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Ohlone

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Map of the Costanoan languages

The Ohlone (also known as the Costanoan) are an ethnic group of Native American people whose members lived in what is now the San Francisco Bay Area and Monterey Bay areas of California. They had about 40 different tribe or village names. The Spanish explorers sometimes referred to the natives of this region as the Costenos ("coastal people"). Over time, the English-speaking settlers pronounced and spelled the word Costanoan when referring to these people and their language.[1] The name Ohlone might have derived from a Spanish rancho called Oljon, and referred to a single band who inhabited the Pacific coast near Pescadero. The name Ohlone may have also come from the name of an Indian village or site near modern-day Half Moon Bay. However, since the 1960s the term Ohlone has been informally extended to mean the Native Americans who came from around the south, east and west side of the San Francisco Bay down to Monterey Bay, often used to replace the term Costanoan. Some members prefer to keep the name Costanoan.

Oljone, Olchones and Alchones are spelling variations of Ohlone found in San Francisco mission records.[2].

Description

Replica of Ohlone Hut in the graveyard of Mission Dolores, San Francisco.


The native people had fixed village locations, moving temporarily to gather seasonal foodstuffs like acorns and berries. Seafood, including mussels, abalone, and fish from the bay and ocean, was important to their diet. The Ohlone people lived in the central California coastal areas between Big Sur and the current location of the Golden Gate Bridge on the San Francisco Bay, prior to Spanish contact, consisting of approximately forty different villages with about 100 to 250 members each. Their basket-weaving skills were notable, as well as their dancing, crafts and ornamentation.

Names

Lists of names available are for tribes (bands), villages (also known as rancherias or triblets[3]), languages (as assign by ethnolinguists), and selected words from the language. Although we have a list of names, the exact spelling and pronuncations are not entirely clear. [4]. There is also the artifical boundaries made by ethnoists in general. A. L. Kroeber, Clinton Hart Merriam, Robert Cartier, M. Beeler, Sherburne F. Cook and J. P. Harrington all used different names for boundaries, wheter tribe, language or just plain region. [5]

Many names come from the California Mission records of baptism, marriages and death[6]. Some names have come from Spanish and Mexican settlers, some from early Anglo-European travelers, and of course, some from "Informants" [7]. A few names were gleened from diseño of Mexican land grants made in California prior to the Mexican-American War[8]. Even with this there is a large untranscribed trove of material from Merriam[9] , and other material continues to show up from local historical societies and associations.

Correct pronuncations are tenuous at best. The largest portion of names were taken by Spainish missionaries using Spanish as a reference language. The records are then subject to human errors. Then errors are componded by the translation into English, which must contend with a large time gap since the records were made. Spelling errors creep in as different mission kept seperate records over a larger period of time, under various administrators.[10] In spite of this we have some clues. Kroeber, Merriam and others interviewed "Informants" and were able to get some pronuncations from word lists. Ethnoligists have used this to some advantage to create phonetic tables giving some semblence of languages. (See Languages below)


Tribes/Bands

The original Ohlone/Costanoan settlements and bands included, among others: Ahwaste, Altahmo, Amuctac, Ansaime, Aulintac, Chalon (not to be confused with Chalon in France), Costaños, Chutchui, Kalindaruk, Karkin, Lamchin, Mutsin, Petlenuc, Pruristac, Romonan, Rumsen, Sitlintac, Tamyen, Timigtac, Tuchayune, Tulomo, Wacharon, Werwersen and the Yelamu band .


Languages

The Ohlone language family was a member of the Utian linguistic group. Their languages were close in relation to each other. About equivalent as the languages of the Romance family are to each other; i.e. it is as if French was spoken in Berkeley, and Portuguese in Monterey.

