Barbara" by Hilda Blanco https://escholarship.org/content/qt2q08j343/qt2q08j343.pdf</li><li>"Santa Barbara: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow" by Dennis Doordan, from the 2019 symposium hosted by the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation</li><li>"The Santa Barbara County Courthouse" by Patricia Gebhard and Kathryn Masson http://www.west.net/~elarson/portfolio/courthouse.pdf</li><li>California Vieja: Culture and Memory in an American Modern Place by Phoebe Kropp</li><li>Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Making of Its Mexican Past by William Deverell</li><li>Santa Barbara: An Uncommonplace American Town by Sheila Lodge</li></ul>

We're standing outside the main entrance of the Santa Barbara central public library on the southwest corner of Anapamu and Anacapa streets. If you're a Santa Barbara resident, you've probably walked past this door countless times without ever looking up! The library was built in 1917 thanks to a $50,000 grant from Andrew Carnegie who funded the construction of over 1600 libraries in the United States. This semi-circular decoration above the doors is called a tympanum and this particular tympanum is one of most unique architectural elements in our city. It was designed in 1924 by the architect, Carleton Winslow, who was a key proponent of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture in Southern California. If you didn't know this was the entrance to a library, your first thought might be that you were about to walk into a church or some kind of ancient monumental building. That's because Carleton Winslow and other architects of early 20th century Santa Barbara were heavily influenced by historic European and classical architecture.

