Natives have inhabited the San Francisco Bay area for thousands of years, and physical reminders of their complex cultures still remain, just under city’s busy streets.

The San Francisco Bay area is the ancestral home of the Ohlone people, known to Europeans as the Costanoans. Historians and anthropologists estimate that between 3,000 and 7,000 natives inhabited the region at the time the Spanish began establishing their missions in the area during the 1770s.

The Ohlone people inhabiting the peninsula, between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean, lived in small independent villages only loosely associated with each other politically. Some of these villages were permanent while many were only seasonal. The traditional homes of the Ohlone people were simple conical shaped, single-room structures, covered with local thatch. Villages also contained communal buildings, such as ceremonial sweat lodges

The Ohlone subsisted primarily on food available via the local waterways. This included marine mammals, salmon, and especially mussels and other shellfish. Large mounds of mussel and oyster shells dotted the landscape of what is now San Francisco, and their remnants still lie beneath the city’s streets. One of these shell mounds is located at this spot along Stevenson Street.

These large landmarks were not merely mounds of refuse but rather culturally significant components of Ohlone culture. Some were associated with ceremonial burial practices while others marked the boundaries of a chiefdom’s territory.

Although modern development has impacted or destroyed most of these ancient reminders of San Francisco’s first inhabitants, archaeologists have been able to learn much about their culture from what they left behind.

Credits and Sources:

Kroeber, A. L. (Alfred Louis). Handbook of the Indians of California. United States. Government Printing Office, 1925. Accessed February 16, 2015. http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm/ref/collection/bba/id/1120.

National Park Service. Golden Gate National Recreational Area. Accessed February 16, 2015.  http://www.nps.gov/goga/historyculture/ohlones-and-coast-miwoks.htm.