5 1 3 stuks village (Scott Foresman)

Suggested levels for Guided Reading, DRA,™
Lexile,® and Reading Recovery™ are provided
in the Pearson Scott Foresman Leveling Guide.

St u k’s V i llage

Genre

Historical
fiction

Comprehension
Skills and Strategy

• Setting and Theme
• Author’s Purpose
• Visualize

Scott Foresman Reading Street 5.1.3

ISBN 0-328-13508-9

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by Carol Talley
illustrated by Kate McKeon


Reader Response
1. The main setting for this story is the village of
Shisholop. If you painted a picture of the village,

what are some of the things that were important to
the narrator that you would include in the picture?
Make a web to help you organize your thoughts.

St u k’s V i llage
Shisholop

2. At the end of the story, the villagers celebrate the
return of the traders. Did you visualize this scene?
What are some of the words that helped you to see
the scene in your imagination?

by Carol Talley

illustrated by Kate McKeon

3. It is Stuk’s job to bail water from the bottom of the
canoe when the men go on fishing trips. Find bail
in a dictionary. Then find both a homograph and
a homophone for the word. Use all three words in
sentences that show you understand their meanings.
4. In time and with practice, Stuk will learn to make a
tomol as well as his father does. Can you think of a
skill you are learning from a parent or other adult?
Tell about it.

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Coppell, Texas • Ontario, California • Mesa, Arizona

My name is Stuk. I live in the Chumash village of
Shisholop. Our village is on the California coast. My
family has lived in this village for a very long time.
I think they have been here since the First People
joined the Sky People in the Upper World.
I am the youngest in my family. Our house is built
of willow poles and rush grasses. All my family lives
there: my mother and father, my older brothers and
their wives, and my two unmarried sisters. I like my
fine round house. It is roomy on the inside. All the
beds are made from rushes and woven mats. Our
pillows and blankets are made from fur and animal
skins. Lots of light comes in.

Every effort has been made to secure permission and provide appropriate credit for
photographic material. The publisher deeply regrets any omission and pledges to
correct errors called to its attention in subsequent editions.
Unless otherwise acknowledged, all photographs are the property of Scott Foresman,
a division of Pearson Education.
ISBN: 0-328-13508-9
Copyright © Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is
protected by Copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher
prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission
in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
likewise. For information regarding permission(s), write to: Permissions Department,
Scott Foresman, 1900 East Lake Avenue, Glenview, Illinois 60025.
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3


We have many family houses in my village. We
have some houses for everyone to use, such as the
storehouse. Also, there is the village sweathouse.
There the men can relax and get clean. We play
games on the playing field, and we hold special
meetings on the sacred ground.
My family’s house is one of the largest in
Shisholop. It is near the house of the wot, our village
leader. My father ranks high in our village. He and
my brothers belong to the Brotherhood of the
Canoe. These are the men who build and use the
canoes we call tomols. Men go out to the deep sea
to fish in these canoes. They make long voyages to
trade with other villages along the coast.

The tomol, or canoe, is made from split wood cut into planks.
The rough surface is smoothed with sharkskin. The planks are
sewed together with strong cords made from milkweed fiber.
Finally, the tomol is painted bright red.

4

When my father and brothers build a canoe, they
are not in a hurry. First, they collect the trees that
have fallen in storms and have washed up on the
shore. They split the wood and shape it into planks.
Then they smooth the planks with rough sharkskin.

Sometimes, they let me make holes in the planks
with a stone drill. Then they sew the planks together
with strong cords. Some people in my village make
these cords from milkweed fiber.
Next, my father and brothers mix tar and pine
pitch. They use it to seal up the holes and cracks
along the edges of the planks. Finally, they let me
help paint the tomol a bright red color.

Cords hold
together the
wood planks
on the tomol.

5


They let me watch and help because one day I will
be a canoe maker. No one stands around just to see
how the canoe is made. Everybody helps.
Then my father and brothers push the canoe into
the surf and set off across the water. No matter how
carefully the holes and cracks are filled with tar,
water will leak into the tomol. It is my job to bail the
water from the bottom of the boat and pour it back
into the sea. Since the time I was a small boy, I have
been allowed to go with them to help.

6

A fishing trip takes many days. Sometimes we
drag wide nets behind our canoe. Then we catch
big flounder or bass. Sometimes we dip small nets
into the water to catch sardines. Some days we take
along spears and harpoons for catching tuna and
swordfish.
My family’s special skill is making cords to sew the
canoe planks together. Others in my village are good
at making the nets. Still others are expert at carving
spears and harpoons. There are also families who
make beautiful baskets; needles from bones; strong
rope from animal sinew, or tissue. Some make drills
from a hard rock called chert.

7


Syuxtun

Trading is important in our village. When
we have more useful things than we need
in our own village, we trade them for other
things that we do not have. Sometimes my
father goes north in his tomol to trade with
villages up the coast. He often goes as far as
Syuxtun, where a thousand villagers live.
Sometimes we travel in our canoe to the
islands that lie out beyond the horizon. The
most distant voyage of all is to the small island
of Xalashat. This journey takes many days.

To make this long trip, we launch our
tomol before the sun appears over the eastern
mountains. The sun is halfway up by the time
we pass the first island, called Anacapa. My
father and brothers pull their paddles strongly
through the water. They raise and lower their
blades, first on the right side, then on the left,
always together.