Santa Barbara Public Library: Tympanum above Southwest Entrance

Why a cowboy? You might be wondering why Sedgwick chose a cowboy as the subject for this monument dedicated to Chief Justice Earl Warren and why it was installed at the Earl Warren Showgrounds. Sedgwick didn’t leave us any direct statements about his choice here, but as historians, we can make some likely inferences. Firstly, Sedgwick saw himself as a cowboy-figure. His obituary describes him as a “rancher-artist,” and he spent his days running cattle on his 6,000-acre Rancho la Laguna, which he later donated to the University of California Santa Barbara.[1] We can see the influence of the Cowboy/Old West artistic genre and the “Frontier Myth” perspective of American history in many of Sedgwick’s public sculptures. Richard Slotkin, a renowned scholar of the American West, defines the frontier myth as "America as a wide-open land of unlimited opportunity for the strong, ambitious, self-reliant individual to thrust his way to the top." [2] Think Lone Ranger and other outdated 20th century images of gunslinging heroes dispensing frontier justice, the pioneer family hacking out a life in the wilderness, circling the wagons for a last stand against Native American villains, and “Cowboys vs Indians” epics. Many of Sedgwick’s public sculptures seem to have been influenced by this vision of America. For example, his cowboy bas relief in the corridor of the Hollister building and his 1967 sculpture titled “Conquistador: Prime Example” at Cabrillo High School in the nearby city of Lompoc, whose school mascot is “the conquistadors.”[3] Secondly, Sedgwick likely considered a cowboy to be a highly appropriate theme for the Earl Warren Showgrounds, which was built in the late 1950s and was first created as the site of the Santa Barbara Fiesta Stock Horse Show &amp; Rodeo. This event dated back to 1924 and featured showing stock horses, cattle work and roping. According to a history of the Showground, the “competencia de vaqueros” was the highlight of these early “fiestas” where cowboys from surrounding ranches demonstrated their roping and riding skills. Rancher J. J. Hollister (whose name we all recognize from Goleta’s Hollister Street) awarded a handmade saddle to the winner. Beginning in the 1960s, there was an annually chosen Honorary Vaquero. The Showgrounds website notes that the Honorary Vaquero’s “intentions were to honor Old Timers who so often go through life unrecognized.”[4] The Showgrounds was initially funded in 1950 by Dwight Murphy, described as “the silent, behind-the-scenes, often high-dollar influence that made possible a myriad of still-existing Santa Barbara Landmarks,” including Stearns Warf, the equestrian Fiesta Parade, East Beach, and numerous parks. He also co-founded the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation with Pearl Chase and co-founded the Master Planning Committee which set out to rebuild Santa Barbara in the Spanish style after the 1925 earthquake.[5] The showgrounds is now administered by California’s 19th District Agricultural Association and supported by the Earl Warren Showgrounds Foundation.[6] According to Carol Storke, the decision to name the showgrounds after Earl Warren came from her father, Charles Storke, who served as president of the 19th District in 1956. In her article on Horses and Horse Sports in Santa Barbara for the Historical Society, Carol Storke shares her father’s reminiscences, “I took Governor Earl Warren to the top of the hill overlooking the site. I told him, ‘This will be the new horse show facility, and we plan to name it after you.’ The Governor only said, ‘That ravine?’ But when the City Council approved the deal, he agreed on the use of his name – the only facility in California he allowed to be honored in this way.” The ravine was filled in, and the “Earl Warren Park,” soon re-named Earl Warren Showgrounds, was dedicated in July 1958.[7] But ultimately, we don’t know who commissioned the statue or why Sedgwick chose to honor Chief Justice Earl Warren with a cowboy sculpture. There is no indication that Warren was an avid horseman or took any particular interest in horse sports. Some American political figures – such as presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan, and, most recently, George W. Bush – have cultivated images for themselves as cowboys and have been either accused of or acclaimed as embodying “Cowboy Politics.” [8] However, Warren’s track record of predominantly bipartisan decisions precludes him from association with this brand of politics. Warren is most favorably remembered for his role in combatting racism with his decisions in Brown v. Board of Education, the famous 1954 case that ruled segregation in public schools unconstitutional. However, Warren’s name has recently been involved in contemporary