Esselen
The Esselen are a Native American people belonging to a linguistic group in the hypothetical Hokan language family, who are Indigenous to the Santa Lucia Mountains of a region south of the Big Sur River in California. Prior to Spanish imperialization, they lived seasonally on the coast and inland, surviving off the plentiful seafood during the summer and acorns and wildlife during the rest of the year.
During the mission period of California history, Esselen children were forcibly baptized by the Spanish Christian priests when they left their villages and relocated as family units to live in the missions where they learned reading, writing, and various trades. The Esselen were required to labor at the three nearby missions, Mission San Carlos, Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, and Mission San Antonio de Padua. Like many Native American populations, their members were decimated at the hands of the Spanish invaders by starvation, forced labor, over work, torture, and diseases that they had no natural resistance to.
Historically, they were one of the smallest Native American populations in California. Various experts estimate there were from 500 to 1,285 individuals living in the steep, rocky region at the time of the invasion of the Spanish. Due to their proximity to three Spanish missions, they were likely one of the first whose culture was virtually eliminated as a result of European invasion and incursion. The people were believed to have been exterminated but some tribal members avoided the invaders, preserving their culture, and emerged from the forest to work in nearby ranches in the early and late 1800s. Descendants of the Esselen are currently scattered, but many still live in the Monterey Peninsula area and nearby regions.
Origins
Archaeological and linguistic evidence indicates that the original people's territory once extended much farther north, into the San Francisco Bay Area, until they were displaced by the entrance of Ohlone people. Based on linguistic evidence, Richard Levy places the displacement at around AD 500. Breschini and Haversat place the entry of Ohlone speakers into the Monterey area prior to 200 B.C. based on multiple lines of evidence. Carbon dating of excavated sites places the Esselen in the Big Sur since circa 2630 BCE. Recently, however, researchers have obtained a radiocarbon date from coastal Esselen territory in the Big Sur River drainage dated prior to 6,500 years ago.Etymology
The name Esselen is uncertain. One theory is that it refers to the name of a major native village, possibly Exse'ein, or the place called Eslenes. The village name may be derived from a tribal location known as Ex'selen, "the rock," which is in turn derived from the phrase Xue elo xonia eune, "I come from the rock." "The Rock" may refer to the tall promontory, visible for miles both up and down the coast, on which the Point Sur Lighthouse is situated.The Spanish extended the term to mean the entire linguistic group. Variant spellings exist in old records, including Aschatliens, Ecclemach, Eslen, Eslenes, Excelen, and Escelen. "Aschatliens" may refer to a group around Mission San Carlos, in and around the village of Achasta.
Achasta was a Rumsen Ohlone village, and totally unrelated to the Esselen. Achasta was possibly founded only after the establishment of Mission San Carlos. It was the closest village to Mission San Carlos, and was 10+ miles from Esselen territory. "Eslenes" was nowhere near Mission San Carlos. On January 3, 1603, explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno found a deserted Indian village about a mile from what later became the site of the Carmel Mission.
Language
The Esselen language is a language isolate. It is hypothetically part of the Hokan family. The language was spoken in the northern Santa Lucia Range. Prior to contact with European culture, there were between 500 and 1000 speakers. French explorer Jean La Pérouse, who visited Monterey in 1786, recorded 22 words in 1786. He wrote in his journal during the expedition:In 1792, Spanish ship captain Dionisio Alcalá Galiano recorded 107 words and phrases. In 1832, Father Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta recorded another 58 words and 14 phrases at Mission Soledad. The speakers were from the Arroyo Seco area to the east. The neighboring Rumsen people were fluent in Esselen and they provided de la Cuesta with some language. A total of about 300 words along with some short phrases have been identified. Examples include mamamanej ; koxlkoxl ; and ni-tsch-ekė. Isabel Meadows, who also spoke Rumsen, was the last fluent Esselen speaker. She died in 1939.
