Costanoan

Name

Costanoan. The name comes from the Spanish word costeños, which means “coast-dwellers.” The Costanoan people call themselves Ohlone, the name of a village. Today the people are often referred to as Costanoan/Ohlone. The people themselves usually prefer one of two names—Muwekma in the north or Amah for the Mutsun. Both of these words mean “the people.”

Location

The Costanoan inhabited the central coast of California (from San Francisco Bay to Monterey Bay) and east to the Mount Diablo mountain range. In the early 2000s none of the Costanoan tribes was recognized by the federal government, and there was no reservation land. Most of the tribes’ descendants were scattered throughout their traditional territory.

Population

Before the 1600s about fifteen thousand to twenty thousand Costanoan people were known to exist. In 1770 the count was down to about ten thousand. In 1832 fewer than two thousand Costanoans remained. In the 1990 U.S. Census, 858 people identified themselves as Costanoan. The 2000 census showed that 1,325 Costanoans lived in United States, and 2,659 people claimed to have some Costanoan heritage.

Language family

Penutian.

Origins and group affiliations

For about one thousand years before the arrival of Europeans in North America, Costanoan settlements expanded along the coast from San Francisco Bay to Monterrey Bay and inland in what is now known as California. The people were divided into at least fifty independent nations, and these groups sometimes fought among themselves. The Costanoans traded with the Plains and Sierra Miwok (see Miwok entry) and the Yokuts.

The Costanoan had a comfortable life compared to many other Native American peoples. They occupied the beautiful lands of the central California coast, where the ocean teemed with fish and game birds, and the surrounding hills provided excellent hunting grounds. Like their Chumash neighbors (see entry), the Costanoan people suffered at the hands of Spanish Catholic missionaries and Mexican and American settlers. Eventually they were thought to be extinct. Yet the Costanoan people have managed to keep their culture alive despite tremendous obstacles.

History

Relationships with Native neighbors

The Costanoan people were divided into at least fifty separate and independent nations. They hunted, gathered, and traded with other Costanoan groups and with the Miwok (see entry) and the Yokuts. Costanoan traders exchanged shellfish, shells, salt, and hunting bows for pine nuts and beads made from pieces of clamshell. They maintained relations with villagers from nearby and far away; sometimes men would marry the daughters of these far- off villages, thereby establishing distant friendships and trade relations that lasted a lifetime.

The people sometimes waged bow and arrow wars with other Costanoan groups. These wars usually stemmed from land rights disputes, but sometimes villagers quarreled over the minerals that produced the prized red and white body paints.

Important Dates

1602: Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno encounters the Costanoan.

1769: The Presidio (military fort) of Monterey is founded in Costanoan territory.

1770: The first Spanish Catholic mission is built on Costanoan land.

1812: Padre Quintana is assassinated by Costanoan Mission Indians at Santa Cruz.

1960s: The Costanoan people call attention to Native rights.

1980s and 1990s: Four Costanoan tribes petition the U.S. government for federal recognition.

Europeans arrive

The first contact between the Costanoan people and Europeans most likely took place in 1602 when Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno (1548–1624) encountered a group called the Rumsen (American Indians of Monterey Bay, California). Between 1602 and 1769 the Natives and non-Natives met from time to time. European traders stopped by on their way east from the Philippines or on their way to and from the Vancouver region. Frequent contact began with the 1769 founding of the Spanish colony of Monterey. Much of what is now known about the Costanoan people was written down after that by Spanish explorers, soldiers, and the Catholic missionary priest (called padres in Spanish) who traveled with them.

One Spanish missionary, quoted by Alan K. Brown in The Ohlone Past and Present: Native Americans of the San Francisco Bay Region, described a trip the Spaniards took through Costanoan territory in 1772. As usual, he wrote, the visitors offered glass beads to the Costanoan in exchange for food. Initially the Natives were unwilling to accept the beads and seemed indifferent about forming any sort of relationship with the Spanish. They were slowly won over, though, and expressed their generosity by bringing gifts of food to the European settlers. The missionary was especially impressed by the pale skin of the Costanoan people. “They are like so many Spaniards,” he declared.

Spanish missions built

By the sixteenth century Spain had claimed a huge expanse of land in what is now the state of California. When Russian and British traders showed interest in the region, the Spanish founded the port of Monterey to protect their hold on the California coast. They relied on the California Natives to expand their presence in the West. The Native Americans were taught just enough of the Spanish language to be considered useful. Missionary priests in the region had their own goal of converting the Natives to the Catholic religion. The first Catholic mission in Costanoan territory was established in 1770; it was built with forced Native American labor. Eventually the number of missions in California reached twenty-one; seven were in Costanoan territory. Native Americans who joined the mission came to be known as Mission Indians.

