The Rainbow Bridge

In Chumash tradition, Hutash, the Earth Mother, saw that her children on Santa Cruz Island had grown too numerous and created a Rainbow Bridge so they could cross to the mainland. She warned them not to look down, but some did, became dizzy, and fell into the sea. Unable to bear their deaths, she transformed them into dolphins, whom the Chumash cherish and respect as “people of the sea” and as their relations. The Tuchiat Stone, believed by the Chumash people of the Islands to be magical, symbolizes their upper world, lower world, and middle world, with a hole through its center believed to keep the three worlds in balance. A celestial dolphin cave painting overlays the Tuchiat Stone, with water flowing from its center to keep the three worlds in balance. The Chumash word for dolphin, A’lul’quoy, means to go around, to protect, and to go in peace.

California · United States