 | Ohlone History The Ohlone, Ohlone History in the Bay Area, Use of the Acorn/Importance of the Oak Tree, Hunting, Water Resources, Economics and Socio-Political Organization, Dress, Residence, Games, Warfare, Religion and Ritual, Archeological Significance and Death, Extinction of the Ohlone People, Current Status
The Ohlone
Many historians and ethnographers have referred to the indigenous people of the South Bay as Costanoans, derived and anglicized from the Spanish word at the time of contact "costeños," or, people of the coast. This name was never adopted by the Native Americans themselves, each of whom had a name for his or her own group. Around 1916, descendants of different groups of "Mission Indians" began calling themselves Ohlone, which may have been the name of a prominent village along the San Mateo coast, or could have been a Miwok or Native American word meaning "western people". The name has come into general use since the 1970's and today is understood by many to include all native Americans tracing their lineage back to the East and South Bay. Different sources suggest that the early ancestors of today's Ohlone people may have inhabited the Bay Area anywhere from 500 AD to as long ago as 3000 BC. From as early as 1000 BC until the end of the 18th century, Ohlone inhabited the site and founded a village called Ulistac. In their language, "tac" means "place," while Uli was most likely the name of a chief. Thus, Ulistac meant Uli's place, although other sources define it as "at Ulis." The Tares Indians, a Tamien triblet, lived in the area undisturbed by European influence for several centuries. Ohlone History in the Bay Area
When and how long did the Ohlone or Costanoans live in the Santa Clara Valley? This may seem very technical and somewhat dry, but reveals many important date estimations of the Ohlone's existence. Moratto mentions four significant archaeological discoveries which reveal dates of the Ohlone in this area. The first discovery was made outside of the boundaries of the Santa Clara Valley. A 24-26 year old male skeleton, found in the tunnel of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), was found in situ in a stratum of gray clayey silt about 22.9 m below the present surface of San Francisco's Civic Center. Fragments of debris on the bones were carbon-dated to about 4900 ± 250 years ago. This skeleton confirms human habitation approximately 5000 years ago, and also, because of other sea level measurements, suggests that the rate of sea level rise during this period has averaged over 1 meter per millennium. Any bayshore habitation sires estimated at 5000 years old probably lie under more than 5 meters of sediment. A discovery in Sunnyvale in the Santa Clara Valley also dates to this mid-Holocene era. While an amino acid date given to this human skeleton revealed an age of 70,000 years, and more realistic calibration by radiocarbon dating yields an age of 4460 ± 95 years ago. Slightly north of this Sunnyvale discovery, two skeletons were found on the campus of Stanford University. The first skeleton was estimated to be about 3000-4000 years old, while the second, found nearby but not as deep, was carbon-dated to 2450 ± 270 and 2400 ± 125 BC. The four skeletons discovered strongly suggest that the Bay Area would have been inhabited between approximately 3500 and 2500 BC, probably a pre-Costanoan population. Shellmounds could be seen for many miles above the flat marshes and adjoining coastal plains. Nearly 400 shellmounds of various sizes are recorded, including about 17 in or around the wetlands of the northern valley on the San Francisco bay shores. One of these sites, referred to as an "earth mound," held 30 burials. This site was excavated in the early 20th century, but never fully reported on until excavations in the 1940s. The mound is almost completely gone today, but has been dated to the Middle and Late Horizons of the Central California Taxonomic System, which would have broadly included the years from AD 100 to AD 1850. In 1974, shell ornaments found in association with a burial were dated1460 BC. In 1972, a total of 93 prehistoric sites had been reported for the Santa Clara Valley, while by 1983 approximately 530 prehistoric sites had been recorded. Overall, the oldest principle excavated sites in the Santa Clara Valley include one dating as far back as 8010 BC, others to 4640 BC, 3700 BC, 3570 BC, 3180 BC, 2510 BC, and 2450 BC. Use of the Acorn/Importance of the Oak Tree
