The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area

The Ohlone Way is a good introduction based on research and oral interview from this tribe in San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area before and after Columbus. They live in paradise on earth: Families were free to go about their pursuits of hunting, fishing, seed gathering, basket and tool making, seeking of supernatural experiences, gambling, or idling without interference from officials. The sense of right and wrong, of duty to one’s relatives and neighbors, was installed in children as they grew up (p.90). The book is well organized to read and understand with appreciation to their way of life. Moderation and generosity are their characters. Obedience, moderation, cooperation with family and tribelet members, giving a great sense of security, a vision of their place in the world, a remarkable clarity of purpose, and the strongest of loyalties to their community. They were the gentle people of San Francisco but the white settlers showed contempt and disgust and the outright murder of thousands of California Indians in the middle of 19th Century, the ugliest of American history. An Indian could not testify against a white in California court, it also applied to their distant cousin, the Chinese, law immunity for abuse and murder. This book showed the beauty of Ohlone in their way of life and motivates us to explore and learn more.

This book is a reissue of a wonderful, illuminating book that's destined to remain in print as long as there is a California. Painstakingly researched, The Ohlone Way is an engrossingly readable study of the way the Native Americans of the Bay Area lived in peace, plenty, and harmony for centuries before the Spanish missionaries came in and annihilated an ancient way of life in the space of two generations. There was plenty of food (acorns from the oaks, birds, small game, fish, and shellfish), the tulle reeds furnished material for clothing, boats, and shelter, there was no cause for violence, and the weather was mild. Now and then I suppose an earthquake came along and knocked down a few tulle huts, but they rebuilt them the next day.Drive to the top of the hills above Berkeley on a clear day, look west toward the bay, San Francisco and Marin counties, and imagine no cities, just a land of plenty inhabited by many small widely-separated but inter-related tribes, little wisps of their fires rising skyward here and there...Then put back the freeways and bridges and houses and cars and people - and think about what we've done. Then go out and buy another book, Ishi in Two Worlds for the story of what became of the last of these people.

A classic work selected by the San Francisco Chronicle as one of the top 100 western nonfiction books of the twentieth century, The Ohlone Way: Indian Life In The San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area by Malcolm Margolin has endured the test of time as being keenly insightful and informative today as it was twenty-five years ago when it was first published. Offering descriptive presentations of the Ohlone way of life from rituals of childhood and marriage to daily life to spiritual practices, this 25th Anniversary Edition of The Ohlone Way is a very highly recommended addition to personal, academic, and community library Native American Studies collections.

Malcom Margolin must have researched intensively to create this excellent book. Like historical fiction, it presents known information about the Ohlone people in a well-told story, giving a more direct, personal view to the reader, perhaps capturing the feeling of the times it describes. A mere 213 years ago when Oholone culture was at its incredible zenith, a time of great wealth and deep religious knowledge.

I strongly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in the Native American and ecological history of the Bay Area. It is thoughtfully written and is an easy and enjoyable read. There is tremendous detail about the Ohlone culture and about the natural world of the Bay Area before European contact. The book also provides an interesting cultural study by bringing the reader into a world of values that are markedly different from our own. This is one of the best books I own.

A truly beautifully written book about the Native American people who populated the Bay Area, from Monterey to San Francisco. The descriptions of the land they inhabited as recently as 200 years ago makes wonderful reading aloud, and the Ohlone customs and beliefs will fascinate anyone living in the Bay Area. I rather fell upon this book at the SFPL, and can't believe my good fortune that it is available. As a high school librarian in SF, this can be well used by upper elementary through high school students wanting to know about the people and the place that existed long before SF was a settlement,when the area supported some of the densest populations of flora and fauna in America. The illustrations (b & w) will be much used as the basis for a mural on our area's history. They are clear and capture, in their intricacy, so many details that kids will relate to.