Indigenous Studies Resources

Describes the independent Native American nations that lived in the Bay Area, their reaction to Spanish influence, and their choices when confronted with the mission system. Studies the circumstances under which tribal members joined missions, and recounts their subsequent experiences. Appendices offer an encyclopedia of tribal groups, information on mission populations and baptisms, and translations of 24 documents written by Spanish military and church officials.

The Costanoan Indians: an assemblage of papers on the language and culture of the Costanoan Indians who in aboriginal times occupied San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda and parts of Contra Costa, Monterey and San Benito Counties. Ethnohistory of the Costanoans of San Fancisco Bay / Linda Stevens Switzer -- Costanoan words for plants, animals, certain natural phenomena and numbers -- Missionaries' replies to the Interrogatorio of 1812 -- Miscellany -- Costanoan Indians as portrayed by eighteenth and nineteenth century visitors to California.

The first Spanish entry into San Francisco Bay, 1775 : the original narrative, hitherto unpublished, and further details by participants in the first explorations of the Bay's waters, together with four contemporary maps and six illustrations in full colour from the brush and pencil of Louis Choris who was at San Francisco in 1816 / edited by John Galvin

The Spanish missions of California have long been misrepresented as places of benign and peaceful coexistence between Franciscan friars and California Indians. In fact, the mission friars enslaved the California Indians and treated them with deliberate cruelty. "A Cross of Thorns" describes the dark and violent reality of Mission life. Beginning in 1769, California Indians were enticed into the missions, where they and their descendents were imprisoned for 60 years of forced labor and daily beatings. The chilling depictions of colonial cruelty in "A Cross of Thorns" are based on little known church and Spanish government archives and letters written by the founder of California's mission, Friar Juniperro Serra (who advocated the whipping of Mission Indians as a standard policy), and published first-hand accounts of 18th and 19th century travelers. Tracing the history of Spanish colonization in California from its origins in Spain's 18th century economic crisis to the legacy of racism and brutality that continues today, "A Cross of Thorns" is one of the most thought-provoking books ever written on California history.

Located at the tip of the San Francisco peninsula in the heart of what is now the city's Mission District, the Mission of San Francisco de Asís, established in 1776, was the sixth to be founded in the Alta California mission system. Northern California was home to many small tribal communities when the Franciscans began developing missions in the area in 1769. While no firsthand written accounts exist of Bay Area Indians' experiences at Mission San Francisco, there is evidence that, just as Hispanic colonists introduced Hispanic cultural customs to California, Bay Area Indians retained their own cultural traditions as they entered the missions. In this finely crafted study Quincy Newell examines the complexity of cultural contact between Franciscans and the native populations at Mission San Francisco. Records of traditional rituals and lifeways taking place alongside introduced doctrines and practices reveal the various ways California Indians adopted, adapted, and rejected aspects of mission life. Using baptismal, marriage, and death records to tell the history of these colonized peoples, Newell demonstrates that the priests' conversion and Hispanicization of the Bay Area Indians remained partial at best.

Two hundred years ago, herds of elk and antelope dotted the hills of the San Francisco-Monterey Bay area. Grizzly bears lumbered down to the creeks to fish for silver salmon and steelhead trout. From vast marshlands geese, ducks, and other birds rose in thick clouds "with a sound like that of a hurricane." This land of "inexpressible fertility," as one early explorer described it, supported one of the densest Indian populations in all of North America. One of the most ground-breaking and highly-acclaimed titles that Heyday has published,The Ohlone Way describes the culture of the Indian people who inhabited Bay Area prior to the arrival of Europeans. Recently included in theSan Francisco Chronicle's Top 100 Western Non-Fiction list,The Ohlone Way has been described by critic Pat Holt as a "mini-classic."