Patterns of Ohlone culture were highly interconnected with aspects of the environment, and, more specifically, with the oak trees and the acorns they provided them. Knowledge of seasonal change was essential to the Ohlone in order to develop a concept of seasonality and time. In many ways the oak tree represented the a calendar to the Ohlone; each season was associated with a stage of acorn crop development. The beginning of the harvest marked the beginning of the Ohlone New Year. Gathering of the acorns began by using straight poles to knock acorns loose from the limbs of an oak tree. The Ohlone utilized acorns as their main dietary supplement. Everyone in the triblet collected the nuts and boiled them to make porridge or bread. There are four main types of oak trees believed to be of particular importance to the Ohlone. The Coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) and the Valley oak (Quercus lobata) because of the quantity of acorns they produce. The Tanbark oak (Lithicarpus densiflora) was believed to be a superior oak due to the whiteness of the acorn and the food it produced. Finally, the California black oak (Quercus kelloggii) produced acorns that were sweet in taste. Two explorers described the Ohlone as eating 'tamales' made from wild seeds, later speculated to be acorns. After sampling the food, which was described as very oily and black in color, the explorers agreed that the food was tasty. Before eating them, it was necessary to leach out the bitter tannic acid present in acorns. Acorns were leached in two ways. The southern way was through an openwork basket and the northern way was done through a hollow in the sand in which acorn flour was spread. Food preparation of the acorns included roasting, baking, and then crushing them into a paste with a mortar and pestle. Then came drying them and washing the paste in a basketry sieve to remove the bitter taste. In order to promote the growth of seed bearing annuals and to facilitate the gathering of the acorns, the Ohlone cleared underbrush through controlled burning. This also aided in the hunting of small game. The burning limited the growth of chaparral species and prevented the accumulation of dead matter, a posed fire hazard. It also increased the amount of grazing area for animals such as deer, elk and antelope while removing the hiding spaces for small game like rabbits. Acorns from the Great oak woodlands were the most important staple food harvested. The high nutritional value of the acorn, combined with its abundance and storage ability, gave the Ohlone a consistent and reliable food stable. When other crops failed, they would be ground and made into a meal with buckeyes serving as a reluctant substitute (because they are harder to prepare). Acorn gathering was usually done in the late summer and early fall. After gathering, the Ohlone would be involved in harvesting and preparation of the acorns for storage, and would then store the acorns in baskets and granaries in their camps. The development of basketry was another significant cultural adaptation of the Ohlone, playing a very important role in the acorn storage process. Baskets were efficiently used for harvest, transport and storage. Baskets became bigger and stronger as the Ohlone developed various storage methods. As basket technology improved, new methods and resources for basket making could be experimented with, such as the sophisticated use of baskets within the cooking process. The mortar and pestle were also used by the Ohlone for cooking. In this unique process, great understanding of geology and rocks must have been present because of both the high cooking temperature, as well as the constant strain of grinding and preparing acorn meal. These cultural adaptations and understandings were unique to the Ohlone and show the importance of the oak tree and its acorns. Acorns, as mentioned earlier, were a staple part of the Ohlone diet. They learned when to gather them, and how to store and cook them. One Ohlone creation story about the Coyote, the father of the human race, describes the origins of the Ohlone people in association with the use of the acorn. Coyote, being responsible for creating people and teaching them to live properly, was a strong and important figure in Ohlone oral tradition. In this passage, Coyote explains to the Ohlone, "You will have acorn mush for your food. You will gather acorns and you will have acorn bread to eat. Go down to the ocean and gather seaweed that you may eat it with your acorn mush and acorn bread…. If the acorns are bitter, was them out: and gather grass seeds for pinole, carrying them on your back in a basket". Hunting
The Ohlone also constructed tule balsas, a type of boat. These were weak in construction and were not made to withstand strong currents, or to provide a vehicle to major hunting. They did use them to fish. They used an anchor made of stone, and a double-bladed paddle to propel the craft through the water. Although they did hunt sea lions, there is little known of the actual practice. The Ohlone only ate whale when the occasional beached whale would come ashore. The Ohlone also utilized decoys in their hunting and primarily used bows, arrows, sticks, traps and nets to capture the game needed to supplement the Ohlone diet. When hunting deer, the hunter would wear a deer's head and imitate a feeding deer in order to approach the prey and then attack with his bow and arrow. Antelope were also hunted through deception. A hunter would tie antelope hide strips to their legs and arms, lie on their back and wave their limbs in the air until the antelope would come close to inspect the phenomenon. Rabbits were hunted as an entire triblet