Oxnard--The Oxnard Public Library’s Main Branch treated book lovers with a special visitor on Saturday, March 30, as Chumash Elder Julie Tumamait-Stenslie shared indigenous stories, highlighted by handmade custom crafts and furs to keep the Chumash population warm and full of tradition.
TUMAMAIT-Stenslie loves history and was excited to share her story with the attendees.
“I’m Chumash on my father’s side,” she said. “Both his parents were Chumash, although his mother was half. His father was from Sonora, Mexico, and my mother was from Wanawaka, Mexico, and migrated into the United States around the 1900s.”
She recently spoke at the Thousand Oaks Library and the Ojai Library.
“Most of the time, my work is done in schools,” she said. “I work through all different levels of school, from preschool to the University level, and just talk about the many things I have learned over my time.”
She loves questions that she doesn’t know.
“I can say this is why I don’t know because of that 200-plus years of subservience, desecration, and the disappearance of our culture,” Tumamait-Stenslie said.
She decided to learn more about the Chumash, and in the Ojai Valley, there were two families who were cousins.
“I…