commemoration controversies for his support of Japanese-American internment during the Second World War. G. Edward White, professor of law at the University of Virginia and clerk to Warren in the 1970s, critiques Warren’s involvement in relocation efforts in his article for Virginia Quarterly Review, Warren was an initial proponent of the Japanese relocation policy and a defender of that policy once it had been implemented. In 1943, when the Allied forces had begun to neutralize Japanese supremacy in the Pacific, fears of an invasion of the West Coast subsided, and pressures to release interned Japanese began to surface. In a conference of state governors that June, Warren vigorously opposed releasing any Japanese. “If the Japs are released,” he said, “no one will be able to tell a saboteur from any other Jap. . . . We don’t want to have a second Pearl Harbor in California. We don’t propose to have the Japs back in California during this war if there is any lawful means of preventing it.”[9] White notes that, decades later, Warren “Deeply regretted the removal order and [his] own testimony advocating it.” Even so, this connection between Warren and the outrages to Japanese-Americans he helped perpetrate should cause us to question what the act of attaching Warren’s name to the showgrounds and to the “California Cowboy” represents. In his speech at the 1961 dedication ceremony for Thomas Hart Benton’s mural, “Independence and the Opening of the West,” for the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, Warren suggested that the American Frontier Myth resonated with him. "As our people come to visit the Truman Library," Warren said, "their eyes will fall upon this great mural, and if they see it with eyes brightened by a knowledge of our own history every figure in it will have meaning for them and will help to build within their hearts a deep and abiding patriotism. The knowledge of our heroic past will open vistas for them into our future."[10] This mural illustrates the history of Independence Missouri (President Truman’s hometown) and the westward movement across America via the Oregon and Santa Fe trails. And as you can see, the mural depicts many of the themes typically associated with the Frontier Myth and Cowboy Art. The central figures are a pioneer family: an appropriately maternal figure providing food and childcare, the men of the family standing defiantly with rifles pointed towards approaching Native Americans from the Pawnee tribe. The primitive quality of indigenous life is intentionally juxtaposed against expanding white civilization (the endless westward bound wagon train) and American industry. And of course, the Anglo cowboy is present.[11]              Many historians and art-historians have addressed the problematic nature of Cowboy Art as a genre. Beginning in 1992, J. Gray Sweeney, an expert on the art of the American West, was commissioned to write the catalogue introduction for an exhibition of fifty works from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame Museum for the Albuquerque Museum of Art. Sweeny’s introduction, which was critical of the Cowboy Art genre, was initially accepted by the Albuquerque Museum. However, the Cowboy Hall of Fame rejected Sweeny’s work as 'unpatriotic in tone', and threatened to withdraw their exhibition from the Albuquerque Museum. The Museum was pressured to remove Sweeny’s work from their catalogue and allowed the Cowboy Hall of Fame to censor many of Sweeny’s catalogue entries. Sweeny’s subsequent article, “Racism, Nationalism, and Nostalgia in Cowboy Art,” published in the Oxford Art Journal, exposes this censorship and offers a discussion of why Cowboy Art is so problematic. As Sweeny writes, “Although the myth of the cowboy hero represented him as white, in reality he was usually Black or brown. He was often a former slave or a vaquero, or a descendent of slaves or vaqueros.”[12] He argues that we should be aware of what this style of art evokes, explaining that,  “The cultural values exposed here are racism, nationalism and nostalgia, which threaten the conventional historical notions of pioneers establishing a righteous American Empire in the West. It is an art form implicitly endorsing the suppression of Native Americans who are condemned as 'savages', for resisting white expansion into the West, or patronized for their lack of 'culture'. The cowboy hero - a macho figure of the imagination who has been enshrined in the consciousness of the world as an archetypal protagonist of American history - is the mythic persona fostered in this historical vision of the past as a national morality play.”