The Ohlone lived in the area from the Carquinez Strait and Golden Gate to Big Sur. To see how many different groups once lived here, go to the San Francisco Bay Area Map. They used tule reed for houses and for boats to travel about on San Francisco Bay and in the Delta Area. They harvested sea shells, and used olivella shells for beads and abalone for pendants. They fished for many species, including leopard shark, Pacific sardine and Pacific steelhead. They caught ducks, geese and quail, and hunted elk and deer, and snared rabbit.

The Costanoans traded to the east and south. They gave the Yokuts mussels, abalone shells, salt and dried abalone, and got pinon nuts. They gave the Sierra Miwok Olivella shells. Like most of the peoples of Native California, their numbers were decreased almost to the vanishing point by contact with Europeans. In the twenties and thirties some people thought they had been absorbed into the dominant white population.

In the 1860's the Alisal Rancheria was created, on land ceded by the Bernal family, just south of Pleasanton. The existence of this Rancheria probably saved the Ohlone cultural heritage from disappearing completely. Unfortunately, in the early 1900s this haven was lost to them as a result of misinformation (and probable land-greed) in Washington, D.C. Still, the Ohlone did not cease to exist. The record of on-going struggle to retain their property and heritage is illustrated by "NOSO-N: The Story of Indian Canyon" an area 15 miles southwest of Hollister, inhabited from pre-contact times, first showing on government rolls in 1857, and continuously inhabited by Ohlone since then. The article describes the process by which, finally, in 1988, 100 years later, a Trust Patent verified the people's right of this group of Ohlone to their land. Another triumph was an Ordinance for preservation of Native American sites in San Bernadino County in 1992. (Bean: 1994)

If you want to see how the Ohlone lived in the past, Coyote Hills Regional Park has exhibits about their culture.

Back to Penutian

California Native American Language Map