Mission Indians

Most Natives did not go willingly to the missions. The Costanoan were thrust into the mission system by misfortune: their food sources were eaten by Spanish cattle, and their population was weakened by strange new diseases brought by European traders and Spanish colonists.

Once at the missions, the Natives were baptized into the Catholic faith and called neophytes (pronounced NEE-oh-fites; beginners). Under Spanish law, neophytes had to live near the missions. They stayed in camps set up outside the missions. At ages five or six, Native American children were taken from their parents and forced to live in barracks. They attended religious services and performed physical labor without pay. The children were trained in carpentry, agriculture, and other practical occupations as dictated by the Spanish.

Conditions at the missions were appalling. The Native Americans lived in filth. Medical care was virtually nonexistent. Many California Natives died from overwork, disease, and harsh treatment. Different tribes lived together and lost all connection to their villages, their customs, and their religions. Most historians agree that the establishment of the missions nearly caused the destruction of Costanoan culture.

Inevitably conflicts developed between the missionaries and the Native Americans who refused to convert to the Catholic religion. Rebellious Native Americans banded together and raided the mission’s horses to defy Spanish authority and cripple the economy of the colony.

Mexican rule

Still the mission system endured, even as the Mexican government took over California in 1834. The Mexicans freed the neophytes and made some attempts to help them, but these were morely ineffective. Mexican officials ordered that mission property and livestock be divided among the Natives who lived at the missions. Most of the lands and livestock, however, passed into the hands of Mexican settlers.

Some Native Americans remained at the missions, which no longer served as religious centers, but had thriving farms. (Many of the mission churches still exist and have become popular tourist destinations.) Most Native Americans, however, left to seek work on the Mexican ranches that were being built on former Native lands. Certain Costanoan groups established Native communities with members of other tribes, but these communities grew smaller as young people left to find employment elsewhere. Many Costanoans had died under the mission system, and even more died at the hands of Mexican settlers. The rest became part of the larger California group of homeless and landless Natives.

California’s rejected treaties

In 1848 the United States won California from Mexico; California became a state two years later. In the 1850s the U.S. government decided to resolve the country’s “Indian Problem” by establishing the reservation system—setting aside pieces of land (most often undesirable ones) on which the Native Americans could live. Eighteen treaties were drawn up. California tribes agreed to give up most of the Native American lands to the U.S. government in exchange for about 7.5 million acres that would be used for reservations.

Most Californians, though, were alarmed that so much land—about 8 percent of the state—was being “given away” to the Native peoples. They also feared that their supply of slave labor would disappear onto reservations. They convinced the U.S. Senate to reject the treaties.

American settlers continued to push into California, and the mistreatment of Native groups—including the Costanoan—continued. Thousands were murdered, and thousands more became slaves. Others tried to make a living as best they could. Racial prejudice led many Costanoans to hide their Native American ancestry and attempt to blend in with other groups. By the early years of the twentieth century most historians believed the Costanoan people were extinct.

Twentieth century and beyond

The Costanoans were not extinct, however, as anthropologist (a person who studies human societies) John Peabody Harrington discovered. In the 1920s the Smithsonian Institution, a national research group in Washington, D.C., asked Harrington to conduct interviews with descendants of California Native groups. He found that some Costanoans were keeping their culture alive and were still speaking the language.

Around the same time the U.S. government sent a representative to study the situation of the region’s homeless Native Americans. Based on his poorly researched report, the government determined that there was no reason to set aside land for the Costanoan people.

Several lawsuits were filed by California Natives in the twentieth century, claiming rights to lands they gave up while waiting for the eighteen treaties to take effect. Costanoan people took part in two of the lawsuits, but received little satisfaction.

Beginning in the 1960s various Native American groups—including the Costanoan—started calling for an end to construction projects that threatened cultural resources on traditional lands. By the end of the twentieth century these groups were focusing the attention of scholars and the public on the long neglected but rich culture of the Costanoan people.

Costanoan Woman Sues Federal Government

According to the terms of eighteen treaties drawn up in the 1850s, California tribes agreed to give up most of their lands to the U.S. government in exchange for about eight million acres that would be set aside for reservations. The treaties never became legal, but the California Natives lost their land.

