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Reviewed by:
  • Earth Wisdom: A California Chumash Woman by Yolanda Broyles-González and Pilulaw Khus
  • Laura S. Hodgman
Earth Wisdom: A California Chumash Woman. By Yolanda Broyles-González and Pilulaw Khus. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2011. 256 pages. Paperback, $24.95.

I am a white academic. Neither indigenous myself nor a specialist in Native American or indigenous studies, I arguably have no business reviewing Earth Wisdom, the product of a long collaboration between Yolanda Broyles-González and Chumash elder Pilulaw Khus. My only qualifications for doing so are personal curiosity, a desire to learn about indigenous peoples and cultures, and practical experience as an oral historian. That said, in my view this work offers rich material for learning and reflection.

As Broyles-González notes in her introduction, "some readers" might wish to "skip forward" to Khus's narrative, which "stands on its own and speaks for itself" (7). As a nonspecialist, I initially struggled with the depth of Broyles-González's analysis of indigenous knowledge-ways, complex forms of identity, the history of Euro-American study of Chumash as Others (including detailed criticism of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History's booklets and exhibits), and the New Chumash Research, a decolonizing research effort that recenters Chumash experience by rooting it within the knowledge system of the Chumash themselves. When I returned to the introduction after reading Khus's narrative, however, I culled much more from it, and it is evident that indigenous studies scholars will appreciate the scholarly context that Broyles-González provides.

Khus's narrative is presented thematically, beginning with Chumash origin stories and life before colonization. Major sections of Earth Wisdom address serial invasions of Chumash land, resistance to colonization (most notably the 1978 occupation of Point Conception), collective efforts to occupy and protect sacred space from development, the proper place of humans on Earth, and the fulfillment of Chumash prophecy in the Time of Purification, which Khus believes may be upon us.

Khus strongly challenges hegemonic Euro-American narratives in fundamental ways. For example, she asserts that corporate leaders, the military, and the US government are "very good at not telling you the truth" (185). She bluntly dismisses the US government's conception of fairness, both historically and now: "Justice and equality does not exist here in the United States," she declares. "It never has" (164). The idea that the United States upholds these values is "a big lie" (69). Further challenging politically dominant discourse in the United States, Khus asserts that nuclear facilities are wrongly sited on sacred land, that there are "no peaceful uses" of nuclear power (emphasis in original, 176). In the event of conflicting interpretations, she urges her audience to "listen to the Indian" over the academic (92). In other words, trust her words, not this review (a somewhat dispiriting bit of advice for the present author). Euro-American descendants comfortable with their own culture may be taken aback by the self-assured thoroughness of Khus's critique. [End Page 160]

In addition to bristling at Khus's assertions, some readers will balk at her evidence and argumentation. Profound structural discrepancies between Chumash and Western knowledge-ways are clear in this work. For example, Khus explains that violence is embedded in the US Constitution because its authors left out women and spirit, an explanation that may seem hopelessly vague to some. She sees the condor's disappearance as evidence portending the Time of Purification; the Creator charges scavengers with keeping the planet clean, Khus explains, and when the Earth no longer supports scavengers, "everybody else is in trouble" (175). At the same time, for Khus, DNA analysis is not evidence that can be used to identify correctly who is, or is not, Chumash.

Khus nonetheless offers many compelling messages for the modern world. It is hard to deny that Euro-American peoples have made land an economic commodity and are dangerously "disconnected from the Earth." Also persuasive is Khus's assertion that the Euro-American relationship to the Earth comes from the mind, while Chumash see an intimate relationship between their people, the ceremonies they practice, and the land they inhabited. Chumash are literally "of...

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