Adolfo Tellez
Leah Halper
History 3
The Ohlone Belief Systems
The Ohlone, also called the Constanoan by the Spanish, believed that animals with
human and god-like characteristics created man. The way in which the Ohlone understood this
occurred was that after a previous world had been flooded, the Eagle, the Coyote and the
Hummingbird waited for the world to dry. After it dried, Coyote found a beautiful girl who Eagle
told him to marry and have children with. The woman became pregnant by eating a wood tick
she found on Coyote. At first she did not want to eat it, but Coyote made her, and she had a
child. This is a story of creation that some the Ohlone people believed in (Kroeber 200).
There were about fifty triblets of the Ohlone and within these triblets about eight different
language variations were spoken (Halper). These triblets were separated and did not convene
with each other, but each triblet was aware of other triblets and their existence. They simply kept
to themselves (Margolin 1-2).
The form of faith that the Ohlone had is known as Animism and it consists of recognizing
that there is “aliveness in all things,” living and non-living (Margolin 141). Anyone who wished
to seek power from the gods would perform traditional practices or rituals and they would carry
out these practices whenever they needed something (Margolin 137). They would do this for
spiritual guidance and help for things including; protection, success, curing an illness, or for any
other kind of blessing (Margolin 137). Ohlone traditional practices revolving around their
religion were scarce but they did exist. “They would often have offerings of carved sticks or
poles to their gods (Halper). Some materials the Ohlone would use to develop spiritual presence
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in their life were tobacco, spirit sticks and musical instruments. They smoked tobacco and
sometimes jimsonweed to experience other dimensions and experience illusions they believed
were spiritual (Margolin 138). Spirit sticks were a yard long stick decorated in hairnets, feathers
and offerings like meat, mussels, or fish in which they would stick in the ground to show respect
to the gods (Margolin 138). They also “used musical instruments that included wooden bows,
flutes, rattles and whistles” in their ceremonies (Williams 33).
They would have these ceremonies or celebrations in honor of the gods, wearing
elaborate body paint, feathers, and masks for their dances (Hanson). Also, “both Ohlone men and
women worshiped through songs and dance” (Williams 33). There were also other ways the
Ohlone would show their allegiance to their gods. They would be abstinent, they would perform
dances and chants for the gods and sometimes they would even inflict bodily harm upon
themselves to earn the gods favor (Williams 33).
What did the Ohlone want out of these rituals? The way they received help from the gods
was through dreams (Margolin 138). First off, the Ohlone believed dreams were just as real as
life itself. So, the Ohlone would relate the experiences in their dreams to the problems they were
facing just as if the dream were real life occurrence (Margolin 138). So, if someone were to be
lucky enough to experience one of these dreams, they would use it as a sort of divine revelation
given to them from the god or gods that answered their call (Margolin 138).
The Ohlone were very spiritual when it came to death. When someone died in one the
triblets there would be immense communal grief because each person played a significant role in
each triblet, and everyone knew everyone (Margolin 147). One way the Ohlone venerated and
respected their ancestors was by showing massive sorrow and anguish while someone was dying
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and also after someone died (Margolin 147). The Ohlone believed that when someone died that
his or her soul would “journey westward across the ocean to the Island of the Dead (Margolin
147).” There the soul would “eat, dance and sing with the other spirits” for eternity (Margolin
147).
From 1602 to 1769 many Spanish ships had stopped on the coast of Monterey. There are
no legitimate records about what had occurred between the Spanish and the Ohlone during this
time (Williams). The first known contact was around the year 1770 (“Costanoans.”). At first the
Ohlone were frightened of the newcomers when the Ohlone met with the Europeans, but after
seeing the materials the Europeans brought with them, the Ohlone were eager to make contact
with them (Margolin 158). The Spanish viewed the Ohlone as beneficiaries of the “perfect
Christian Community” that was going to be established in California (Margolin 159). The
Ohlone viewed the Spanish as a strange and magnificent people of the mule. The Ohlone
believed there was mule god and that this god had given the Spanish great magical powers
(Margolin 158).
When the Europeans came into the picture in the 1770s, over time, everything changed
about the Ohlone way of life. The Ohlone were forced to learn the ways of Catholicism and by
the end of the Spanish tyranny the Ohlone had lost almost all of their basic culture. They were in
missions for so long that many of the women forgot how to make baskets or were punished for
remembering (Halper). The Ohlone were in missions with other tribes and because of this many
of their dances and beliefs muddled together, and their originality were lost (Margolin 164). In
the closing stages of Spanish rule many lost hope. The Spanish believed that they were saving
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the Native American souls from their heathen ways and from 1770 to 1834 they tried to do so
(Margolin 160).
Mission life for the Ohlone people was brutal and harsh. They were put into what I can
only imagine as internment camps in which they either converted and or most likely died
(Halper). In these missions the Ohlone were forced to learn the ways of Catholicism and with
soldiers standing by; they had no other choice (Halper). The Ohlone were sometimes starved and
unable to search for food in their old traditional ways because they were often forced by the
Padres to wait for cargo ships from Spain (Halper). Unfortunately for the Ohlone, many died in
the process of the mission system. From 1771 to 1848 the Ohlone population diminished from an
estimated 7,000 to an estimated 1,000 (“Costanoans.”). Considering that the missions started in
1770 and ended in 1834, we can see that most of this decline in population took place during the
mission era (“Costanoans.”).
After the secularization of the Spanish from the missions, the land that the Ohlone relied
on was given to other people. Families and farmers took the land to start raising cattle (Margolin
164). So, the Ohlone were in an even worse spot than when they were left off. The choices they
had to make were to either become slaves, continue to try to survive in the missions, or become
cowboys who managed the cattle and hunted deer (Margolin 164). In the 1860s a small group of
Native Americans, from many triblets which included the Ohlone, got together in a small
settlement in the Bay Area (Margolin 166). Here something astonishing occurred. Over time the
Ohlone remembered, discovered and uncovered some of their ancient beliefs and practices. No
one knows how or why, we just know that this occurred in this settlement (Margolin 166). Once
this small group of Native Americans uncovered their ancestry, they tried as hard as they could
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to maintain it. They held dances, made sweathouses and shamans tried to remember all they
could (Margolin 166). In 1897 the last known tribal dance was held in Pleasington, in 1900 the
last known sweathouse was torn down and in 1935 the last known descendant of the Ohlone who
had a full grasp on the Ohlone language died (Margolin 166). Fortunately the Ohlone, along with
other tribes, did not fade completely into modern civilization. To this very day the Ohlone strive
to regain their almost lost heritage.
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Works Cited
"Costanoans." Four Directions Institute. Four Directions Press, 12 Jul 2007. Web. 27 Sep 2011.
Halper, Leah. “Ohlone.” History 3. Gavilan Community College. Gilroy, 14 September 2011
Hanson,
Tristan.
"Ohlone
Indians."
27
Oct
2006.
Web.
27
Sep
2011.
<http://froggywasabi.webs.com/>.
Kroeber, A.L. Indian Myths of South Central California. Berkeley: University, 1907.Print.
Margolin, Malcolm. The Ohlone Way: Indian life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area.
Berkeley: Heyday Books, 1978. Print.
Williams, Jack S. The Library of Native Americans: The Ohlone of California. New York: The
Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 2003. eBook.