Welcome. This is a small book of six stories for circle time. Each story is about a real creature of a real island — Santa Cruz Island, off the coast of Southern California, which the Chumash people have called Limuw for longer than anyone can count.
The stories are designed to read aloud in about four or five minutes each, with some room to let the kids join in on the repeating phrases. Each story is followed by a short note just for you — how to pronounce the words, what’s true and what’s imagined, how to answer questions the kids might ask. The notes are there for your confidence, not for you to recite.
The book has two modest goals. First: to share the wonder of real island animals with young children in a way that lets the kids attach — to the blue bird, to the little fox, to the cormorant standing with his wings out, to the whale passing by twice a year. Second: to gently put a few Chumash words into the children’s mouths, most especially the name Limuw. By the end of the book, a child who has heard the stories a few times will know that word the way they know dog and tree. It will simply be part of their world.
That is all. The book does not try to teach Chumash culture, history, or language in any formal way. Those things are carried by Chumash communities themselves, and children who grow curious should eventually be pointed toward those communities and their teachers. Where to go is listed at the end.
Slowly. Don’t rush the Chumash words — rest on them a little. If the kids want to repeat a phrase, let them. The repeating lines (Only on Limuw, On Limuw, This is how the cormorant stands) are there on purpose, and kids will join in by the second or third reading. That joining-in is exactly the point.
Don’t worry about perfect pronunciation. The honoring is in the trying. The pronunciations below are good approximations from published sources; your attempt, in good faith, is more than enough.
The author of this book is not Chumash. This book is written with care and with as much accuracy as available sources allow, but it does not speak for Chumash people. The living authority on Chumash language, culture, and history rests with Chumash communities themselves — most especially, for contemporary language revitalization work, with the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, whose Samala language program, museum, and cultural center are excellent next steps for curious families and classrooms.
If something in this book is inaccurate or should be said differently, please let the author know. The next version of the book will be better because you spoke up.
If you read these six stories in order over a week or two, by the end the children will know what Limuw means, they will know the blue bird and the little fox and the cormorant and the sheephead and the whale and the long canoe, and they will have a small Chumash word or two settled comfortably in their mouths. That is the work of this book. Anything else it does is a bonus.
Thank you for reading these stories to your children. Walk softly on Limuw — in your imagination, and one day, maybe, on the island itself.