John Johnson, who spent his career at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History studying both the prehistoric and historical Chumash, has addressed this question with appropriate care.

When asked whether Arlington Springs Man was an ancestor of the Chumash, his response was honest: “We don’t know for sure.

Maybe future studies will determine this.” The answer acknowledged both the deep Indigenous history of the Channel Islands and the genuine uncertainty about specific ancestral connections across such an enormous time span.

What can be said without reservation is that the Channel Islands have been home to Indigenous people for at least 13,000 years — from the time of the Arlington Springs individual to the Chumash of the historical period and beyond.

The island has never been uninhabited since the first humans reached it.