[13] Michael Grauer, an authority on the art history and culture of the American West and current Chair at the National Cowboy &amp; Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, gave a lecture in April 2021 about the racial diversity of cowboys in the American West. He explains how we can actually trace the roots of the so-called iconic American image of the Western cowboy back to north and west Africa, up through Spain, and then over to the New World. Grauer takes a new approach in his discussion of Cowboy art and culture, exploring how global traditions manifested into a unique Western visual tradition. For example, you might not have known that the style of cattle-roping we associate with the white American cowboy originated in Muslim-ruled Al-Andalus, the part of modern-day Portugal and Spain that was conquered by the Islamic Umayyad Caliphate in the 8th century. Additionally, most of the equestrian technology used by cowboys in the American West, such as the particular style of saddle and spurs, came from areas of West and North Africa. Grauer's research aligns with that of other scholars who have found that at least 1 in 5 cowboys were people of color and that the majority of cowboys who ran cattle in southern Texas along the Gulf Coast were of African descent. He also pointed out that the very first cowboys were indigenous people - a concept that flips the traditional "Cowboy vs. Indian" narrative popularized in film and fiction.[14] Understanding the origins, development, and implications of the “California Cowboy” statue as defining this Santa Barbara place and implicitly, its history, can help us become better informed citizens of Santa Barbara – a city with its own problematic history of colonialism. The more we know about our city’s history and its public monuments, the more we recognize and appreciate both the original settlement and continuous shaping of this place by the Chumash, and the role that people of color have played in this city’s history. To discuss the partiality of this artistic representation and the choice to display it in the 1960s, is to open constructive questioning of what defines “our” history? So now that you’ve learned about the “California Cowboy” and its origins, what would YOU would depict here if you could design a commemorative monument to Santa Barbara’s equestrian history?[1] Obituary for Francis Minturn "Duke" Sedgwick (1904 - 1967). October 25, 1967. http://www.sedgwick.org/na/families/robert1613/B/4/7/4/2/3/B47423-sedgwick-francis-obits.html[2] Richard Slotkin, Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600-1860 (Middleton: Wesleyan University Press, 1973), 5.[3] Cabrillo High School Athletics Website. https://www.cabrillosports.org/teams/?u=CABRILLOHS&amp;s=htosports[4] “History,” Fiesta Stock Horse Show and Rodeo, © 2021 Santa Barbara Fiesta Stock Horse Show &amp; RodeoWebsite, https://www.sbfiestarodeo.org/about-the-rodeo/history/[5] Rob Kuznia “Do You Know Dwight Murphy?”, Noozhawk, March 23, 2008, https://www.noozhawk.com/article/do_you_know_dwight_murphyDetails from this article were informed by the book, California's Knight on a Golden Horse: Dwight Murphy, Santa Barbara's Renaissance Man, by Edward A. Hartfeld (2007).[6] A special thanks to Diane Isaacson, Vice President of the Earl Warren Showgrounds Foundation, who shared valuable historical information about the showgrounds and the “California Cowboy.”[7] Storke, “Horses and Horse Sports,” 45.[8] “Like a Cowboy: Imagery in Politics, Prose and Reality,” National Cowboy &amp; Western Heritage Museum Webpage. https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/explore/like-cowboy-imagery-politics-prose-reality/[9] G. Edward White, “The Unacknowledged Lesson: Earl Warren and the Japanese Relocation Controversy,” Virginia Quarterly Review (Autumn) 1979, https://www.vqronline.org/essay/unacknowledged-lesson-earl-warren-and-japanese-relocation-controversy[10] Raymond H. Geselbracht, “Harry S. Truman, Thomas Hart Benton, and the Making of the Mural,” National Archives Spring 2009, vol. 41, no. 1, Last modified March 11, 2019. https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2009/spring/benton.html[11] “Independence and the Opening of the West: Thomas Hart Benton,” Harry S. Truman Library &amp; Museum Website, National Archives. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/lesson-plans/independence-and-opening-west-thomas-hart-benton[12] J. Gray Sweeny, "Racism, Nationalism, and Nostalgia in Cowboy Art," Oxford Art Journal 15, no. 1 (1992): 11.[13] Sweeny, "Racism, Nationalism, and Nostalgia in Cowboy Art,” 2.[14] Michael Grauer, “Caballeros y Vaqueros,” Public lecture at the Sid Richardson Museum of Fort Worth Texas. April 16, 2021. https://sidrichardsonmuseum.org/events/virtual-lecture-caballeros-y-vaqueros/cancel/55974952ae4e7a5c5e78e765332e8aec/ [AR1]some places online say Warren IS the cowboy https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-former-california-governor-earl-warren-on-a-horse-bronze-statue-earl-27570229.html

