Chumash Indian Museum, Native American heritage museum in Thousand Oaks, United States.
The Chumash Indian Museum is a museum in Thousand Oaks, California, dedicated to the Chumash people, the indigenous inhabitants of the Southern California coast. It combines indoor galleries with an outdoor area that includes a reconstructed village and a native plant garden on the edge of the Santa Monica Mountains.
The museum was established in 1994 and is operated by the nonprofit Oakbrook Park Chumash Indian Corp. on land owned by the Conejo Recreation and Park District. The property became a designated archaeological zone in 1971 after nearly twenty caves were discovered, and was named Ventura County Historical Landmark #90 in 1983 and Thousand Oaks City Landmark No. 5. The museum grounds were severely damaged by the 2018 Woolsey Fire.
The village site is called Sap'wi, "House of the Deer." Four ethnobotany gardens near the museum carry interpretive signs naming plants in Ventureño Chumash, such as shakh for Giant Wild Rye, used for arrow shafts and paintbrushes, and mekjme'y for Basket Rush, the main basketweaving material. Horsetail stems served as sandpaper for wooden bowls.
The museum offers guided tours for both general visitors and school groups, so it helps to check in advance which programs are running on your planned visit day. Since the visit moves between indoor and outdoor spaces, bring layers and comfortable shoes, especially on cooler or warmer days.
The pictographs in two rock shelters near Birthing Cave include a red broadbill swordfish, a fish linked to the shaman; they are 4,000 to 6,000 years old and can only be seen on docent-led tours.
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