The term Olhonean was used by Clinton Hart Merriam to describe the language.[2]

Words

Robert F. Heizer was the curator of the work of Clinton Hart Merriam. This partial table comes from Indian Names for Plants and Animals...[11]. Merriam was overwhelmingly a naturalist. His work was chide by others, but it remains useful. The list is tedious , over 400 words. The words were accompanied by a picture to help insure accuracy, but Heizer noted the errors prone in the system of interview.

The indian words listed are by "phonetic English" pronunciations. Some special marks do not translate; they may require additional treatment by ethnolinguists. The indians had no written language that we know of.


Reference for header of table

  • Word refers to the english word in question
  • Schedule means one (1) or more interviews, with possibly one (1) or more persons
  • Word Number Merriam numbers his words for easy reference
Selected Costanoan Words[12]
Word Schedule #56 Schedule #57 Word Number
Salmon Oo'-rahk Hoo"-rah-ka 247
Abalone Oo==ch[13] Hah-shan 254
Rewood (Sequoia sempervirens) - Ho-o-pe 280
Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia)[14] Yū'Ks You-kish 296
Big round tule (Scirpus lacustris)[15] Rōks Ró-kus 409

Population

Their population in 1770 was estimated from 10,000 at minimum, up to 26,000 in the East Bay alone [16] (This section to be expanded tonight.)

Ohlone Subgroups
Subgroups Location Est.Population [17]
Karkin South edge of Carquinez Strait 200
Chocheño East side of San Francisco Bay 2,000
Ramaytush San Mateo and San Francisco Counties 1,400
Tamyen Southwest side San Francisco Bay and Santa Clara Valley 1,200
Awaswas From Davenport to Aptos in Santa Cruz Co. 600
Mutsun Pajaro River, San Benito River and San Felipe Creek 2,700
Rumsen Salinas, Lower Carmel and Sur Rivers 800
Chalon Upper Salinas drainage 900


Mythology

Ohlone/Costanoan mythology centered around the Californian culture-hero of the Coyote trickster spirit, as well as Eagle and Hummingbird. Coyote spirit was clever, wily, lustful, greedy, and irresponsible. In their mythology, the Coyote was responsible for the creation of mankind, under the direction of Eagle, and taught mankind the arts of survival. He competed with Hummingbird, who despite his small size regularly got the better of him. Their creation story began with a world covered entirely in water, apart from a single peak (Mount Diablo in the northern Ohlone's version) on which Coyote, Hummingbird, and Eagle stood.[1]

History

Some archeologists suggest that these people migrated from the San Joaquin-Sacramento River system and arrived into the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Area about 500 A.D., displacing or assimilating earlier Hokan-speaking populations of which the Esselen in the south represent a survival.[2] However, recent carbon datings of shell mounds in Newark and Emeryville suggest the villages on these locations were established three to four thousand years ago.

The Ohlone people lived a relatively constant life until 1769, when the first Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived from southern California with the purpose of cultivating the region and Christianizing the Native Americans in a Mission Chain system.[2] [18] Spain claimed present-day California as its colony, and began to build a chain of missions from south to north in California, arriving in Ohlone territory in 1769. The Franciscan mission chain was founded under leadership and vision of Father Junípero Serra.

This Spanish encroachment into the California coast and Bay Area disrupted and undermined the Ohlone social structures and way of life, followed by U.S. enroachment in the 1840's. Under Father Serra's leadership, the Spanish Franciscans erected seven missions inside the Ohlone region, and brought most of the Ohlone into these missions to live and work. In date order, the missions erected inside Ohlone region were: Mission San Carlos Borroméo de Carmelo founded in 1770, Mission San Francisco de Asís also known as Mission Dolores, founded in 1776, Mission Santa Clara de Asís, founded in 1777, Mission Santa Cruz, founded in 1791, Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, founded in 1791, Mission San José de Guadalupe, founded in 1797, and Mission San Juan Bautista founded in 1797.[2] The Ohlone population suffered greatly due to cultural shock and disease, vulernable to foreign diseases to which they had little resistance to in the restricted, crowded living conditions.[2] These Indians were called Mission Indians and also neophytes, baptized with new Spanish names, and were blended with other Indian ethnicities such as the Coast Miwok transported from the North Bay into the South Bay missions.