At the main entrance of the Earl Warren Showgrounds on Calle Real just off the 101 Freeway at the Las Positas exit, we encounter the “California Cowboy.” This sculpture was erected in 1967 in honor of Earl Warren, California’s Governor (1943 to 1953) and Chief Justice of the United States (1953 to 1969). The sculptor is Francis “Duke” Minturn Sedgwick, known also as a civic leader, novelist, art collector, UC Santa Barbara benefactor, and cattle rancher.              Sedgwick’s Cowboy not only signals the equestrian purpose of the showgrounds, but it also presents a mid-twentieth-century characterization of this place and its history as “western,” and “pioneering.” The “California Cowboy” reflects its creator’s image of who was equestrian and when “equestrian” is identified with Santa Barbara. The sculpture therefore represents two moments in history – the mythical California past and the 1960s interpretation of that past. The genre of “Cowboy Commemoration Art” is a controversial topic and has sparked debate among scholars and activists alike for its connotations of racism, nationalism, and nostalgia for a Romantic and idealized perspective of the West. Proponents counter that the Cowboy symbolizes traditional patriotic American values based on historical notions of pioneers taming the wilderness of the early American West. Referred to as "an American fantasy of history" by the art historian, J. Gray Sweeney, this perspective threatens to erase important figures and events from our historical narrative and can lead to wide ranging negative consequences. In particular, these complicated understandings of the Cowboy as a white American cultural symbol stem from the idea that Anglo cowboys and other settlers "discovered" an empty landscape and settled it, erasing the histories of the indigenous peoples and their rich cultures that flourished there long before. Furthermore, mythologizing the cowboy as white preferences an Anglo-Californian history. Who was actually managing cattle in Santa Barbara during the eighteenth and nineteenth century? The answer might surprise you. The art historian Michael Grauer recently spoke at the Sid Richardson Museum about the tendency in art, literature, and film of depicting cowboys as white gunslingers, when historical records demonstrate they were typically Black or brown slaves and vaqueros. Whether we’re talking about Sedgwick’s “California Cowboy” or Clint Eastwood’s character in the 1964 film, A Fistful of Dollars, it is important to recognize that this cowboy image was a 1960s construct that doesn’t reflect the historical understandings of the 2020s.		Regardless of where you might stand on this controversial issue, learning more about different perspectives on our local monuments and histories makes us all feel more invested in our community.		This bronze equestrian statue depicts a cowboy astride his horse holding the reins with both hands near the handle of his saddle. His head is bowed slightly. He wears a cowboy hat, chaps and spurs. The sculpture is mounted atop a tall, rectangular concrete base.A plaque on the front pedestal reads:<blockquote class="ql-align-center ql-indent-5">THIS STATUE OF A CALIFORNIA COWBOY</blockquote><blockquote class="ql-align-center ql-indent-5">ON A CALIFORNIA COWPONY, SYMBOLIZING</blockquote><blockquote class="ql-align-center ql-indent-5">THE VANISHED FRONTIER AND A VANISHING TYPE,</blockquote><blockquote class="ql-align-center ql-indent-5">IS DEDICATED IN 1967 TO</blockquote><blockquote class="ql-align-center ql-indent-5">EARL WARREN</blockquote><blockquote class="ql-align-center ql-indent-5">GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA</blockquote><blockquote class="ql-align-center ql-indent-5">AND</blockquote><blockquote class="ql-align-center ql-indent-5">CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES</blockquote>SCULPTOR:R. M. SEDGWICK		 There is some lack of consensus regarding the identity of the man who modeled for Sedgwick’s sculpture. One source suggests that Sedgwick used his own ranch foreman, while another source claims the sitter was “Texas-born Lefty McPeeters who came here in 1936, loved the Fiesta and rodeos, and rode at Earl Warren many times.”[1] 		Sedgwick’s other local sculptures include: the cowboy bas relief[2] in the corridor of the Hollister building; St. Francis, made for Christ the King Convent in Montecito, now located at St. Francis Medical Center in Santa Barbara.; Saint Barbara, in the patio of the Santa Barbara Historical Society Museum; and the conquistador at Cabrillo Senior High School in Lompoc.[1] Phone conversation with Kevin Snow, president of the Earl Warren Showgrounds Foundation, May 21, 2021; Carol Storke, “Horses and Horse Sports in Santa Barbara County 1919-2001,” Noticias: The Quarterly Magazine of the Santa Barbara Historical Society, Vol. XLVII, No. 2 (Summer 2001), 45.[2] A relief is a type of sculpture where the sculpted elements remain attached to a solid background and the image projects outwards. Unlike a high relief, a bas relief has a very shallow depth (similar to a coin).

