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Other comments: The Ohlone (/oʊˈloʊni/
oh-LOH-nee), formerly known as Costanoans (from Spanish costeño meaning
'coast dweller'), are a Native American people of the Northern
California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the
late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the area along the coast from
San Francisco Bay through Monterey Bay to the lower Salinas Valley. At
that time they spoke a variety of related languages. The Ohlone
languages make up a sub-family of the Utian language family. Older
proposals place Utian within the Penutian language phylum, while newer
proposals group it as Yok-Utian.
In pre-colonial times, the Ohlone lived in more than 50 distinct
landholding groups, and did not view themselves as a single unified
group. They lived by hunting, fishing, and gathering, in the typical
ethnographic California pattern. The members of these various bands
interacted freely with one another. The Ohlone people practiced the
Kuksu religion. Prior to the Gold Rush, the northern California region
was one of the most densely populated regions north of Mexico.
However, the arrival of Spanish colonizers to the area in 1769 vastly
changed tribal life forever. The Spanish constructed missions along the
California coast with the objective of Christianizing the native people
and culture. Between the years 1769 and 1834, the number of Indigenous
Californians dropped from 300,000 to 250,000. After California entered
into the Union in 1850, the state government perpetrated massacres
against the Ohlone people. Many of the leaders of these massacres were
rewarded with positions in state and federal government. These massacres
have been described as genocide. Many are now leading a push for
cultural and historical recognition of their tribe and what they have
gone through and had taken from them.
The Ohlone living today belong to one or another of a number of
geographically distinct groups, most, but not all, in their original
home territory. Tamien Nation citizens are direct lineal descendants
from Tamien speaking villages of the Santa Clara Valley. The Muwekma
Ohlone Tribe has members from around the San Francisco Bay Area, and is
composed of descendants of the Ohlones/Costanoans from the San Jose,
Santa Clara, and San Francisco missions. The Ohlone/Costanoan Esselen
Nation, consisting of descendants of intermarried Rumsen Costanoan and
Esselen speakers of Mission San Carlos Borromeo, are centered at
Monterey. The Amah Mutsun [Wikidata] tribe are descendants of Mutsun
Costanoan speakers of Mission San Juan Bautista, inland from Monterey
Bay. Most members of another group of Rumsien language, descendants from
Mission San Carlos, the Costanoan Rumsien Carmel Tribe of Pomona/Chino,
now live in southern California. These groups and others with smaller
memberships (See groups listed under "Present day" below) are separately
petitioning the federal government for tribal recognition.
British ethnologist Robert Gordon Latham originally used the term "Costanoan"
to refer to the linguistically similar but ethnically diverse Native
American tribes in the San Francisco Bay Area. The term was based on the
name of a group of Ramaytush speakers in the area of Mission Dolores
first mentioned in 1850 as "Olhones or Costanos". Based on the former,
American anthropologist Clinton Hart Merriam referred to the Costanoan
groups as "Olhonean" in the early 20th century in his posthumously
published field notes, and eventually, the term "Ohlone" has been
adopted by most ethnographers, historians, and writers of popular
literature.
Niles dialect
of
Northern Ohlone language
has only recorded traditional numerals from 1 to 10 many years ago,
not sure if they were used a traditional decimal or vigesimal system
before, New data for numbers after ten is required. |