The Chumash are a tribe of Native Americans who settled in the central and southern coastal regions and northern channel islands of California about 13,000 years ago. Until recently, each band spoke the same language, but different dialect, depending on the area they inhabited.
The Chumash were primarily hunters, fishers and gatherers but were famous in their region for the manufacture of currency crafted from sea shells. Evidence of the extent of their trade network, in the form of their shell money, has been found all over California. In addition, cave painting depicting the cosmology of the Chumash and their baskets have been found in Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Louis Obispo counties. The Chumash crafted relatively sophisticated redwood plank canoes called "tomolo," which consisted of a solid wood hull with planks of wood built up along the sides. These tomolo allowed the Chumash to fish in the deep ocean, including occasionally whaling, and to extend their trade network; some have even speculated that Polynesian traders interacted with the Chumash, but these theories are dismissed by most anthropologists.
The Chumash baskets were crafted of juncus rush and woven tightly enough to hold water reliably. Some baskets were even used for cooking; herbs, vegetables, meat and water were combined in a basket, then hot rocks were placed in the basket to bring the water to a boil, thus making soups and stews. Chumash basketry became an object of interest to Spanish colonists in the 18th century, and were often sent as gifts to relatives or displayed as works of art. Chumash basket-weaving techniques were even used in the construction of their houses.
The tomolo constructed by the Chumash were held together by a mixture of tree sap and naturally occurring tar asphalt that flows from underwater natural gas and oil leaks in the Santa Barbara channel. The planks on the sides of these canoes were tied together by lacing hemp through holes drilled in the boards and lashed to the boards below it. The entire canoe was then sealed with the heated sap and tar asphalt mixture and the rough planks were sanded smooth with sandstone and sharkskin. The tomolo could range in size from three-person smaller canoes to ones that held 10 or more passengers.
The Chumash used medicines drawn from the local plants of California, including willow bark for aches and pains and poison oak for wounds. Many of the natural ingredients were mixed with other byproducts of Chumash daily life, such as animal fats, ashes from cook fires and sea water. These medicines were administered by shamans and the recipes have been passed down through generations from master to apprentice. Some medicines were mostly ceremonial, such as the swallowing of live red ants, while others were direct cause-and-effect, such as the use of seawater to induce vomiting.
The population levels of the Chumash before European contact are difficult to estimate, with some figures as low as 10,000 and others as high as 20,000. Nevertheless, contact with European diseases diminished the Chumash numbers, as did the transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to an agriculturally based one under the tutelage of the Spanish mission system. The Chumash population reached its nadir, of 200, during the late 19th and early 20th century, but has since rebounded to about 5,000, as of 2008.
As of 2008, there are several bands of Chumash, the most prominent of which is the Santa Ynez band, which operates a casino on the reservation in Santa Ynez, California. The Quabajai band of Chumash worked closely with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History to craft several tomolo, which were paddled around the Channel Islands in 1976, 1997 and 2001 in an attempt to reconnect with their heritage and revive cultural ties with other bands. Other Chumash bands, such as the Coastal band, are attempting to receive federal recognition for their tribe; thus far, the federal government only recognizes the Santa Ynes band.
