Pre-Colonial Native Americans And Spanish Encounters · Before Silicon Valley

Title: Pre-Colonial Native Americans And Spanish Encounters
Description: The original occupants of the Santa Clara County were the Ohlone tribelet of the Tamyen Coastanoan-speaking tribe. They thrived within a spiritual life grounded in animism and a lifestyle that balanced population to resources. Acorns were a staple of their diet. Anthropologist Alfred Kroeber estimated that more than 75 percent of native Californians ate them on a daily basis. Tule bulrushes provided medicine, food, and fiber for housing, boats, clothing, and baskets.

At the time of Spanish settlement in the 1770s, the native California population was estimated to be approximately 300,000, or 13% of the native population of North America.
Additional Online Information: The First Peoples of California | Library of Congress; Native Americans: Pre-Columbian California to 18th Century — Calisphere; Early California Exploration and Settlement — Calisphere; Five Views: An Ethnic Historic Site Survey for California (American Indians)
Identifier: B4SV Exhibit Topic One: Slide 001

Media: Drawing of an Indian Temescal, by Day & Hughes, "Lithographers to the Queen," ca.1839