Ohlone is not the name of one tribe. It is a term covering more than 50 independent landholding groups who spoke eight distinct languages and did not see themselves as a single people.
This section covers those peoples, the territory they lived in, and the records that survive. It is written to point you toward community sources rather than to stand in for them.
Who the term covers
The peoples grouped under this name lived along the Northern California coast, from San Francisco Bay through Monterey Bay to the lower Salinas Valley, and inland to the Diablo Range.
Eight regional language divisions are documented: Karkin, Chochenyo, Ramaytush, Tamyen, Awaswas, Mutsun, Rumsen and Chalon (Ohlone).
On the names
“Costanoan” comes from the Spanish costeno, meaning coast dweller. “Ohlone” likely derives from a Spanish rancho name and has been used more widely since the 1960s.
Neither name is universally accepted. Some people continue to use Costanoan, and others identify by their specific nation, such as Muwekma, Ramaytush or Tamien. Where a group’s own name is known, use it.
A constraint that shapes everything here
No Ohlone group currently holds federal recognition. Several are organized and actively petitioning, including the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, the Tamien Nation, the Amah Mutsun and the Ohlone/Costanoan Esselen Nation.
This matters for teaching because it affects whose account gets treated as official. Absence of federal recognition is a legal and political status. It is not evidence about history, continuity or identity, and students should be told the difference.
How to use this section
Start with the learning resources page, which points to community sources. Then see Native San Francisco . The learning resources page also holds the Lake Merced canoe record. For related topics, see social studies.
Where a page here describes something we could not verify or could not illustrate, it says so on the page. We would rather name a gap than fill it with a guess.