"California Cowboy" Sculpture

Intro Paragraph on Bottoms Significance of Dolphin Spanish Colonial Revival Questions

The Syuxtun Story Circle is a mosaic marking Syuxtun (Chumash for “it forks” or “where the two trails run”), also spelled Syuxhtun, the largest Chumash settlement spanning all of the Chumash lands--between Malibu, the Channel Islands, and Paso Robles. The mosaic is 20 feet (6.6 meters) wide and comprises over 200,000 unglazed ceramic tiles. It took 5,000 collective hours by over 200 members of the Chumash community between July and October 2009. It was a collaborative project, with family and friends. Chumash elders, in their eighties and nineties, also participated, which made it an even more meaningful celebration of not only Chumash resistance to colonization but also of the continued success and community of the present and future.The Chumash know the history of the 9,000 year history on the land that is now known as southern California through oral history, meaning that is passed down from generation to generation.There is also ample archaeological evidence that the Chumash lived on the Santa Barbara coast for 9,000 years.  The earliest written record of Syuxtun comes from Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1524, noting the settlement (which he called Puerto de las Sardinas) was a regional capital and had a female chief of the areas now known as Santa Barbara and Point Conception. Cabrillo spent three days at Syuxton, and the chief and some other villagers slept on board Cabrillo’s ship. Other Europeans came to and wrote about Syuxtun in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including Geronimo Martín Palacios in 1603, who noted the oak groves above plains and cupped pines. Portolá’s expedition passed within “two rifle shots” of the town, noting that there were at least seven hundred individuals living there in 1769 and that the Chumash had given them 700 pounds of fish. In de Anza’s expedition in 1776, they met Yanonali who mentioned the Spanish were in the process of building the Santa Barbara Presidio (that would be completed in 1782). On an expedition in 1793, John Sykes noted that Syuxtun only had 150 individuals. Because of changes in the land through Spanish, Mexican, and US colonization in the land now known as Santa Barbara, there are few markers visible of Syuxtun available today. This is why the Syuxtun Story Circle is important--it is a visible marker of Chumash history whose community refuses to let it be lost.All of the images, while beautiful, are also meaningful in Chumash history and culture. They work together to represent Chumash history for future generations through the mosaic. The Chumash speak of a great deluge engulfing the Earth, drowning all living things except the Spotted Woodpecker, who you can see near the red star on the edge of the circle. He was the nephew of Kapqunupenawa, the Sun God. By perching on the tallest tree, he called for his uncle to save him, who provided him with acorns to eat.After the flood, Kapqunupenawa, the Morningstar, the Moon, and Slo'w the Great Eagle, whose large wings are embracing the circle, discussed with the Sky Coyote the creation of a new people and could not decide on how they should look. Both Slo'w and the Sky Coyote argued that these beings should be in their particular image. When it was decided that Sky Coyote could press his hand into a white rock to take his hand print as a model, silent observer Lizard jumped forward and provided his own. Everyone approved of Lizard's handprint, also featured in the mosaic, which is why human handprints are very similar to his.The Story Circle features four sea-worthy boats, known as tomols (sewn-plank Coast Redwood boats, made seaworthy with asphaltum and pine pitch), which was, and still is, used by the Chumash to access other Chumash communities, including the Channel Islands. Each depiction symbolizes a different Chumash experience with tools. For example, the tomol filled with fish shows Chumash abundance of both community and resources before European contact and colonization. You can see the tomol with three Black figures depicts the end of the Brotherhood of the Tomol, when sailors crashed and because of missionization, were unable to make tomols. The tomol with three figures that in detail and color in the mosaic depicts the beginning of a new Brotherhood of the Tomol, when the Quabajai Chumash Indian Association built a tomol named Helek (Chumash, “Peregrine Falcon”) with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History in 1976. A crew took Helek circumnavigated the Channel Islands on a ten day journey. The fourth tomol depicts when the Chumash community made its first crossing from the mainland to Limuw on the tomol named 'Elye'wun (Chumash, “Swordfish”) on September 8, 2001. This marked the first time for the Chumash to make a return to an important place. Hundreds of Chumash now make a similar crossing every September, and when reaching the island Limuw, they are greeted with a massive bird, who is also depicted on the mosaic. Below her, are the footprints of myriad local animals, to remember the time when all animals once spoke the same language.'Elyw'wun (swordfish) are powerful wizards who live at the bottom of the sea, which is why a swordfish is so prominent in the circle. In Chumash culture, the fish would chase whales beachward, making them easier to hunt. They are featured in the Swordfish Dance, with regalia comprised of a headdress with a swordfish skull and bill and cape with abalone shells. There is also ancient cave art in Point Conception called Swordfish Cave.There are many more stories that are embedded within the Syuxtun Story Circle, and this tour site is only a sampling. The mosaic contains important stories from oral traditions about creation, cosmology, and the history of the Chumash who have lived and continue to live on this land.

Across from Ambassador Park, near West Beach in Santa Barbara, California, a 20-foot-wide mosaic sits on the village site of Syuxtun (also spelled Syuxhtun), the largest Chumash settlement spanning all of the Chumash lands. The story circle features 21 separate panels, depicting aspects of Chumash religion, history, present, and future. The mosaic was a community-based project, emphasizing the importance of togetherness and connection through time and space.

