Learning More

Many faculty, staff, and students are interested in learning more about Ohlone heritage and culture. We encourage individuals from all disciplines to ask themselves how they can make attention to Ohlone heritage and Native knowledge part of what they teach and study in their classes. But not all sources of information are created equal.

As all academics know, not all sources are considered credible, authoritative, or even appropriate to experts in the field. In the area of Indigenous studies, it is especially important to be mindful of where your sources are coming from and to center the perspectives of impacted communities whenever possible.

Tribal members are experts in their own history and culture. The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and the Ohlone Indian Tribe members we consulted, many of whom have dedicated much of their lives to this subject, provided insight into which sources are recommended and which are to be avoided when learning about Ohlone history and culture. This is not an exhaustive list of resources by any means but it does allow readers new to this study to begin with sources that are preferred by these members of the community. It also provides an opportunity for all readers to reflect on the question of source use and how to center Native perspectives in their research. For additional sources, you might also consult the Library Guide developed by Kelci Baughmann-McDowell. Readers not affiliated with Santa Clara University can find many of these articles and chapters in full text on the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe website.

Select Bibliography of Preferred Sources

Bean, Lowell John (Ed.) The Ohlone, Past and Present: Native Americans of the San Francisco Bay Region. Menlo Park: Ballena Press, 1994.

Field, Les W. “Unacknowledged Tribes, Dangerous Knowledge: The Muwekma Ohlone and How Indian Identities Are ‘Known’". Wicazo Sa Review vol. 18, no. 2 (2003), pp. 79-94. 10.1353/wic.2003.0012.

Field, Les W., and Alan Leventhal. “‘What Must It Have Been like!’ Critical Considerations of Precontact Ohlone Cosmology as Interpreted Through Central California Ethnohistory.” Wicazo Sa Review, vol. 18, no. 2, University of Minnesota Press, 2003, pp. 95–126, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1409539.

Field, Les, Alan Leventhal, Dolores Sanchez, and Rosemary Cambra. “A Contemporary Ohlone Tribal Revitalization Movement: A Perspective from the Muwekma Costanoan/Ohlone Indians of the San Francisco Bay Area.” California History vol. 71, no. 3 (1992), pp. 412–431.

Field, L., A. Leventhal, and R. Cambra. “Mapping Erasure: The Power of Nominative Cartography in the Past and Present of the Muwekma Ohlone of the San Francisco Bay Area. In Recognition, Sovereignty Struggles and Indigenous Rights in the United States: A Sourcebook edited by A. E. D. Ouden and J. O’Brien. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013.

Galvan, Andrew A. “Under New Management.” News from Native California, vol. 26, no. 4, Summer 2013, pp. 11–13. EBSCOhost.

Leventhal, Alan & Field, Les & Alvarez, Hank & Cambra, Rosemary. “The Ohlone: Back From Extinction,” in Bean, Lowell John (Ed.) The Ohlone, Past and Present: Native Americans of the San Francisco Bay Region. Menlo Park: Ballena Press, 1994, pp. 297-336.

Milliken, Randall. A Time of Little Choice: The Disintegration of Tribal Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1769-1810. Menlo Park: Ballena Press, 1995.

Milliken, Randall, Lawrence H Shoup, and Beverly R. Ortiz. Ohlone/Coastonoan Indians of the San Francisco Peninsula and their Neighbors, Yesterday and Today. Oakland [CA]: Archaeological and Historical Consultants, 2009.

Newell, Quincy D. Constructing lives at Mission San Francisco: Native Californians and Hispanic colonists, 1776-1821. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2009.

Panich, Lee. Narratives of persistence: Indigenous Negotiations of Colonialism in Alta and Baja California. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2020.