The Chumash houses can be completely described like a dome. The exterior of their houses was covered with grasses such as bulrush and cattails. These grasses were overlapping each other like sands or shingles on the roof. At the top of their roof, one can see a hole. This hole was made to provide circulation of air inside. When the rain pours down, the Chumash covered it with skin from animals. Their houses were said to be measured by about 12 to 20 feet in diameter.

What did the Chumash houses look like

The shape of a Chumash house is round and sometimes like an orange that was divided in half. The first thing to do in making it is to produce a circular frame using the willow poles. After that the poles will be set at the top, forming like a dome. The next thing is to create smaller saplings or make the branches tied in a crosswise manner. They covered the outside with bulrush and cattails. They place these grasses first from the bottom to top, each of them will overlap the other grasses.

Chumash Homes for all Season

This covering they made so that they will have some defense when the raining season will come. Usually, during the dry season, the Chumash cooked outside their houses but when it rained, they had used the fire pit that was available in the center of their houses. This also had provided them warmth during the winter. It can be related to today’s fireplace. Once again, the sizes of their houses were about 12 feet to 20 feet in diameter. The chief’s house would be much wider and bigger than the others. Their houses were usually 35 feet across.

 What are Chumash houses called

The Chumash people had made a place on where they can cleanse their body. It is somehow related to today’s sauna. They called it the sweathouse or in Chumash language, an ‘Apa’yik. However, this place was commonly used by men and not entirely by the women. It was built partly underground that is why they had used ladder whenever they wanted to be sweaty. A fire was put inside the heat stones to produce hot air and keeping the surroundings warm. There were times that the people had gone inside and then after warming their selves for a while they went outside and searched for the nearest cool water such as creeks and rivers to jump in. After swimming to the cool water, they had come back again inside their sweat house and stayed there for a few minutes.

The ‘Apa’yik had burned herbs inside. The natives used it to hide the hunter’s scents away from the wild animals such as the deer. Oftentimes the hunter will come first to the sweathouse before hunting so that their scent will be hidden whenever it is time for them to go hunting. Also, the sweathouse was done for health, for cleanliness and for purification of the native Americans. Since most men loved to go to this place, it became their meeting place with the other men. There is a Spanish name for sweathouse and it is Temescal that was derived from an Aztec word.

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