The Rainbow Bridge, a Chumash Legend

One beautiful summer evening in California, we gathered around a fire in the Angeles Mountains to hear a Chumash Storyteller share the Chumash legend of the Rainbow Bridge.

~ The Chumash were created from a seed planted by the Earth Goddess on Santa Cruz Island.

The people prospered until there were too many of them for Santa Cruz Island so the Earth Goddess decided that some of the people would have to move off the island to the mainland where there was plenty of space.In order to get the people to the mainland, the Earth Goddess created a bridge out of a rainbow. She made a very large rainbow that stretched from the highest peaks of Santa Cruz Island to Mainland Shore.

The Earth Goddess told the people to cross the rainbow bridge, but to not look down. Most of the Chumash made it across the bridge safely but some did not. The ones who looked down at the fog shrouded waters of the Pacific became dizzy and fell into the ocean. The Earth Goddess felt badly that these people had fallen so she turned them into Dolphins.

That's why the Chumash always say the Dolphins are their brothers.