and with rabbit sticks. The Ohlone would chase the rabbits into nets. Ducks and other waterfowl were hunted with the use of decoys. Stuffed skins of ducks or tule imitations were used to lure the prey near a site and then captured with nets. The Ohlone bow string was made of sinew or vegetable fiber. Arrows had three feathers radiating off the back end, attached by asphalt to a cane shaft which was attached to a hardwood foreshaft, completed with an arrowhead made of bone or stone. The two-piece arrow served multiple purposes. For example, if an animal were to dislodge the end of the arrow, the point would remain embedded in the animal. If the tip was damaged, then the entire piece was not lost, a new tip could be fitted to the old cane shaft. It also allowed the Ohlone to limit excess weight and effort when hunting. This way they could take several foreshafts and fewer mainshafts. Water Resources
Also important to the Ohlone were the resources from the various water sources in the area. While a few creeks and small lakes still exist in the valley today, the amount of water making up the Ohlone environment was significantly greater. One historian, Margolin, states, "California had so much water in those early days: thousands and thousands of acres of freshwater swamps, a San Francisco Bay rimmed with vast saltwater marshes, rivers that flowed throughout the year, springs that bubbled out of hillsides, natural lakes, ponds, and innumerable creeks. Water was everywhere, and everywhere was teeming with life". From these sources the Ohlone could fish for river salmon and creek trout. The bays and ocean near the Santa Clara Valley contained mussels, clams, oysters, abalone, sea otters, sea lions, and many different sea birds such as pelican, gulls, cormorants, herons, curlews, sandpipers, and dowitchers. Whales were also commonly sighted in the bays and along the ocean coast, and washed up on shore once in while for both the people and the bears to feast. The surrounding marshes and swamps were homes to flocks of ducks and wintering geese. Beavers and river or sea otters.occupied channels cutting through these swamps. Inland from the bays and oceans, the land supporting all of these wildlife species was much more swampy and moist than the semi-arid environment of the area now. While the Ohlone occupied the land, the water table was much closer to the surface. Water was virtually everywhere in the Bay Area, especially where the land was flat. Margolin's description reveals "places that are now dry were then described as having springs, brooks, ponds- even fairly large lakes. In the days before channelization, all the major rivers . . . as well as minor streams, spread out each winter and spring to form wide, marshy valleys". Economics and Socio-Political Organization
This division of labor worked well for the Ohlone because sharing and generosity were the underlying elements in their economic system. Nearly everything that the men brought back from hunting or fishing, or the women from gathering or harvesting was shared among the entire tribelet of a few hundred people. Significant tasks divided the labor by gender. In acorn gathering, for example, men and boys would climb the trees to shake the acorns down, while women and girls would gather them from the ground and transport full baskets back to camp. They lived in small communities in which a person was very strongly bound to their family, and the family to the community on which they relied. This produced a sense of loyalty all around. These communities would travel together throughout the year from site to site in search of seasonal food, occupying various campsites. They would also frequent other villages to trade goods. While some authors explain that each tribelet had a ruling authority, some kind of chief, others agree that the Ohlone had no need for a strong government. They did not have a powerful chief because their system of sharing provided a completely egalitarian society. Larger villages probably did have a chief with certain roles, but limited power. He would set dates for feasts and other celebrations, and as village host, he would entertain guests or traders who came to the village. The Ohlone probably traded quite frequently with other Costanoan tribelets. This contributed to the great trading networks extending to Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, through the Central Valley to the Sierras and beyond to the Great Basin. Dress
In general, the men wore nothing and women wore two short skirts, one in the front and one in the back. The first was made braided grass or tule and the other, in colder weather was made of animal skins. In the coldest months both sexes wore robes of various skins of animals such as rabbit skin, sea-otter skin, duck feathers or buckskin that fastened under the chin. Tattooing was popular for both sexes, consisting of rows of dots and lines on the face and arms. Both sexes also wore necklaces and other ornaments made of abalone, olivella and haliotis. During the summer, the men would coat themselves with a thick layer of mud in the morning until the sun warmed the area. But in winter months, both the men and women would coat themselves in mud. Hair was worn down and free by the women with bangs cut in front. Men wore their long hair braided or tied up on their heads with a buckskin and most removed facial hair with wooden tweasers or a pair of muscle shells. Residence