In 1928 Congress passed laws that allowed California Natives to sue the federal government for the land that had been taken from them. Every California Indian who could prove they were related to an Native American alive in 1850 was entitled to participate in the lawsuit. One such person was Ann Marie Sayers, a Mutsun Costanoan/Ohlone. According to Sayers, the U.S. government finally determined that the land of her ancestors was worth 41 cents an acre. After many delays and much paperwork, in 1950 Sayers received her land settlement check—a paltry sum of $150. In 1972 she received an additional $668. Other Natives were not so fortunate; they received nothing.

Religion

Like other Native cultures of central California, most Costanoans believed in a Creator, an animal character called Coyote, who was one of the First People. Coyote is said to have made the world and everything in it. Other important figures include Eagle and Hummingbird (and for the Chochenyo, Kaknu, a falcon-like being). Hummingbird, in spite of being tiny, often outsmarted Coyote, the trickster.

Keeping the animal spirits happy was a constant concern for the Costanoan people. This was accomplished by holding frequent ceremonies and offerings. Members of a religious group called the Kuksu Society were devoted to the worship of the Creator. The Kuksu Society held dances in an earth-covered dance house. Dancers, who dressed in large feathered headdresses, impersonated animal spirits. During the ceremonies, boys between the ages of eight and sixteen were taught the rituals so they might one day become members.

The Costanoan believed that if the animal spirits were happy, good things would come to them (rain, for example) and disasters would be avoided. The animal spirits were also thought to appear to people in dreams to guide them in making major life decisions.

The tribes offered seeds, tobacco, and shell beads to appease the spirits. When they prayed to the sun, they blew smoke toward the sky. Sticks with feathers brought good luck in hunting or fishing. Some offerings were placed on poles—rabbit skin strips, tobacco leaves, feathers, and headdresses. Capes made of grass were used as death offerings.

Some of the Costanoan became Catholics under the mission system, but many were reluctant converts. The religion of their descendants blends Catholic elements with traditional spiritual beliefs and practices.

Language

The Costanoan spoke at least eight different languages; they all belong to the language family called Costanoan. The varieties that scholars know about are called Karkin, Chocenyo, Tamyen, Ramaytush, Awaswas, Mutsun, Rumsen, and Chalon. After the 1930s there were no remaining speakers of the ancient languages.

Mutsun Words

When the people lived at the Missions, they were forced to learn Spanish rather than their Native languages. The eight Costanoan languages, including Mutsun, gradually became extinct. The last fluent Mutsun speaker, Ascencion Solorsano, died in 1930, but through the efforts of the Mutsun Language Foundation in the early twenty-first century, many members of the tribe are learning their language and culture. Below are some words and phrases in the Mutsun dialect.

• miSmin Tuuhis. … “Hello.”
• hinkate-m? … “How are you?”
• miSte-ka … “I’m fine.”
• akkuy … “Come in.”
• miSmin muruT … “please”
• Suururu-me … “Thank you.”
• kusinwi-ka-mes miSte. … “Nice to meet you.”
• hinka neppe? … “What is this?”
• ana … “mom”
• ansa … “dad”
• mene … “grandmother”
• papa … “grandfather”

Government

The Costanoan people were organized into about fifty independent groups or organizations that are sometimes called tribelets. A tribelet consisted of one main settlement surrounded by a few minor settlements. Tribelet chiefs could be either men or women, but usually the job passed from father to son. A group of elders advised the chief, who took responsibility for overseeing hunting and fishing expeditions and caring for the poor. The Costanoan people valued their personal freedom highly and obeyed an authority figure only during wartime.

By the twenty-first century the descendants of the Costanoan were scattered throughout California. Four groups have applied for federal recognition. As part of that process, they have organized councils to oversee tribal government.

Costanoan/Ohlone Groups Seek Federal Recognition

Federally recognized tribes are those who have a legal relationship with the U.S. government. Without federal recognition, the tribe does not exist in the eyes of the government and is therefore not entitled to financial aid and other help or reservation lands.

In order to obtain federal recognition, a tribe must meet certain conditions. A new tribal constitution must be adopted, and a new tribal government must be formed. Eight groups (sometimes called bands) of Costanoan/Ohlone have filed for federal recognition since the 1980s: the Amah/Mutsun Band, the Carmel Mission Band, the Indian Canyon Band, the Ohlone/Costanoan Esselen Nation, the Costanoan Ohlone Rumsen-Mutsen Tribe, Costanoan-Rumsen Carmel Tribe, the Indian Canyon Band, and the Muwekma/Ohlone Tribe. As of 2007 none of the groups had yet achieved federal recognition.

