We ended the week with a trip to Coyote Hills Regional Park to visit the Tuibun Ohlone Village site. After talking about shelters and natural resources for some time, it was great to go out and walk through the marshes and see what the Ohlone people may have seen long ago.
Dino, our naturalist, first led us into the education room where we examined a large diorama of an Ohlone village. They lived near a water source and got food and water from it. The diorama also had cutaways of the inside of tule huts to show that the Ohlone used tule as a mattress and woven rabbit furs as additional bedding/blankets. Sun shades were put up for protection from the sun while the Ohlone did the majority of their work outside preparing food, weaving baskets, creating clothes, making weapons.
We then made our way outside to see what an Ohlone hut of tule would have looked like. Using willow branches as a frame, tule mats were woven and laid across the frame to create a shelter. He said that they only slept and stored things in their huts. All of the cooking, cleaning, and other daily work was done outside. We each had a turn to go inside this recreated shelter. This shelter was made by a few boy scouts.
Dino showed us how the Ohlone used wild lilac as soap! Taking the blossom, you rub your hands together and crush it, and the saponin it contains produces a lather! He told us it didn’t smell like lilac, but it had the effect of soap!
We made our way to the Tuibun Ohlone Village site. Along the way, Dino pointed out tule, marsh wrens, coots (mud hens), egrets, ducks, and geese. We even saw a turkey vulture when we arrived at the village site!
At the village site, Dino explained that it used to be an archeological site. Any remains that were found there were reburied according to the Ohlone traditions at the Ohlone Cemetary in Fremont. A recreated sweat lodge was made that kids could enter and sit in. It had a very low entrance and it was very close inside. Hot rocks were placed in the center. Men would tell stories and repair weapons in preparation for the hunt. Only men could hunt because of their belief that life givers, women, could not also be life takers. To prepare themselves, Ohlone men needed to get rid of their scent by sweating it out. There used to be a stream that ran along the sweat lodge, but it has since been redirected.
We also had a chance to sit in a recreated chief’s house. It was a larger structure that allowed for many to enter and sit/stand comfortably. Dino explained that the chief could be either male or female and that this responsibility would be passed down.
Before leaving the site, Dino showed us how the Ohlone would often trim the willow tree down so that straight new shoots would grow. He demonstrated a technique that elders passed down from generation to generation of how to strip willow branches to ready them for basket making. We also looked at oyster and snail shells that were left behind from long ago and thought about those who came before us.
Back at the visitor center, Dino spoke more about the Ohlone way of life. The different clothes that men and women wore, and how they would hunt and gather their food. We also had some time to spend in the exhibition hall, looking at different dioramas of animals from different ecosystems.
Looking forward to short, rainy week with the Temescalians, and meeting with you during conferences on Thursday and Friday!
Also, we’ll be celebrating Pi Day on Monday, 3/14! Please bring in a pie if you’d like!
