Kitsepawit
- "Fernando Librado" Kitsepawit
- UNITED STATES
Kitsepawit was a member of the Chumash tribe who lived until 1915. When and where he was born, however, are open to debate. For many years, it was believed he was born as early as 1804 to a family of Chumash tribal leaders on one of the Channel Islands off Santa Barbara. Recent evidence suggests that this early date is unlikely and that he was born in 1839. Records also indicate that he was raised at the Mission La Purísima, outside present-day Lompoc on the California central coast.
Kitsepawit was greatly skilled as a holder of tribal knowledge and stories. Known to the Spanish missionaries as Fernando Librado, Kitsepawit became a key informant for John P. Harrington. Harrington was an independent, enterprising anthropologist who took on recording Chumash history and culture as his life’s work. Kitsepawit told Harrington more about the history of his tribe than about his own life. Kitsepawit explained the symbols found in Chumash rock art and astronomy and he even helped Harrington construct a version of a “tomol,” one of the famed Chumash boats.
According to one scholar, Kitsepawit also told stories of postcontact Chumash life that included “gossip on sea disasters, lecherous priests, Chumash magic-makers, chores around the mission, how people at the Zanja de Cota Reservation of Santa Ynez made lead weighted quirts, and so on.” Kitsepawit’s accounts also provided details of how waterproof baskets were made and how other items essential to everyday life were artfully produced in the years before Europeans introduced western technology.