In 1834, the Mexican government ordered all Californian missions to be secularized and turned their lands over to the Mexican government. Mission leaders attempted to protect and give some of the lands back to the Indians, but most lands were turned into Mexican-owned rancherias. The Indians became the laborers and vaqueros (ranch hands) of Mexican-owned rancherias. They eventually regathered in multi-ethnic rancherias, along with other Mission Indians such as the Coast Miwok, and northwest Yokuts and Patwins. Many of the Mission Indians went to work at Alisal Rancheria in Pleasanton, and El Molino in Niles. Communities also formed in Sunol, Monterey and San Juan Bautista. In the 1840's a wave of U.S. settlers enroached into the area and California became annexed to the United States. The new settlers brought in new diseases to the Indians. [2]

The Ohlone lost the vast majority of their population between 1780 and 1850, due to abysmal reproductivity rates, diseases and social upheaval associated with European immigration into California. By all estimates, the Ohlone were decimated to less than ten percent of their original pre-mission era population. By 1852 the Ohlone population had diminished down to about 1000[19] and continued to decline. By the early 1880s, the northern Ohlone were virtually extinct and the southern Ohlone people severely impacted and largely displaced from their communal land grant in the Carmel Valley. To call attention to the plight of the California Indians, Indian Agent, reformer, and popular novelist Helen Hunt Jackson published accounts[20] of her travels among the Mission Indians of California in 1883.

The last fluent speaker of an Ohlone language, Rumsien speaker Isabel Meadows, died in 1939. Some of the Mutsun Ohlone today are attempting to revive the language.

The Mutsun and the Muwekma are among the small surviving groups of Ohlone. The Esselen Nation also describes itself as Ohlone/Costanoan, although they historically spoke an entirely different Hokan language. Their tribal council claims enrolled membership by currently approximately 500 people from thirteen extended families, approximately 60% of whom reside in Monterey and San Benito Counties.

Divisions

There were eight major subgroups of the Ohlone, from north to south [21]:

  • The Karkin (also called Carquin), who lived on the south side of the Carquinez Strait. The name of the Carquinez Strait derives from their name, Carquin. They spoke an Ohlonean dialect called Karkin, which was quite divergent from the rest of the family.[22]
  • the Chocheño (also spelled Chochenyo and Chocenyo), who lived in the East Bay, primarily in the western portion of what is now Alameda County
  • the Ramaytush, also known as San Francisco, who lived between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific in the area which is now San Francisco and San Mateo County.
  • the Tamyen, also known as the Santa Clara, who lived on Coyote and Calaveras Creek. (Linguistically, Chochenyo, Tamyen and Ramaytush were very close, perhaps to the point of being dialects of a single language.)
  • the Awaswas, also known as the Santa Cruz, who lived on the Santa Cruz coast between Pescadero and the Pajaro Rivers. Santa Cruz bands included the Sokel, who lived at Aptos, and the Chatu-mu, who lived near the current location of Santa Cruz. (There is evidence that this grouping was more geographic than linguistic, and that the records of the 'Santa Cruz Costanoan' language in fact represent several diverse dialects.)
  • the Mutsun, also known as the San Juan Bautista, who lived along San Benito River and San Felipe Creek
  • the Rumsen or Rumsien, who lived from the Pajaro River to Point Sur, and the lower courses of the Pajaro, as well as the Salinas and Carmel Rivers.
  • the Chalon, also known as the Soledad, who lived on the middle course of the Salinas River.