Syuxtun Story Circle

Santa Barbara’s Moreton Bay Fig Ficus macrophylla immigrated from east Australia in 1874, when a sailor gave a young girl a cutting from his travels and she planted it on State Street. During this time, gardening enthusiasts and scientists alike in Santa Barbara and San Francisco worked together to get large quantities of Australian trees, especially Moreton Bay Figs and different kinds of eucalyptus, which you can also see all over the city and county! The leader of this movement was Ellwood Cooper of Goleta Valley, who introduced eucalyptus here in 1872, and by 1875, he planted 50,000 of more than 50 varieties between Santa Barbara and Goleta alone. There was so much interest in Australian trees because the climates of Australia and Santa Barbara were thought to be very similar. Eucalyptus in particular grows fast, and gardeners and scientists were interested in using the species to revolutionize logging in southern California to create infrastructure like railroads and even Sterns Wharf, which at one time had its pilings replaced with eucalyptus! Perhaps the sailor was on a mission to bring seeds, cuttings, and saplings of eucalyptus and brought the Moreton Bay Fig cutting for his sweetheart? While we do not know any more information about the sailor or the Moreton Bay Fig’s first recipient, who moved from Santa Barbara a year later, her friend, Adeline Crabb, transplanted the fig three years later to its current location of land owned by the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, which is why it is so close to the train station! She continued to care for it for the rest of her life. The Moreton Bay Fig was designated as a historical landmark in 1970, which gave it special protections from urban development, and the property was deeded to the City of Santa Barbara in 1976.  When a Moreton Bay Fig has enough room to grow and its roots can spread, it can have up to 150 feet (50 meter) circumference. If it has a crowded habitat, it grows taller and more narrow. Our Moreton Bay Fig has a 41.5 feet (12.6 meter) circumference and is 80 feet (24 meters) tall. Its crown--the top of the tree-spreads about 176 feet (54 meters), providing lots of shade on hot summer days!

Located at the corner of Montecito and Chapala Streets, Santa Barbara’s Moreton Bay Fig Tree arrived in 1876 as a seedling from its native Australia.  The 140 year old tree has since grown to a height of 80 feet and its canopy to a distance of almost 200 feet which provides over 20,000 square feet of shade.  It’s trunk now measures an impressive 12.5 feet in diameter and it is thought to be one of the largest fig trees in North America, although there are nearby trees competing for that title in Los Angles and San Diego.

