Various civilizations around the world viewed the outer universe and night sky as a home after leaving their lives on earth. The Chumash, a Native American tribe, were some of the first people to inhabit North America. Their rich spiritual heritage has been documented through their magnificent petroglyphs and legends. The Chumash credited the existence of the universe and night sky to many of their gods and mythical heroes. The cosmos was a place that held powerful gods, feared demons, and admired heroes. The famous Chumash legend “Sparks of the Sun” tells the tale of how light is shone on Earth. The Sun carries a torch across the sky and, at the end of the day, throws the sparks into the heavens, creating the stars. This is only one example of the many beautiful Native American legends that illustrate their culture. The Chumash religion and creation stories differ greatly from Christianity, whereas their methods of practicing cosmology share some similarities.
Growing up in America, one would presume that we would be more exposed to the cosmologies and creation stories of the people that lived here before the influence of Europe took hold of the land. Americans today are almost all educated under the ideas of Judaeo-Christian traditions, and learn little about the cultures that existed here before the Americas were colonized. Research reveals some striking similarities and some noteworthy differences between the way that the origin of the universe was explained by indigenous tribes and the way that it is explained by Judaeo-Christians. The fact that the Western thinkers and the indigenous tribes of America had no knowledge of each other’s creation stories and cosmologies makes one wonder how certain aspects of their stories can be almost identical, such as the world being wiped out by floods to leave a clean slate for new creation. Specifically with the Chumash tribe of Southern California, there are some peculiar congruities with Judaeo-Christian beliefs, but also some evident incongruities.