LONG STORY/SHORT STACK

The oldest known human remains
In the area now understood
As the United States of America 
Were found in 1959 on Santa Rosa Island
Off the coast of Southern California.

Protein analysis and radiocarbon dating
Suggest they are 13,000 years old
At a time of a declining Glacial Maximum
When Pygmy Mammoth still roamed
Across the agglomerated Islands.

These ancient peoples had arrived
On reed rafts and canoes that floated
Down the Kelp Highway which flows
From Siberia, along Beringia, and then
Down the entire west coast to Peru.

There remains a deep ocean trench
(The Hueneme Submarine Canyon)
That separates the Islands from the coast:
Legend has it, that as the waters rose
The Chumash fled on a Rainbow Bridge.

The Islands and the Transverse Ranges
Were uplifted together
Around 3 million years ago
Establishing a climate with wet winters
And hot dry summers.

These ‘Mediterranean’ conditions
Fostered sclerophyllous vegetation
Like Chaparral and sage scrub
Inured to drought and resilient
To the occasional cycle of fire.

Diversity was also encouraged through
The mosaic fire regime of the Chumash
Which drove an ecological succession
That awakened the soil to produce
Its bounty of seeds, nuts and fruits.

Over countless generations
The footprint of the Chumash
Expanded from the coastal fringe
To the foothills of the Santa Ynez Range
And beyond to the desert plains.

The arrival of the Spanish in 1769
And then of the Anglo Americans
In the mid-nineteenth century
Denied the Chumash their lands
And ultimately their lives.

The brutal destruction of
These primal colonizers, their culture
Magic, medicines, and mystery
Remains as a dark genocidal stain
On the fabric of California.