Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index The Chumash Indians, a Native American tribe, mainly inhabited the southern coastal regions of California. Estimates of their population range from 10,000-20,000 before contact with Spanish settlers in Mexico, though the population had apparently been devastated by disease prior to that. By 1900, this population had declined to just 200, though there are now some 5,000 people who identify themselves as Chumash. The Chumash's name for themselves is Shamala (pronounced with the 's' and 'h' separated). The word čhumaš means "islander". The Chumash were hunter-gatherers, who specialized in fishing. Some settlements built plank canoes called tomols, which could even be used for whaling. Remains of a developed Chumash culture, including rock paintings apparently depicting the Chumash cosmology, can still be seen. External link: http://www.chumashlanguage.com This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.