The Ohlone

                            The Ohlone are from California. They have lived on the California coast from San Fransico bay to south of Santa Cruz. They have had a lot of relatives along the coast too, some called Lisan. They remember the earthquake which formed San Francisco Bay. That was bigger than the quake which caused San Fancisco to burn down. They and their relatives have lived in the area for a long time. Their ancesters passed down memories of being there since before "The Flood!"

                        While looking at old issue of the California magazine noted that University of California at Berkeley have been looking around the site of Quiroste, which was a large influencial Ohlone village at the time of discovery by Gaspar Portola. I understand that the Portola was more or less lost and unwell at the time. I also understand that the Oholone more or less saved their "discoverers."

                         Archaeological evidence shows that the area of Quiroste was successfuy inhabited from before 6,000 BC. So, it seems the Ohlone have been in what is now California for more than 8,000 years.

                        The Spaniards and early Californios called the Ohlne Costenyos. Oral histories and accounts from the early Mission Period seem to establish thatthe Quiroste site was widely known at that period as being an influential village rich in resources at that time.   

                        The Berkeley project aroud Quiroste has been in collaboration with modern tribes such as the Muwekma, Native land management practices are at thecore of the research project. The plan for 2011 was to restore the flora of the area to the conditions found in 1769. I wonder why and how.

                        Native land management practices are becoming more appreciated as a source of information that is looking to be more and more valuable to our agricultural and land management in general. This appreciation has been true not only to Berkeley, but to all of the Americas and to much of the world in general. We do not see much about it on TV nor have we demanded it their. There is a lot about it online and at our universities.

                    That which we learn from native peoples, history, and prehistory may help us to more sucessfully adapt to changes on and to our Earth. As those changes have become more rapid than we have been accustomed to, the quality of our adaptive skills become more important.

                    It looks like we can learn significant skills from tribal people from tribal people from around the word as well as from our ancient and not so anchient ancesters.

                    It is widely known, among those interested, that Native Americans encouraged a great number of natural plants for harvest. Perhaps hunter-harvesters can prove a more useful term than hunter-gatherers. As a small example, Native Americans of California, not far from Quiroste site, practiced techniques for encouraging the growth of deer grass and sedges forharvest. And Hazelnut trees were protected and nourished by American Indians over a wide area of North America, including California.

                   The spellcheck app has disappeared and I have been unable to get it back. Please feel free to use the "comments" application below to correct our spelling. I can use all the help I can get. There are still some interesting apps available here to aid your exploration of this history blog.

                    Thank you for reading. There are also some videos here to view.

                                                                                                      rcs