Economy

Before European arrival the Costanoan economy depended largely on gathering and trading activities as well as hunting and fishing. Because of their clever management of the land, the Costanoan were able to supply their own food needs and have surplus to trade with neighboring groups. The region also had abundant shells and the material to make dyes used for decorative items and body paints.

The tribe’s extensive trade network reached as far as Nevada, where a string of 8,600-years-old Olivella beads was found. The Ohlone also quarried cinnabar (a red mineral) in what is now Santa Clara county, California. Tribes from as far away as Washington state came to trade or fight for it. The Costanoan were also known for other trade goods such as abalone shells, obsidian, dogs, tobacco, hides, hunting bows, baskets, salt, acorns, and fish.

Under the mission system, the Costanoan were forced to become farm and ranch laborers. Later they were compelled to blend into the larger California community, which is where they find employment today.

Daily life

Families

Families usually consisted of a father, a mother, their children, and the father’s relatives. Ten to fifteen people made up a household.

Buildings

Most Costanoan built domed dwellings, although some groups constructed cone-shaped homes from redwood. The domed structures were covered with thatch (plant material), which was attached to poles and tied at the top. A rectangular doorway led directly to a central fireplace. Homes contained beds made of bulrush mats and skins. The beds were covered with blankets woven from strips of sea otter or rabbit skins or duck feathers or down.

Sweathouses for men and women (no children were allowed) were dug out of stream banks. Adults retreated to sweathouses for solitude and purification rituals that helped strengthen their spiritual well-being. The people held dances either in circular enclosures or in large dome–shaped thatched structures.

Clothing and adornment

Few males wore any kind of clothing, but women wore tule (a kind of plant) and buckskin aprons suspended from the waist in front and back. Both sexes wore long robes in cold weather, and men sometimes covered their bodies with a special mud to keep warm. No shoes or hats were worn.

The Costanoan people had fairer hair than most other Native Californians, and they usually wore it long. Men tied theirs with cords decorated with feathers, while women let theirs hang loose. Many of the men had long, flowing beards.

Tattoos covered various parts of the body, and red and white paint was sometimes applied to decorate the face and body. Ornaments such as flowers or feathers hung from pierced ears, and some men had pierced noses. Both sexes wore necklaces made of shells.

Food

Costanoan lands were so rich in food resources that the Native people did not have to farm. Even so, they lit fires to clear and fertilize land for sowing the seeds of wild grasses. The grasses provided them with food and attracted game animals.

In the spring the people moved from their villages on the coast to take advantage of the newly ripening plants, bulbs, greens, and grass seeds found farther inland. They gathered a variety of berries to eat raw or to cook. When autumn came, some villagers departed to gather acorns. These and other nuts and seeds were then processed and eaten.

The bounty of the Pacific Coast ensured ample supplies of abalone (pronounced AB-uh-LONE-ee; a Rumsen word for a type of edible shellfish), crabs, mussels, oysters, sea snails, shrimp, clams, steelhead, sturgeon, and lampreys (an eel-shaped fish). Salmon were netted and hauled aboard sturdy rafts or boats made of tule (TOO-lee; a type of cattail). Whale and sea lion were not hunted, but if they happened to wash ashore the people gladly roasted and ate them. They catch hunt otter and seal in addition to other game.

All sorts of birds were hunted. Mourning dove, quail, robin, wild turkey, and hawk were part of the diet, but buzzards, eagles, owls, and ravens were not eaten. Several varieties of geese were attracted by using dried and stuffed goose decoys made by skilled craftspeople. Rabbit, deer, elk, antelope, mountain lion, and grizzly bear added variety to the diet. Smaller game included ground squirrel, rat, skunk, mice, mole, dogs, snake, and lizard. Frogs and toads were never eaten.

Education

Little is known about the education of Costanoan children prior to the arrival of European missionaries. Children most likely learned by observing adults. During the mission period children were taught the fundamentals of the Catholic religion. They also learned about farming, weaving, and potterymaking—trades the Spanish considered useful. The European settlers did not teach the Costanoan to read because they feared that a young generation of educated Native Americans might become restless and dissatisfied with the mission system. In fact, teaching Native American children to read was against the law until the 1920s.

At the end of the twentieth century descendants of the Costanoan had organized classes in their native language, basketmaking, and folklore at Native American cultural centers in California. In 1997 a museum was built at Indian Canyon. A joint undertaking between the Ohlone Indians and the University of California Santa Cruz, the museum is lighted using solar power since the canyon does not have electricity. It displays Ohlone items, such as an arrow, games, weaving, and a tule house.

