Indigenous peoples have lived along the California coast for at least 11,000 years. Pictographs, Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park Prior to European contact (pre-1542) History Chumash pictographs in Simi Valley dating to 500 AD. Modern place names with Chumash origins include Malibu, Nipomo, Lompoc, Ojai, Pismo Beach, Point Mugu, Port Hueneme, Piru, Lake Castaic, Saticoy, Simi Valley and Somis.Īrchaeological research demonstrates that the Chumash people have deep roots in the Santa Barbara Channel area and lived along the southern California coast for millennia. Their territory included three of the Channel Islands: Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and San Miguel the smaller island of Anacapa was likely inhabited seasonally due to the lack of a consistent water source. The Chumash are a Native American people of the central and southern coastal regions of California, in portions of what is now Kern, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, extending from Morro Bay in the north to Malibu in the south to Mt Pinos in the east.
