03/05/2019 · The name Chumash refers to several groups of California Indians who originally lived near the south-central coast of California, including the Channel Islands, and who spoke similar languages. The name was chosen by explorer and linguist John Wesley Powell, from a word used by the Coastal Chumash to refer to the Indians of Santa Rosa Island, Tcú-mac .

The Chumash People. The Chumash Indian homeland lies along the coast of California, between Malibu and Paso Robles, as well as on the Northern Channel Islands. Before the Mission Period, the Chumash lived in 150 independent towns and villages with a total population of at least 25,000 people. In different parts of the region, people spoke six ...

Chumash History. The Chumash and Gabrielino-Tongva peoples were the first human inhabitants of the Channel Islands and Santa Monica Mountains areas. Our peoples are known to have lived here for thousands of years; numerous archaeological sites have been uncovered in the past decade some of which date to 15,000 years.

Population estimates for pre-contact Chumash people show a range of numbers. The late Alfred Kroeber, a prominent California Indian scholar, suggested a population size of 8,000 to 10,000 for the Chumash, while S. F. Cook and Robert Heizer, UC Berkeley Anthropologists, estimated a count of 18,000 to 22,000 people.

The Chumash are a linguistic family who traditionally lived on the coast of southern California, who were also known also as Santa Barbara Indians. Chumash is believed to mean either “bead maker” or “seashell people.”. There were seven dialects of the Chumashan family. All were fairly similar except the San Luis Obispo, which stood apart.

Before European contact, the Chumash people had settled along the coast from Malibu to San Luis Obispo and inland to the southern slopes of the San Joaquin Valley. They had been primarily hunter-gatherers who created bustling villages and towns connected by elaborate trade networks.