8

Shisholop
Anacapa

Xalashat

9


When we are hungry we eat dried fish. When we
are thirsty we drink water from a basket jar made by
one of our villagers.
I have watched our basket makers waterproof the
jar with lumps of tar. The basket maker drops the
tar down into the tightly woven jar. Then hot stones
are dropped in. The stones melt the tar. Then the
jarmaker spins and turns the basket. This makes the
melted tar coat the inside of the basket. Soon it is
sealed tight so that it holds water very well. We also
use this tar to fill the holes and seams of our tomol.

10

The sun sets and rises high again. Finally we
see the headland of Xalashat rise from the waters.
Ravens, seagulls, and cormorants fill the sky.
All through the year, the wind rages over this
small island. My father and brothers paddle through
the choppy waves. They must fight both wind and
water. Around the sandspit on the east edge of the
island, we head the tomol toward a sheltered cove.
Dolphins rise from the water to greet us. Islanders
run to the shore. My father and brothers raise their
paddles over their heads to celebrate our safe arrival.

11


The waters around Xalashat are rich in kelp beds.
Kelp are tough, brown seaweeds. Herds of sea otters
spend their days swimming and floating in the kelp.
They like to eat the shellfish that live there. We come
to the island to trade for the skins of these otters,
which the islanders have cured and prepared for us.

12

We bring things the island people want. We have
fine baskets and sinew rope made in Shisholop. We
bring acorns gathered in the valley above our village.

We have dried deer and elk meat, rabbit skins, wild
cherry seeds, and pine nuts from villages in the hills.
We have pieces of soapstone, which we get in
trade with another island people. This soapstone
is easily carved into animal shapes and into bowls
that do not crack when put in a fire. That is why it is
valuable.

13


While the grown-ups trade, I go off with the
island boys and girls to collect shellfish in tide pools.
Or we gather wild sage, a flavorful herb, on the sand
dunes. Often we see a small island fox that has left
his lair to hunt white-footed mice. We may spot the
gnawed remains of his dinner.
My father bargains well. The next day we set
off on our return journey to the coast. Our tomol is
loaded full. We have many otter skins. We also have
sealskins and sometimes the dried meat of sea lions.
We have beautiful beads and jewelry made from
abalone and shells by the people of Xalashat.

14

One time, as we made our way home, the skies
darkened and the waves rose around us. Because of
the heavy cargo, the tomol rode low in the water.
The sea came into the canoe from the seams, as well

as over the sides. The water came in faster than I
could bail it out. Finally, to save our lives, my father
said that we must lighten our load. Many skins were
thrown into the water and lost.

15


On that day, the people of our village waited
fearfully on the shore. They saw the storm at sea.
When at last they saw us returning, they wept with
joy. People ran to meet us at the water’s edge. They
sang songs of gladness as strong men rushed into the
water and pulled us ashore. Then these men lifted
the tomol, still full of cargo, onto their shoulders and
carried it into the village.
Always when we return from trading with the
islanders, the village celebrates. We prepare a feast
of shellfish, roasted fish and meat, and acorn soup.
We dance and sing. Some people make music with
deer bone flutes and bird bone whistles. Some
people shake rattles made from turtle shells with
small stones inside. My brother strikes a clapper stick
against his hand to keep the rhythm of the music.

16

17

Later we sit around the fire, and
storytellers tell old, old stories. I like
the Sky People stories best of all.
One story tells how two brothers in
the Upper World make thunder and
lightning when they play the hoopand-pole game. That’s the same game
I play with my friends on our village
playing field. One brother rolls the
hoop and makes the thunder. The
other brother runs after the hoop and
throws the pole through it to make
the lightning.
Another story tells how the stars are
made. All day the Sun travels across
the sky carrying a torch to light the
world. When night comes, the Sun
breaks the torch in two. The sparks
that fly are the stars in the heavens.
When I listen to all the old stories,
I am happy. I think the people of
Shisholop will tell these stories forever.

18

19


The Chumash People

Reader Response

For thousands of years before Europeans came
to the Americas, the Chumash made their homes in
villages along the coast of California. They also lived
on four islands in the Santa Barbara Channel:
San Miguel Island, Santa Rosa Island, Santa Cruz
Island, and Anacapa Island. The Chumash village of
Shisholop was located in this area, near the presentday city of Ventura. The village of Syuxtun was near
the present-day city of Santa Barbara.
Xalashat is now called San Nicolas Island. It is one
of four islands located farther south in Santa Barbara
Channel, along with Santa Catalina Island, Santa
Barbara Island, and San Clemente Island. The people
who lived on these four islands were not Chumash,
but they knew the Chumash and traded with them.

1. The main setting for this story is the village of
Shisholop. If you painted a picture of the village,
what are some of the things that were important to
the narrator that you would include in the picture?
Make a web to help you organize your thoughts.

Shisholop

2. At the end of the story, the villagers celebrate the
return of the traders. Did you visualize this scene?
What are some of the words that helped you to see
the scene in your imagination?
3. It is Stuk’s job to bail water from the bottom of the
canoe when the men go on fishing trips. Find bail

in a dictionary. Then find both a homograph and
a homophone for the word. Use all three words in
sentences that show you understand their meanings.
4. In time and with practice, Stuk will learn to make a
tomol as well as his father does. Can you think of a
skill you are learning from a parent or other adult?
Tell about it.

20