Notable Ohlone People

  • Isabel Meadows, died 1939, the last fluent speaker of an Ohlone language, Rumsien.
  • Two Ohlone men from the village Pruristac, with baptismal names Hilarion and George, served as alcades (Mayors) of the San Francisco Mission in 1807. As such, they were at the begining of a long line of Mayors of San Francisco.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Margolin, 1978.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Teixeira, 1997
  3. ^ Cook, 1976, pg. 14 seem to attribute the term to Kreober(1932); defined as - demographically applies the term to a the population of a village "plus any others who might be scattered in the vicinity".
  4. ^ Milliken, 1995; The best source on the subject. - see Appendix I
  5. ^ This is just a personal observation. Although not technically valid, I'm certain references can be found.
  6. ^ Cook, 1976
  7. ^ Informants are natives still alive that could remember such details. Interviews were made as early as 1890, and as late as the 1940s. Mainly from Bancroft(earliest), Kroeber and Merriam (published 1970s posthumously via R. F. Heizer and others).
  8. ^ Apparently not reference in wikipedia yet. Prior to becoming part of the United States Mexico had established a land granting system for California. It required the grantee to submit a "letter of request" accompanied by a "diseño de terreno", or design of the land (or landmap). Some of the diseño referenced former indian villages and names, like Marin - as in Marin County, California.
  9. ^ Preface of Indian Names for Plants and Animals, 1979 ISBN 0-87919-085-X
  10. ^ Milliken, 1995; again
  11. ^ Merriam, 1979
  12. ^ Merriam, 1979
  13. ^ The double equals require a ch over them, as listed.
  14. ^ Valley Live Oak is listed, but this reference points to Coast Live Oak. Currently unknown why. Assume Merriam or Heizter knew what they were doing.
  15. ^ This species was listed but not available on wikipedia. A generic tule will be used until otherwise corrected, or available reference is found.
  16. ^ Sources differ on population. This article discounts the original American anthropologist, Alfred L. Kroeber's population projection of 7000 Costanoans existed in 1770, because most anthropologist and experts since Kroeber thinks he was not reliable and undercounting. Cartier estimated there were about 10,000 at the time. Cook originally estimated 10,000 to 11,000 in The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization. However, Cook later admitted undercounting and projected there were 26,000 in the East Bay alone, in The Population of the California Indians, 1769-1970.
  17. ^ Cartier, 1991. These population counts by Cartier are not supported by other anthropologists (are not confirmed facts).
  18. ^ The first Spanish to discover Californian and meet Native Americans was Sebastian Vizcaíno who reached San Diego in December 1602. Arguably, this had no impact on the Costanoans, over 300 miles north.
  19. ^ Cook, 1943
  20. ^ Jackson, Helen Hunt, 1830-1885, Report on the condition and needs of the Mission Indians of California, Washington, Govt. print. off., 1883., Library of Congress Control No.: 02021288
  21. ^ Cartier, 1991
  22. ^ Beeler, 1961

References

  • Beeler, M. Northern Costanoan, International Journal of American Linguistics, (1961) 27: 191-197.
  • Cartier, Robert, et al. An Overview of Ohlone Culture; 1991; De Anza College, Cupertino, California. Reprinted from a 1991 report titled "Ethnographic Background" as prepared with Laurie Crane, Cynthia Janes, Jon Reddington, and Allika Ruby, ed.
  • Cook, Sherburne F. The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1976. ISBN 0-520-03143-1. Originally printed in Ibero-Americana (1940-1943).
  • Cook, Sherburne F. The Population of the California Indians, 1769-1970. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, June 1976. ISBN 0-520-02923-2.
  • Margolin, Malcolm. The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area. Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books, 1978. ISBN 0-930588-02-9.
  • Merriam, Clinton Hart. Indian Names for Plants and Animals among Californian and other Western North American Tribes Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press Publication, 1979. ISBN 0-87919-085-X
  • Milliken, Randall. A Time of Little Choice: The Disintegration of Tribal Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area 1769-1910 Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press Publication, 1995. ISBN 0-87919-132-5 (alk. paper)
  • Teixeira, Lauren. The Costanoan/Ohlone Indians of the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Area, A Research Guide. Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press Publication, 1997. ISBN 0-87919-141-4.
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