Dwellings were dome like structures made out of willow branches and then covered with a tule, grass, wild alfalfa, fern or carrizo roof. There was a fireplace within each and the entrance was a rectangular opening. These were not permanent dwellings and when they became flea infested, they were burned. The men utilized sweathouses in cleansing ceremonies and for religious purposes. These were constructed by creating a pit in the bank of a stream and building the surrounding structure against the bank. They had a low ceiling with a door was so small, the men had to crawl into the structure. Games
The mission priests noted that the Ohlone enjoyed games of chance, a sport called Shinney, and a foot ball race, although there is no information about the specifics of the game or rules. The game of chance could be played in a variety of ways. In some journals, it is recorded as being played with bones, and in others with sticks. But essentially one male would take the item and hold it within one hand and the other would have to guess under which hand it was hidden. The manipulation was done under a mat. Shinney was played with a wooden ball that was placed in the middle of the field and hit by curved sticks with two teams of approximately 12 men. Women were also reported to have played this game. Lastly there was another event, which consisted of a foot ball race with two participants over a period of two days. The participants would run the length of about 100 miles, all the while juggling a wooden ball with only their feet. It is speculated as only taking place since the establishment of the missions and not during aboriginal times. Warfare
The Coastanoans were known to war against each other, especially as they were grouped together by the Spanish as one large entity after consisting of approximately eight different language groups. The greatest cause of war was the trespassing onto another tribe's territory. This resulted in a pre-arranged meeting battle or a surprise attack. The chiefs were often reluctant to war with another tribe because of the loss of lives involved and the fear of perpetuating retribution. Most chiefs had a speaker who would often move throughout a village to listen and gather public opinion in order to protect the chief from making a unfavorable. Only after careful consideration did the chief declare war. Captives were not taken and if so, not for a great duration of time. Some say most prisoners of war were scalped and only women and children were spared, but others disagree and state in all-out warfare there were no survivors- women and children were killed. Some casualties' heads were placed upon pikes and displayed in the winning tribes village. Raiding parties would often burn the other settlement. War was waged with the bow and arrow; no armor or shields were used. Religion and Ritual
In most of the triblets, the Shaman held a position of authority and respect because they had the ability to cure disease with the use of feathers, elaborate chants and dancing, and the application of herbs. He, although there was a rare 'she,' most often cured disease through sucking objects out of one's body. Shaman's were also attributed the power to control the weather and the crops. But the particulars of most of the shaman's activities are unknown to date. It is known, however, that shamans were primarily used for large illnesses and events, where day-to-day illnesses were treated by the application of herbs by laymen. The Ohlone also knew how to perform trepanning, an operation where a hole is drilled into the uppermost section of the cranium to relieve pressure from tumors. They controlled severe bleeding with a compress of animal hairs bound tightly against the wound. And they were able to set broken bones by using basketry and animal thongs. Dreams also held importance for the Ohlone, various occurrences within the dream had meaning in everyday life. The twitching of the feet and or legs was interpreted as a journey to be underway shortly. A bird in one's house or in a path and a dog howling near a house were bad omens. Death was near for those that heard the call of a great horned owl. The Ohlone danced ritually, although knowledge of the dances is limited. It is uncertain whether specific dances such as the Kuksui are native to the Ohlone or imported from other tribes once they were grouped together through the missions. Sacrifices made in the forms of plants and animals to various inanimate objects such as the sun and trees were common. These types of offerings were most often attached to the tops of poles and included such items as tobacco leaves, feathers, strips of rabbit skin, feather headdresses, and capes made of grass. Smoke was the most common method of offering to the sun, with the chieftain blowing smoke upward and saying a prayer. Archeological Significance and Death
