Chumash Indians
The Chumash Indians were natives to the coastlands in California, from Malibu to Paso Robles, as well as on all three of the Northern Channel Islands. There were 150 independent villages with a total population of 18,000 people. People in the other regions spoke a little differently although the languages were similar. The villages were made of ceremonial grounds, semi subterranean sweathouses, cleared playing fields, storage huts, and round thatched dwelling houses up to fifty feet in diameter and able to hold as many as seventy people. Their homeland was first settled about 13,000 years ago and with time, the population got bigger so some of them started migrating to other coastlands of California. With all these other villages they had access to different resources, which they would trade with one another in different villages. Some of the major groups were the Obispeño, Purismeño, Ynezeñ, Barbareño and Ventureño (named after the Franciscan missions San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, La Purisma Concepcion, and Santa Ynez. With all this trading going on among the Chumash villages, it would have taken many days to travel by foot. Living on the coastlands they invented a seagoing plank canoe or in their language a "tomol". They invented t
A young boy would usually serve as the bailer as the men paddled the plank canoes. After the glue was dried they drilled holes into the seams of each side and then tying the boards together with plant fiber string made from Indian hemp, then the holes were filled up again with "yop". It hung about knee length and had a narrow apron in the front with a wider piece that wrapped around the back. The Chumash Indians were also excellent basket weavers. They kept they history of the tribe going in stories that were told at the campfires. This happened because if the men ever came back to the tribe, they could share some of the knowledge they have learnt. The natural reddish-orange base of the stalks was used separately to fill in designs, or even as the entire background color. A hole was left open at the top for circulation, when it rained they covered the hole with skin. They would check the canoes regularly and make repairs if necessary. In 1913 an elderly Chumash man built a canoe for an anthropologist named John P. Twined basketry bottles were less tightly woven but were coated on the inside with asphaltum to make them watertight. Women would wear a two-piece skirt of deerskin or plant fiber. The Chumash Indians didn't wear much. They didn't do any planting of corn or other crops like others did.
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