Ramaytush people

The Ramaytush were one of the linguistic subdivisions of the Ohlone Native Americans of Northern California. Historically, the Ramaytush inhabited the San Francisco Peninsula between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean in the area which is now San Francisco and San Mateo Counties. The Ramaytush were not thought to be a self-conscious socio-political group. Instead they were defined by modern anthropologists and linguists, initially in the early twentieth century as the San Francisco Costanoans – the people who spoke a common dialect or language within the Costanoan branch of the Utian family. The term Ramaytush was first applied to them during the 1970s.[1]

Historically, Ramaytush language territory was largely bordered by ocean and sea, except in the south where they bordered the people of the Santa Clara Valley who spoke Tamyen Ohlone and the people of the Santa Cruz Mountains and Pacific Coast at Point Año Nuevo who spoke dialects merging toward Awaswas Ohlone. To the east, across San Francisco Bay, were tribes that spoke the Chochenyo Ohlone language. To the north, across the Golden Gate, was the Huimen local tribe of Coast Miwok speakers. The northernmost Ramaytush local tribe, the Yelamu of San Francisco, were intermarried with the Huchiun Chochenyos of the Oakland area at the time of Spanish colonization.[2]

European disease took a heavy toll of life on all tribal people who came to Mission Dolores after its creation in 1776. The Ohlone people were forced to use Spanish resulting in the loss of their language. Hundreds of Ohlone people at Mission Dolores were taken to the north bay to construct Mission San Rafael which was then used as a hospital for sick neophytes. Alfred L. Kroeber claimed that the west bay people were extinct by 1915. The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, descendants of closely related Chochenyo and Tamyen Ohlone speakers, have been vocal advocates for Native American issues on the San Francisco Peninsula, as have some Ohlone descendants from the Monterey Bay Area farther south.

Etymology

The word ramaytush is from the Chochenyo language. Ramaytush means people of the other side of the sea, from rámai, meaning to the other side of the sea and -tush, meaning people.[3]

Ramaytush tribes and villages

Ramaytush groups, for the most part independent territorial local tribes, include:[4]

The Yelamu group, probably a multi-village local tribe, with the following villages within the present City and County of San Francisco:

On San Francisco Bay, south of San Francisco:

On the Pacific Coast, south of San Francisco:

Other Villages (known as Rancherias by the Spanish) listed in San Francisco Mission De Asiss registry that are not given specific locations:[7]

Ramaytush Ohlone people

See also

Notes

  1. Levy in Heizer 1974:3
  2. Milliken 1995:260
  3. Milliken, Randall. "Appendix A. J. P. Harrington Chochenyo Interview Excerpts with Commentary" (PDF). nps. gov. Retrieved 2015.
  4. Milliken 1995
  5. San Francisco Call, January 7, 1910 – page 16
  6. Historic Resource Study for Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Mateo County, p. 26
  7. Englehardt, pg 410-11
  8. Milliken, 1995:68.
  9. 1 2 Engelhardt, 1924.
  10. Engelhardt, 1924.
  11. Muwekma website – history.
  12. Milliken 1995:120
  13. Milliken, 1995:80-81m.
  14. 1 2 Englehardt, pg 121
  15. San Francisco Call April 10, 1898
  16. 1 2 from gravestone at Mission Dolores.
  17. Milliken, 1995:206–207.
  18. San Francisco Call January 2, 1910
  19. Pomponio
  20. A History of Mission San Rafael, Archangel
  21. http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/hgfir.htm at the bottom of the page
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1842 Census
  23. 1 2 Brown, 1974

References

  • Brown, Alan K. Indians of San Mateo County, La Peninsula:Journal of the San Mateo County Historical Association, Vol. XVII No. 4, Winter 1973–1974.
  • Brown, Alan K. Place Names of San Mateo County, published San Mateo County Historical Association, 1975.
  • Fr. Engelhardt O. F. M, Zephyrin. San Francisco or Mission Dolores, Franciscan Herald Press, 1924.
  • Heizer, Robert F. 1974. The Costanoan Indians. De Anza College History Center: Cupertino, California.
  • Milliken, Randall. A Time of Little Choice: The Disintegration of Tribal Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area 1769–1910 Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press Publication, 1995. ISBN 0-87919-132-5 (alk. paper)
  • Teixeira, Lauren. The Costanoan/Ohlone Indians of the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Area, A Research Guide. Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press Publication, 1997. ISBN 0-87919-141-4.
  • 1842 Census of San Francisco
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