There is an Ohlone burial site within the Lick Mill Park area, adjacent to Ulistac Natural Area . Within this site, fifty of the burials were charred, consistent with the knowledge that the Ohlone cremated their dead. The explorer, Fredrick William Beechley described the process as the corpse being adorned with ornaments and bows and arrows, and then the entirety was burned. Another explorer G.H. Langsdorff mentions that the house in which the deceased lived was also burned. The dead had all their possessions burned so the deceased would no longer be remembered. It is possible that each individual burial site contained a different amount of items. All an individual's possessions were buried with them after they were broken in some manner to 'kill' the objects and place them in the same state as their owner. Following death, the deceased was believed to go to a land across the sea. The island of the dead was not a happy place, but it was possible for a spirit to rejoin the material world in a new body. The particulars of this are unknown. The name of the dead was not to be spoken until the spirit was formally bestowed upon another individual. This prevented the dead from coming back to haunt the living, and shortened the time period that a spirit would spend on the island across the sea. Once a spirit lost all ties to the material world, it could be reborn. Olivella beads and haliotis ornaments and shells have been found at burial sites. Olivella and haliotis are both types of shellfish that lived in the area at that particular time period. Mourning has been seen by some authors to be completely non-existent, although in the event of a husband's death, a wife or other female relatives would cut their hair with knives or burn it off with burning coals, cover their faces and heads with ash or asphalt and perform self flatullation with pestles on their body and head. This resulted in death. Others claim both sexes would paint their face black to mourn the dead. Extinction of the Ohlone People
The Ohlone people had an impact on the landscape and the environment of the Santa Clara Valley, as did the Europeans. The shell-discarding, grass-burning, and hunting and gathering practices left marks on the landscape, but allowed the Ohlone to control certain elements of their landscape without exploiting their resources to the point of destruction. Europeans settlers, however, did not respect the earth or use the native Valley resources to their advantage without abusing them. Using the earth as a vehicle for production, their agricultural and livestock-grazing practices were not as gentle on the landscapes or its inhabitants as the practices of the Ohlone had been. Exploitation of native resources by the Europeans and introduction of many exotic species led to the disappearance and extinction of many plant and animal species in the Santa Clara Valley. But what about the Native people who once freely inhabited the land now overtaken by corporate buildings and homes? Three forces of European contact led to a complete shift in the riparian lifestyles on the native plants, animals and people of the Santa Clara Valley. The Europeans forced changes in uses and control of the land, introduction of foreign ideas, and penetration of an invading culture into the original, native culture. All of these changes, together with the creation of boundaries on the land created a sedentary lifestyle for the Ohlone, in which they were not used to and could not survive. Not only did the missionaries force many Ohlone people into mission life, but those that remained living in their tribelets could not survive any longer. The resources they had depended on for so long were declining from the landscape in huge numbers. Their entire way of life had been significantly disturbed, and they had no way to continue the economic, social, and political systems they regularly practiced. The newly introduced livestock trampled ground resources, ate many acorns on which the Ohlone were dependent, and browsed on the lower branches on trees. Ohlone food resources were quickly disappearing, and the communities they lived in, which were completely dependent on these resources, fell apart soon after. The underlying elements of sharing and generosity, and the strong sense of loyalty each family member once had disintegrated as the Ohlone people were forced to give up their traditional ways of life. Current Status
In 1905-1906, the special Indian census took place and the Muwekma Ohlone Indians became nationally recognized, later referred to as the Verona Band. In the following years of 1906 and 1908, congress addressed the need to purchase land for the landless California Indians. In 1927, The Muwekma were dropped, along with 135 other California Indian communities from their previous federally recognized status. Currently the Muwekma's are pursuing and petitioning for recognition as a tribe from the federal government along with 180 other tribes. |
