CSUCI hosts new online Chumash Language Dictionary

CAMARILLO, Calif.-Cal State University Channel Islands is hosting a new online Chumash Language Dictionary.

Timothy Henry Rodriguez started developing the dictionary by studying the original John Peabody Harrington notes at the Smithsonian decades ago.

The campus hosted an event to discuss the dialect spoken by the Barbareño / Ventureño Band of Mission Indians.

The language was originally spoken by Indigenous people who lived in Ventura County and Northern Channel Islands.

Mission Indians Chairman Matthew Vestuto said they were later taught their language was "savage" and "not worthy."

"For a university to say we hold your language in high esteem or we feel it is something we support it affects us in a good way and it is useful to our work," said Vestuto.

CSUCI's Information Technology Team and the John Spoor Broome Library staff helped put the language online.

They call the project the "House of Language."

To help keep the language thrive they plan to add it to signs around campus.

For more information visit https://www.ciapps.csuci.edu