Steatite Stone Cooking Pots
steatite cooking pot
Late Period
800
Before Present
to Missionization

The Indians on Santa Catalina Island carved these stone pots from steatite, a soft, easily worked soapstone which they quarried on the island. These heat resistant cooking vessels were traded to the Chumash of the Northern Channel Islands and to people on the mainland coast, in exchange for local resouces.



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This Tishle' blade is the only surviving example of a Chumash tomol paddle. The paddle was collected during Vancouver's visit to the Santa Barbara area in 1793 and presently resides in the British Museum collection.

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