Talk:Ohlone/Ohlone Book Reviews and Research Aid

Ohlone Book Reviews and Research Aid
Here is a list of the Ohlone Books and Book reports that we compiled during the Wikipedian reference gathering and writing process of the article. Goldenrowley 06:13, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

The Costanoan/Ohlone Indians ...Teixeira, 1997
1997. Teixeira, Lauren.  The Costanoan/Ohlone Indians of the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Area, A Research Guide contains 129 pages covering the resouces, the places to research, bibliography, and summary.

I recommend starting with this book if you are serious about researching the people, this book summarizes all other research through the year 1997. If I had this book first, I would have saved so much time and found current sources. He even covers internet research and where to get detailed archived records. Goldenrowley 06:13, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

A Time of Little Choice, Milliken 1995
Milliken, Randall. A Time of Little Choice: The Disintegration of Tribal Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area 1769-1810 (1995). 1995.
 * Teixara says: "Core Research book." (Teixara, page 10) "Randall Milliken, Ph.D., has researched and written an unprecented work on the Costanoan/Ohlone...the most in-depth and compreshensive work on the Costanoan/Ohlone during the mission period to date. ... exhaustive research on the baptsim, marriage and death records of the missions of the San Francisco Bay Area, compiled with a computer database, has lent a multilayered, multidimensional pespective to a time and a people... recreates a tangible reality, opens a window into a mysterious, and heretofore vaguely known time period." (Teixara, page 10)


 * This is a more recent book and with the above endorsement, should definitely be consulted. Milliken's book is a thorough and detailed history from 1769 t 1810 of these people. It has great deductions and detailed list of Bay Area tribes at the back. For the period it covers it is very detailed and helpful with MIssion records. Milliken made a database of Mission Indians from the Mission Records, a wealth of historical detail and genealogy is in the database. The statustical charts reports number of births, deaths, baptism for each mission. The list of tribes throughout the region is very thorough and helpful, it gives short history of each tribe including where they lived and the first years they were baptized at the missions. The list of tribes covers the Bay Area Indians, not just Ohlone but also neighboring tribes, some of the Miwok and some Patwin. Goldenrowley 21:57, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

The Ohlone: Past and Present, Bean 1992
Bean, John L. The Ohlone: Past and Present. 1992


 * Teixara said: "Core Research book." (Teixara, page 10) "A compilation of papers presented by scholars and Costanoan/Ohlone descendents at the Ohlone conference held at CSU Hayward in Nov. 1992...prominent anthropologist, scholar and oganizer of the conference. This extraordinary book is the first of its kind - scholars and descendents together, voicing their knowledge, concerns and views of the Costanoan/Ohlone life as it was, is and will be." (Teixara, page 10)


 * This is a place holder. This is a more recent book and with the above endorsement, should definitely be consulted. Goldenrowley 06:13, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

The Ohlone Way, Margolin 1978
Margolin, Malcolm. The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area. Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books, 1978. ISBN 0-930588-02-9.


 * Teixeira said: "Costanoan/Ohlone prehistory, culture, and history with a final chapter covering the "last two centures".(Teixara - page 57)

Ohlone Way just says 10,000 or more Indians. Ohlone is a nice to read book its more prosaic and description of the region, it goes into the people's lives, their social structure, mythology, but as I am reading the dialogues between Indians I am sure some of it is imagined. However I thought the author did a pretty good job. It could be used for the description and perhaps mythology. Goldenrowley 20:46, 2 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I re-thumbed through the early version of Ohlone Way. I recall now the imagination of the author was a bit too vivid and broad. As I am reading I note that different regions acted different enough such that that may be the way to go.


 * For instance, oysters have been well established, hence shell mounds. But further inland towards Salinas they had to act different, just as some archeological material suggests. However, just as likely they traveled. On this I am looking for a reference that may say this. I suspect the newer version of Ohlone Way may say this. There are suggestions in other materials, but no ones (yet) states it completely, nor do the make any associations based on evidence.


 * On population, the best we may be able to do is state the ranges and give the names of the various historians. Those historians we discount, such as Kroeber, we should state why in footnotes or leave an explict on the talkpage. Your thoughts. -- meatclerk 01:29, 3 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Summary of opinions: The book can be used for description and myth, but is somewhat out of date and broad on other matters.


 * An issue has arose with the historian A. S. Taylor, which is used as a reference. Apparently this person made up stuff, especially about extincted tribes. He did is work in the 1860, called Indianology of California. Unknown about of discredit to attribute to this person, as some work was valid.

Population of the California Indians..., Cook 1976 -
Cook, Sherburne F. The Population of the California Indians, 1769-1970. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, June 1976. ISBN 0-520-02923-2.


 * Teixara: no comment/not mentioned.


 * Cook's second book "Indian Population". It promised a count of all California Indians but I was disappointed in that it is broad, he was focused on counting ALL California Indians as a group, rather than counting by tribe or language group, and his population counting is not straight forward (he counts by county, and counts the Costanoans in the east bay counties on one page, but never quites counts the south bay, Santa Cruz, or West Bay, for instance). I'd look for better local/regional research on the internet and UCB and UCD libraries for better more localized research for this region of natives.   Goldenrowley 19:01, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Conflict Between..., Cook 1940s
Cook, Sherburne F. The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1976. ISBN 0-520-03143-1. Originally printed in Ibero-Americana (1940-1943).


 * Teixeira: no comment/not mentioned.

Cook seemed to take a very reasoned scientific approach, and had footnotes for each number. he worked with Koebler's data but also other sources and came to a conclusion. I will review it and post it here for discussion Goldenrowley 15:26, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Note His population statistic table looks extremely useful as follows::
 * Pulled section:
 * "Population: In 1770, there were about 10,000-11,000 Costanoans. In 1832 their population was estimated at 1942. In 1852 estimated at 864-1000. In 1880 estimated at 281. In 1920 estimate at 56. Cook, pages 183, 236-245.

However, in Cook's second book, he discounted much of this original research but did not redo this population table, see his next book.Goldenrowley 06:13, 4 October 2006 (UTC)