Slightly over two hundred years ago, the Chumash Indians were the sole
inhabitants of the Santa Barbara area, which had the most densly
populated Indian settlement in California. Population estimates
for the Chumash from San Luis Obispo to Malibu at the time of
Spanish contact range between 15,000 and 17,000. The abundant
natural resources of the area enabled them to live very well by
hunting, gathering, and fishing.
After the Spanish arrived in 1782, the Chumash population began to
decline dramatically, largely due to newly introduced diseases to
which they had no immunity and due to disruption of their way of life.
By 1803, the population of virtually all of the coastal Chumash villages
had been absorbed by the missions. After the missions were secularized,
the Chumash often worked as laborers, servants, and vaqueros in Mexican
California.
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