Geography
The Central California coast in this region is marked by high, steep cliffs and rocky shores, interrupted by small coastal creeks with occasional, small beaches. The mountains are very rugged with narrow canyons. The terrain makes the area relatively inaccessible, long-term habitation a challenge, and limited the size of the native population. The tribe were neighbors to the Salinan people who inhabited present-day southern Monterey County, southern San Benito County, and northern San Luis Obispo county.Locations
It is believed there were three Esselen geo-political districts: Imunahan, comprising the central Arroyo Seco watershed; Excelen, including the upper Carmel River; and Ekheahan, including the upper watersheds of the Arroyo Seco and Big Sur Rivers along with a section of the Big Sur coast between Posts and Big Creek further south. The Esselen resided along the upper Carmel and Arroyo Seco River, and along the Big Sur coast from near present-day Hurricane Point to the vicinity of Vicente Creek in the south. The Esselen's territory extended inland through the Santa Lucia Mountains as far as the Salinas Valley. Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, they were hunter-gatherers who resided in small groups with no centralized political authority. Modern researchers believe there were five distinct Esselen districts: Excelen, Eslenahan, Imunahan, Ekheahan, and Aspasniahan. Each are believed to have had a relatively stable resident population.Jean La Pérouse reported that, "The country of the Ecclemachs extends above 20 leagues to the eastward of Monterey."
Within each district the people occupied several villages depending on the season and availability of food, water, and shelter. Carbon dating tests of artifacts found near Slates Hot Springs, presently owned by the Esalen Institute, indicate human presence as early as 3500 BC. With easy access to the ocean, fresh water and hot springs, the Esselen people used the site regularly, and certain areas were reserved as burial grounds.
A large boulder with a dozen or more deep mortar bowls worn into it, known as a bedrock mortar, is located in Apple Tree Camp on the southwest slope of Devil's Peak, north of the Camp Pico Blanco. The holes were hollowed out over many generations by Indians who used it to grind the acorns into flour. Other mortar rocks have also been found within the Boy Scout camp at campsites 3 and 7, and slightly upstream from campsite 12, while a fourth is found on a large rock in the river, originally above the river, between campsites 3 and 4.
Culture
Archeological evidence of settlements has been found throughout Esselen territory. Artifacts found at a site in the Tassajara area included bone awls, antler flakers, projectile points including desert side-notched points, and scrapers. Excavation at a second site at the mouth of the Carmel River found more projectile points, a variety of cores and modified flakes, bone awls, a bone tube, a bone gaming piece, and mortars and pestles. Many sites show aesthetic illustrations of numerous pictographs in black, white, and red.Dress and living standards
Prior to European invasion, the people wore little clothing. The men were naked year-round and the women and girls may have worn a small apron. In cold weather they may have covered themselves with mud or rabbit or deerskin capes. No evidence of sandals or foot wear has been found.Invader and later Governor of Alta California Pedro Fages described their dress in an account written before 1775:
Food sources
Due to the relative abundance of food resources, the Esselen people never developed agriculture and remained hunter-gatherers. They followed local food sources seasonally, living near the coast in winter, where they harvested rich stocks of mussels, limpets, abalone and other sea life.Evidence of baskets have been found and were probably the principal item used to furnish households. Basket design included large conical baskets for carrying burdens, hemispherical-shaped cooking bowls, flat trays, and small boat-shaped baskets which may have been seed-beaters.
In the summer and fall they moved inland to harvest one of their staple foods, acorns, which were very abundant throughout Big Sur. They gathered acorns from the black oak, canyon live oak and tanbark oak, primarily on upper slopes above the narrow canyons. They first soaked the acorns in running water to leach the bitter tannin from them. They then ground the acorns using a mortar. Over many years they hollowed out bedrock mortars in granite rock outcroppings that they used to grind plant seeds and acorns into flour. A large bedrock mortar is located in Apple Tree Camp on the southwest slope of Devil's Peak, north of the Camp Pico Blanco. More than across, the boulder contains a dozen or more deep mortar bowls worn into it over several generations. Other mortar rocks have also been found within the Pico Blanco Boy Scout camp at campsites 3 and 7, and slightly upstream from campsite 12, while a fourth is found on a large rock in the river, originally above the river, between campsites 3 and 4. Several Esselen mortars are located in boulders near Clover Basin Camp in Miller Canyon. Once ground, they cooked the acorns into a mush or baked as bread.
Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno reported,
They hunted rabbits and deer likely with bow and arrow, although no stone arrow points have been found. Arrows were made of cane and pointed with hardwood foreshafts. They traded acorns, fish, salt, baskets, hides and pelts, shells and beads with other tribes.