Who Were the Ohlone People?

Indigenous People's Day was this week, and I'm called to share a little bit about the Indigenous People who's land I am currently living on. 

I currently live in San Francisco, California, which was built on Ohlone land.

Ohlone is a general term that refers to at least 8 distinct regions and over 50 unique tribes from Solano County to Big Sur. 

Prior to Colonization: 

The Ohlone people thrived on this land for thousands of years before colonizers came. They fished, hunted, and gathered and different tribes traded with each other. 

The Ohlone built their shelters close to moving water. Every village had a sweat lodge.

Acorns were an important part of the Ohlone diet. They gathered the acorns and ground them into a powder to use for nourishment. They also gathered a variety of other plant foods. Small and large animals were hunted for food.

The Colonization of Ohlone

The arrival of Spanish colonizers in 1769 changed things drastically. They constructed missions, or churches, along the coast to spread Christianity to the native peoples and their cultures. The Ohlone were treated as slaves and many died from diseases brought over by the colonizers, such as smallpox. Between 1769 and 1834, about 50,000 Ohlone had been killed. 

After the Mexican-American War ended in 1848, California entered into the Union in 1850. In the US, settlers were legally allowed to enslave and kill the indigenous people, and the state government perpetrated massacres against them as well. This was a genocide. 

Surviving Ohlone people today are pushing for recognition of their tribe and the genocide that was perpetrated against them. 

“The Bay Area of today is vastly different from what it was two centuries ago. The grizzly bears, elks, bald eagles, ospreys, antelopes, wolves, and condors have totally disappeared. Introduced European annual grasses have seized the meadowlands from the native bunch-grasses. The widespread logging of trees for lumber, tanning bark, firewood, railroad ties, and fence posts have altered the forests. Ponds and lakes have been drained, rivers channelized, and thousands upon thousands of acres of marshes and swamps have been destroyed. The immense flocks of geese, ducks and pelicans, the great runs of salmon and steelhead, the enormous schools of smelt, the once numberless seals and whales are now a mere remnant of what they once were. As for the Ohlones — forty or so tribelets, some 10,000 people, indeed a whole way of life — that too is totally gone, replaced by a civilization technologically more advanced than theirs but in many respects, ecologically, socially, and spiritually more backward.” - Malcolm Margolin, “The Ohlone Way”

The Occupation of Alcatraz

The Occupation of Alcatraz was a 19-month long protest, from November 20, 1969 – June 11, 1971, where Native peoples and their allies occupied Alcatraz Island until they were forcibly removed by the US government. The group called themselves the Indians of All Tribes.

The Treaty of Fort Laramie said that any federal land not being utilized for its original purpose was to be reclaimed by Native peoples, and since Alcatraz prison was no longer used as a prison after 1963, it should be returned. 

The protest had lasting impacts on awareness of Native people’s rights and causes, and the “graffiti” from the protest is still present on Alcatraz Island today, which attracts nearly 1 million tourists every year.

Resources for Further Reading: 

• "The Ohlone Way" by Malcolm Margolin 
• "The Colonizers Among Us" A TEDx talk by Charlene C. Nijmeh 
• "We Survived the End of the World" by Steven Charleston 

Sources for this blog post: 

• Cover Image: Fernando Marti, On Indigenous Land, 2018 
• “The Colonizers Among Us” TEDx Talk by Charlene C. Nijmeh, 
• The Ohlone Way by Malcolm Margolin, 1978
• “We Survived the End of the World” by Steven Charleston, 2023
• Costanoan People. Brittanica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Costanoan
• “Photos: National Park Service Restores Native American Graffiti on Alcatraz.” LAist. https://laist.com/shows/take-two/photos-national-park-service-restores-native-american-graffiti-on-alcatraz 
• Alcatraz Images: San Francisco Public Press