OHLONES LEFT TRACKS TO TRACE
SIGNS OF SANTA CLARA VALLEY'S
FIRST
INHABITANTS
ABOUND
By PATRICIA SMITH, Special to Extra
"The Valley of the Heart's Delight"
provided generously to mankind long
before European immigrants
planted the first prune trees in
its fertile soil.
Abundant supplies of water, herbs
and wildlife attracted the Ohlones to the
Santa Clara Valley centuries
ago.
Trout, salmon and sturgeon were
plentiful in local streams. Deer, elk and
antelope provided meat and fur
for winter clothing. Wild berries,
seeds and nuts were diet staples,
particularly acorns that were husked,
pounded into pulp and soaked before
boiling to remove the poisonous tannic acid.
The Ohlones left no written records,
but information about their culture
has been gleaned in other ways.
In 1922 anthropologist Robert F.
Heizer discovered a 4,000- year-old skull
of a human male near the
Leland Stanford home on San Francisquito
Creek in Palo Alto.
In 1971 excavation of a large Ohlone
settlement at O'Keefe Lane and El
Monte Road in Los Altos Hills
yielded a rich archaeological find
that included the skeleton of a young child.
Relics of the Ohlone Indian culture
-- believed to be the earliest human
settlement of Santa Clara Valley
--
have been turning up for years
in the South Bay area.
Malcolm Margolin, author of "The
Ohlone Way," wrote that more than 400
shell mounds -- refuse heaps
-- lined the San Francisco Bay
at the turn of the century. These remains,
which included everything from
cooking utensils and hunting implements
to human bones, have given
historians, archaeologists, and
anthropologists a well-defined
path into the Ohlone past.
Margolin wrote that, before the
arrival of the European settlers to Santa
Clara Valley in 1769, more than
10,000 Indians lived along the
coast between Monterey and San Francisco.
The missionaries referred to them
as "Costenos" or "Costanoans," meaning
coast people. According to
historian Florence Fava, the neighboring
Miwuk tribes were the first to
refer to them as the "Ohlones"
--
the people of the West.
The Ohlones were divided into "tribelets"
of about 250 people. Each
tribelet, of which there were about
40 between Monterey and San Francisco,
had its own chief and was self-
sufficient.
It is estimated that eight to 12
languages were spoken among those
tribelets, each dialect having
no more
than 1,000 speakers. This multiplicity
of languages apparently caused
confusion, particularly when the
Ohlones were relocated to the missions.
Laziness had no place in the well-ordered lives of the Ohlones.
Their year was divided into seasons
for harvesting, building and rebuilding
their tule huts, hunting and
storing food, and basket-making.
According to Margolin, the Ohlones
measured time by the biological rhythms
of the towering native oak
trees. Acorn harvest marked the
new year, winter was so many moons after
the harvest, and summer so
many moons until the next acorn
harvest.
Centuries of rites and rituals passed
from one generation to the next
through storytelling and songs.
Tribal
dances told of birth, marriage,
death and the struggle between the forces
of good and evil.
Treks to the ocean or bay brought
in bountiful catches of abalone, clams
and oysters. Once the meat was
eaten, the shells served as utensils,
jewelry, decorations and hunting
implements. The route followed
by
the present-day Highway 17 served
as a footpath to the ocean, and El Monte
Avenue in Los Altos was
once the main thoroughfare to the
bay.
Much about the Ohlones has been
learned from the diaries and journals of
missionaries who wrote of the
Indians both passionately and prolifically.
The letters of Father Junipero
Serra alone comprise four
volumes.
But the Franciscan fathers virtually
destroyed the only pure-bred culture
of the Santa Clara Valley by
subjecting the gentle people to
disease and the disorderly life of modern man.
-------------------------
WHERE TO FIND ARTIFACTS Although
many Ohlone Indian artifacts remain in
private collections,
several institutions exhibit Ohlone
relics. (box) Santa Clara University's
de Saisset Museum on The
Alameda near Franklin Street in
Santa Clara. California History Collection,
lower level. The exhibit
includes a life-size, reconstructed
Ohlone tule hut and artifacts. Free
admission 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tuesday through Friday and 1 to
5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
(box) Redwood Grove at 482 University
Ave. in Los Altos. Extensive Ohlone
artifacts from the Florence
Fava Collection. Free admission.
Tours can be arranged by calling resident
naturalist Mike Miller at
415-941-6878. The five-acre preserve
is open, along with the Ohlone
collection, the third Sunday of
each
month 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
(box) Los Altos Main Library at
13 S. San Antonio Road in Los Altos. The
Ohlone Exhibit Room
contains artifacts from the Florence
Fava Collection. Free admission. Call
415-948-7683 for hours.
All content © 1987 SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
and may not be republished without permission.