Healing practices

According to Costanoan belief, diseases were caused by objects placed inside the sick person’s body by angry spirits. Medicine men called shaman (pronounced SHAH-mun or SHAY-mun) were consulted to restore the victim’s health. A shaman usually began his task by performing a ceremonial song and dance, then cured the disease by piercing the patient’s skin and sucking out the disease-causing object. Shaman also used herbs as medicine, mixing them together in a special small container called a mortar.

Some Costanoan doctors claimed to be able to kill their enemies by turning themselves into grizzly bears; these doctors were greatly feared. Rumsen grizzly bear doctors wore bear skins and had bear teeth and claws filled with poison to kill their victims. When they were suspected of witchcraft or murder, the tribe killed them.

Arts

The California tribes—ranked among the world’s best basketmakers—produced two different types of baskets: coiled and twined. The Costanoan specialty was twined baskets, made from willow, rushes, and grasses. These tightly woven baskets were both beautiful and functional; they were used for carrying, storing, and processing acorns; snaring fish; carrying and storing water; and as cooking pots and utensils.

Oral literature

The Costanoan liked to tell stories about how death came into the world. There are two common elements in these stories: a supernatural power creates death and then is sorry when a relative dies, and the decision to create death is irreversible—it cannot be changed.

Coyote and His Wife

A group of tales about Coyote were collected in the early 1900s from two elderly women who remembered some of the Costanoan oral traditions. Many of these stories are short, and this one, as many of them do, includes the death of a main character. This time, however, death is not final.

Makewiks is an animal that lives in the ocean and sometimes comes to the surface. Coyote went to the ocean with his wife. He told her not to be afraid. He told her about the sea lion, about the mussels, about the crabs, and the octopus. He told her that all these were relatives; so when she saw them she was not afraid. But he did not tell her about the makewiks. Then when this rose before her it frightened her so that she fell dead. Coyote took her on his back, carried her off, built a fire, and laid her by the side of it. He began to sing and dance and jump. Soon she began to come to life. He jumped three times and brought her to life.

Kroeber, A. L. “Indian Myths of South Central California” University of California Publications American Archaeology and Ethnology. 4, 4 (1907). Available online at (accessed on September 2, 2007).

Music

Songs were used during ceremonies and dances and to tell stories, but could also be sung as love or hunting charms. They were accompanied by flutes made from wood or bird bones and rhythm instruments such as split sticks that were banged against the hand, rattles made from cocoons, and a bow whose strings were plucked by hand.

Customs

Festivals and ceremonies

Shaman were the main performers at many Costanoan festivals. They organized dances to bring a good acorn crop, plentiful fish, and stranded whales. Acorn season was the most festive time of the year and only lasted a few weeks. After gathering all day, at night the people danced, traded, gambled, and feasted.

The tribes held a variety of dances—devil’s dance, bear dance, dove dance, coyote dance, and puberty dance. The Chochenyo had a pair of dances that were done by all men (Hiwey) and all women (Loole). The Hiwey doctor wore a skirt of raven feathers and a feathered headdress. He painted his arms and face and sprinkled down feathers over his face. He also wore a live snake wound around his forearm. He leapt through fire and caused the ground to tremble when he hugged a tree and talked to the devil. This Hiwey doctor cured all different diseases.

Puberty

Costanoan girls who had reached puberty did not eat certain foods or drink cold water during their menstrual period and went through a special ritual in a corner of the home at the onset of puberty. Menstrual blood was considered powerful and possibly even dangerous. Boys at puberty took a drug called toloache, obtained from a plant called jimsonweed. When consumed, the drug caused them to go into a trancelike state and see visions.

Marriage

A class system existed among the Costanoan, and members of the elite, or highest, classes married members of their same class living in tribes throughout central California, even if they did not speak the same language.

Marriages began when the groom’s family bestowed a small gift upon the bride’s family. The newlyweds lived in the home of the husband’s father. Sometimes a Costanoan man took more than one wife, usually his wife’s sister. The resulting families all lived together. If a couple decided to divorce, the mother kept the children.

Childbirth

After giving birth to her baby, a new mother would undergo a ritual cleansing in the ocean or in a stream. Then, for several days, she and her newborn child would rest on a mattress in a pit lined with hot rocks. Costanoan tradition dictated the mother’s diet; there were certain foods she could not eat. Shortly after birth the baby boy or girl’s ears were pierced.