Moreton Bay Fig Tree

At the corner of the Chase Bank building in Santa Barbara, California, there is a statue of Shoshone woman Sacagawea and her infant son, who worked on the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1803-1806), she never came to Santa Barbara. For this reason and others, this statue is frequently mistaken for San Nicoleño Chumash woman, Juana Maria, mythologized in Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins (1960). We know that this statue is Sacagawea because it was in a series of casts made by artist Harry Jackson, whose signature, along with the cast signature and date is found at the base. Santa Barbara was known as Syuxtun (Chumash for “it forks” or “where the two trails run”) before it was renamed after the Catholic martyr, Saint Barbara, by Sebastian Vizcaino in 1602. There is ample archaeological evidence that the Chumash lived on the Santa Barbara coast for at least 9,000 years. With this history, it follows that there would be a depiction of a Chumash woman in the downtown Santa Barbara area, except there is not. The statue is a mass-copied casting of Harry Jackson’s “Sacagewea” (1980), cast in bronze with patina and a concrete base. The artist’s signature at the base notes it is a cast, and other casts, which can be found at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming and in private collections.  However, it is unclear why Sacagewea (Shoshone for “Bird Woman”; also spelled Sacajewea, Shoshone for “Boat Launcher”) is outside of Chase Bank. She was not Chumash, nor did she ever visit Santa Barbara. She was a Lemhi Shoshone woman who led Lewis and Clark from the Mandan-Hidata villages in the Dakotas, across the Rocky Mountains to Oregon between 1804 to 1806 while pregnant and nursing. Sold into slavery by a Hidatsa raiding party in 1800, she was enslaved and bought by fur trader Toussaint Charbonneau, who made her one of his plural wives. When Meriwether Lewis and William Clark came to the Mandan-Hidatsa villages to hire a guide, they hired Charbonneau, who brought pregnant Sacagewea to communicate with the Shoshone to acquire horses. She provided life-saving information to Lewis and Clark, including the identification of edible plants, making moccasins and other clothing for winter, and calming suspicions of other indigenous groups they would come across with just her presence. Giving birth to her son Jean Baptiste and later daughter Lisette, she is believed to have died in 1812 near what is now known as Mobridge, South Dakota, though records are mixed. Many visitors, before reading the statue’s rather faint plaque that states her name as Sacagewea, believe her to be Nicoleño Chumash Juana Maria, whose story was permanently mythologized in Scott O’Dell’s middle-grade classic chapter book, The Island of Blue Dolphins (1960). It is a fair assumption--Sacagewea was not Chumash and never came to California. It is not clear why she would be here; however, on the other hand, one indigenous woman should not so easily stand in for another. Nevertheless, the assumption is made, even though the statue clearly has a baby in tow, and we do not have records of Juana Maria ever having a baby (nor is it part of her mythology in the ways that it is part of Sacagewea’s). Juana Maria was left alone on San Nicolas Island for eighteen years (1835-1853) after the Franciscan padres of the Santa Barbara Mission sought to remove all Nicoleño Chumash from the island San Nicolas Island. She was discovered by George Nidever, a Santa Barbara fur trapper, who had been paid by the padres to find her. It was reported that she had adjusted to life alone, eating seals and wild ducks and living in a house made of whale bones.  Juana Maria’s story does not end when she was found, where O’Dell’s telling does, though it was close to its end. When she was brought to Santa Barbara, the Chumash at the mission could not understand her language, nor could the Tongva, who resided on the southern Channel Islands. It was unclear if it was because she spoke a different dialect or if not having someone to talk to for so long made it difficult for her to speak. Newspapers reported that she conformed to no customs, enjoyed coffee and liquor, and sang most of the time. Because of the lack of resources to understand her, there is little written about her life other than other people’s reactions to her. Seven weeks after she left the island, she was quickly baptized and died of dysentery in Garey, California. She is buried in Nidever’s family plot in the Santa Barbara Mission.  Juana Maria’s story does not end with her death. In fact, it is at this point that her US-sensationalized public life begins. In 1928, the Daughters of the American Revolution placed a plaque commemorating her at the site of her burial on the Mission grounds. Most of Juana Maria’s personal possessions were part of collections and on display in the California Academy of Sciences, and they were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fires. In 1939, archaeologists found Juana Maria’s whale-bone hut on San Nicolas island, which matched the descriptions that Nidever provided when they returned to Santa Barbara. Further excavating has continued through the decades, leading to discoveries of Coast Redwood Nicoleño-styled boxes filled with what are believed to be 200 of Juana Maria’s possessions, including an abalone shell dishes and fish hooks, glass projectile points, and red ochre. An archeological discovery in 2012 is believed to be Juana Maria’s cave. Archaeological research has stopped at the request of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians, who claim cultural affiliation with the island’s ancient residents. The Island of the Blue Dolphins is still a regular part of the fourth grade curriculum, focusing on California history and the Mission system. Historical fiction like this is important to the imagination, understanding, and interest of history for children. But these works can only do so much, tell so much. O’Dell’s story only focuses on one aspect of her life: her solitude, being the last of her tribe, much like another children’s book, Theodora Kroeber’s Ishi: the Last of His Tribe (1964). Perhaps we could call this an aspect of imperialist nostalgia? It is not that Sacagewea should not be in Santa Barbara; it is that historically she was not. It certainly is not that we should not have indigenous representation whenever we can, but it should be intentional and in collaboration with the local indigenous community. Perhaps this is an extension of Santa Barbara’s larger built environment crafting, apparent in its Mediterranean and Spanish Revival Style architecture to create a sense of a Spanish and Californio Fantasy Past. With such a backdrop, Sacagewea or any incidental indigenous person as a statue is to be seen rather than understood. This is all to say, that more interpretation at this site would be very useful.

At the corner of the Chase Bank building  in Santa Barbara, California, there is a statue of Shoshone woman Sacagawea and her infant son, who worked on the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1803-1806), she never came to Santa Barbara. For this reason and others, this statue is frequently mistaken for San Nicoleño Chumash woman, Juana Maria, mythologized in Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins (1960). We know that this statue is Sacagawea because it was in a series of casts made by artist Harry Jackson, whose signature, along with the cast signature and date is found at the base.

Public Art and Commemoration in Santa Barbara

Dolphin Family

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information