Ohlone people

The Muwekma Ohlone Indians are a tribe that is native to the Bay of San Francisco. The original settlement area extended to the regions of San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa and parts of Napa, Santa Cruz, Solano and San Joaquin. The tribe became Christian in the 18th century by the Spaniards. In the 19th century, at the time of the gold rush, them the land was stolen by European / American settlers.

Historically, they were also referred to as Coastanoans because of the settlement area on the Pacific coast and assigned to the Penutian -language family. You are archaeologically detectable since the 8th century. It is thought that they lived around the time of first contact with Spaniards in at least 50 different villages, who used substantially different languages. This village structures were divided into eight main groups.

Culture

Due to the mild climate in the coastal region of the male Ohlone typically wore no clothes, while women from Teichbinse platted a kind skirt from the waist down covering the front and back of the body. During inclement weather, they wore cloaks made ​​of feathers of waterfowl and skins, including roe deer, hare and various marine mammals. Also mud was used for protection against the cold.

Body painting and tattoos were the folk and village affiliation. Typical of Ohlone are stripes on the thighs, which are often seen in historical pictures. Piercings in the ears were adorned with feathers, beads, flowers and grass, occasionally a piece of bone was worn by men in the septum. Other Jewellery were necklaces with beads, feathers and shells.

The Ohlone built simple, temporary huts made of bent wood that were covered with rushes or foliage. Occasionally, large peeled pieces of bark of conifers were used for covering the huts. From rushes they built rafts similar to the South American Balsaflößen.

Other tools and utensils they carved out of wood and shells. In addition, they were skilled basket makers.