War rituals

Most often war occurred over territory. Battles were conducted either by surprise attack or by prearrangement. Costanoans killed their captives, except for young women, and placed the heads of their enemies on a pike (a stick-like weapon with a sharpened end). Raiding parties also burned the villages.

Death

In keeping with Costanoan tradition, a corpse was wrapped in feathers, beads, and flowers, laid out on a stack of wood, and cremated (set on fire). A deceased person who had no family members to gather firewood for the funeral fire was buried instead. The mourners chanted and expressed their wishes for the soul’s easy trip to the next world. Widows and female relatives cut off their hair and beat themselves on the head and breast with pestles (the pounding and grinding implement used with a mortar). After her husband was buried, a widow would remain in mourning for a year. The tribe held an annual memorial service for all the dead.

Current tribal issues

Obtaining tribal recognition and preserving sacred sites are important issues to the modern Costanoan. Because they became part of the missions and later lost their land, the Costanoan tribes have had a difficult time establishing a continuously documented history—one of the main requirements for federal recognition. The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe received a positive decision in U.S. district court in 2006, which should move their case along more quickly.

Mutsun Costanoan/Ohlone tribal chairperson Ann Marie Sayers holds title to a section of Indian Canyon, a 275-mile (443-kilometer) piece of land in the San Francisco Bay area. In the nineteenth century Indian Canyon served as a refuge for Costanoan Indians fleeing the Spanish missions. From her home there, Sayers and other like-minded individuals are carrying on the struggle for federal recognition of California’s nonrecognized tribes. Sayers’s property is a Living Indian Heritage Area, where today Native people live and hold traditional ceremonies.

California Natives—the Costanoan among them—voice powerful opposition to major construction on their ancestral lands. A huge anti-development campaign in the late 1990s sought to prevent the building of a $100 million project around the San Bruno Mountain Indian Shell Mound (a site overlooking San Francisco Bay). The mound dates back five thousand years and was the site of important Costanoan ceremonies and burials. In 2000 the San Bruno Mountain lawsuit was settled in the tribe’s favor, and in 2001, the Trust for Public Land agreed to purchase and protect twenty-five acres that includes the Ohlone shell mound.

Notable people

Oiyugma was a Costanoan chief who led the resistance against the establishment of Mission San Jose in the late 1700s. He threatened to kill Spanish soldiers and any Native Americans who tried to help them build the mission.

Other notable Costanoan include: Mutsun Ohlone Ann Marie Sayers who, along with Rumsen Ohlones Linda Yamane and Alex Ramirez, are currently active in the movement to revive tribal traditions and bring them to the attention of a wider audience. Henry “Hank” Alvarez, a Muwekma Ohlone elder and tribal council member, and his wife, Stella, are active members of the community organization PACT (People Acting in Community Together).

Bean, Lowell John, ed. “Introduction.” The Ohlone Past and Present: Native Americans of the San Francisco Bay Region. Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press, 1994.

Brown, Alan K. “The European Contact of 1772 and Some Later Documentation.” The Ohlone Past and Present: Native Americans of the San Francisco Bay Region. Edited by John Bean Lowell. Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press, 1994.

Davis, Thomas L., and Jack S. Williams. Padres of the California Mission Frontier. New York: PowerKids Press, 2004.

Giago, Tim A. Children Left Behind: Dark Legacy of Indian Mission Boarding Schools. Santa Fe, NM: Clear Light Publishing, 2006.

Yamane, Linda. “Costanoan/Ohlone.” Native America in the Twentieth Century: An Encyclopedia. Edited by Mary B. Davis. New York: Garland Publishing, 1994.

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“Costanoan/Ohlone Indian Language.” Native Languages of the Americas: Preserving and Promoting Indigenous American Indian Languages. (accessed on September 2, 2007).

Costanoan Rumsen Carmel Tribe of Chino, California. (accessed on September 2, 2007).

“History.” Costanoan Rumsen Carmel Tribe. (accessed on September 2, 2007).

IndianCanyon.org. (accessed on August 14, 2007).

Mutsun Language Foundation: Mutsun Language Revitalization and Cultural Preservation. (accessed on September 2, 2007).

The Muwekma Ohlone. (accessed on September 2, 2007).

Ohlone/Costanoan Esselen Nation. (accessed on September 2, 2007).

“Proposed Village House.” Indian Canyon Village. (accessed on September 2, 2007).

Edward D. Castillo (Cahuilla-Luiseño), Native American Studies Program, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California

Laurie Edwards