But they were not 10,000 people living as one hunter-gatherer tribe.Fyyr wrote:The Chumash were one of California's largest hunter gatherer societies, estimates at 10,000 are realistic. Pre Columbian.
They were 10,000 people living over about 7,000 square miles. That's a population density of 1.4 per square mile. (By comparison, the population density today of San Francisco is over 17,000 per square mile, and that of California as a whole, even with all its unused deserts and mountains, is over 200.)
So they must have been groups of hunter-gatherers, each with a smaller home range. Hunter-gatherers don't have a home range of 7,000 square miles, certainly not in an area rich in resources.
When I talk about limits of 30 or 300, I mean one tribe, or community, that lives together, usually with related individuals. Those didn't number 10,000.