A brief history of the first people of Berkeley

Before the arrival of Spanish explorers, central California had the densest population of native inhabitants north of Mexico. From Monterey Bay to the San Francisco Bay, the people collectively known as the Ohlone lived along the coast in more than forty tribes with many different languages. The area around San Francisco was occupied by the Yelamu tribe, though little is known about their specific practices. For thousands of years these groups relied on hunting, fishing, and gathering fruits and vegetables to survive.

When the Spanish first arrived in the 18th century, they were generally well received by the Ohlone. Soon after, however, the Spanish built six missions to deliver the natives to Christ, as well as to integrate them into a system of colonial order that exploited their labor.

The Ohlone living in the Yelamu territory, as well as those to the South and East of this territory, were missionized into Mission Dolores between the years of 1777 and 1787. Ohlone were not always willing to enter the mission system; force often had to be used to gain new recruits to fill the mission, as well as to hold them there once they entered.

The Spanish missions had a devastating effect on Ohlone life, language, and culture. Of the 20,000 Ohlone who lived in the San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas before the missions were built, fewer than 2,000 were left by 1810. In the missions, the death rate was greater than the birth rate, which was abnormally low due to disease and mistreatment of the women. The babies that were born did not have much to look forward to--the mean life expectancy of an infant born within the mission was a mere 1.7 years.

Life inside the missions was less than idyllic. The Ohlone's religious and cultural practices, along with the use of their native languages, were at first restricted, and then forbidden. The Ohlone were often flogged, beaten, or shackled for minor infractions. Conditions were even worse for the women of the tribes. All unmarried women over five years of age lived separately from their families in barracks called monjerios. These barracks often lacked windows and were only opened two to three times a day to allow the girls to pass to and from church. The conditions of the monjerios were overcrowded and filthy, which increased the death rates of the women and soon created a gender imbalance in the mission. In 1795, the discontent with mission conditions led to a staged escape from Mission Dolores. Over 200 Ohlone abandoned the mission; 83 were later captured and returned by the military. After the mass desertion, the governor launched a formal military investigation of the mission conditions, which reported there to be excessive labor, forced labor projects, an insufficient amount of food, and extreme cruelty. Again in 1820, discontented Ohlone arose, this time in an armeon at Mission Dolores. Indigenous guerilla forces combined their efforts with runaways and natives from surrounding villages that had been taken over by Spanish forces.

The mission also had a profound effect on the surrounding environ- ment. The introduction of European stock animals, particularly cattle, seriously depleted and trampled native vegetation. This destruction of native resources and foods, in combination with imported diseases, caused the collapse of villages that formerly functioned independently.

The Ohlone Way, by Malcolm Margolin, shows you their villages, shellmounds, and herds of antelope. Another glimpse of native american life is given by Thomas Jefferson Mayfield in Adopted by Indians, who was raised by a Choinumne tribe in the 1850's amongst the still-plentiful swamps and marshes of the Central Valley.