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A bitter battle is brewing along California’s Central Coast as an Indigenous tribe pushes to create a protected ocean zone that could sharply limit fishing — sparking fears among local fishermen that their livelihoods are on the line. The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians has filed a proposal to create a new Marine Protected Area (MPA) stretching from Morro Rock to the local dog beach near Morro Bay

Findings from a mysterious remote chain of islands off the coast of California are rattling bones in the science community as bone-pickers find traces of a “vanished world.” The Golden State’s Channel Islands, located several miles off the SoCal coast, are home to the remnants of revelational lost civilizations intriguing enough to make Indiana Jones blush. A banner finding in the area has been the 13,000-year-old remains of the “Arlington Springs Man,” the earliest dated adult found on the continent. A new documentary highlighted the extraordinary discovery, which has changed science’s thinking around where and when humans first migrated to...

Though local lore held that the so-called "scorpion tree" had been the work of cowboys, paleontologist Rex Saint Onge immediately knew that the tree was carved by Indians when he stumbled upon it in the fall of 2006. Located in a shady grove atop the Santa Lucia Mountains in San Luis Obispo County, the centuries-old gnarled oak had the image of a six-legged, lizard-like being meticulously scrawled into its trunk, the nearly three-foot-tall beast topped with a rectangular crown and two large spheres. "I was really the first one to come across it who understood that it was a Chumash...

According to the archaeological record, sharks (and rays, their close relative) were the number two source of protein for coastal Chumash after sardines, at least for the past 1,000 or so years... Specifically, the coastal Chumash were eating the easier-to-catch near-shore species such as leopard shark, angel shark, soupfin shark, and swell shark... The Chumash also ate many species of rays, but seemed to prefer the shovelnose guitarfish, which is wide like a ray in its torso but lanky and finned like a shark on the tail... The guitarfish, like other small sharks and rays, lives part of its life...

Archaeologist dig may have found Chumash home foundation The Associated Press Article Launched: 02/11/2008 05:28:15 AM PST SANTA BARBARA, Calif.—Archaeologists digging in a garden at the Santa Barbara Mission may have unearthed the complete stone foundation of a Chumash house. The dig is expected to be completed Wednesday under the watchful eyes of American Indian representatives. The foundation of the home is believed to be part of what's left of a Chumash village at the site, which is at the northeastern edge of an Indian pueblo at the mission. Much of the village remains were destroyed over the years. In...

SANTA YNEZ, Calif. — Gilbert Cash would have no chance of working as a blackjack dealer at one of the major hotels on the Las Vegas Strip. The reason: Cash has filed for personal bankruptcy four times and failed to pay about $60,000 in income taxes. He also is awaiting trial on charges of choking and beating his estranged wife — allegations he denies. http://www.latimes.com/news/yahoo/la-me-chumash19oct19,1,6605413.story