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SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA—The Santa Barbara Independent reports that the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum has handed over a collection of human remains and artifacts to the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. The bones included the partial remains of more than 1,000 Chumash and pre-Chumash people, along with some 4,000 funerary objects. The oldest remains in the collection have been dated to 13,000 years ago. These three femurs were discovered on Santa Rosa Island and support the idea that humans traveled by sea, following the coastline of northeastern Asia and Beringia into North America and on to South America. To read about shell beads that the Chumash may have used as currency, go to "Around the World: California."
