Esselen

Esselen

Esselen native c. 1791, by José Cardero
Total population
(Pre-contact c. 1700, est. 500-1200; As of 2003, about 460)
Regions with significant populations
Central Coast and Northern California
Languages
Esselen, English, and Spanish
Religion
Catholic, traditional tribal religion
Related ethnic groups
Rumsen, Ohlone, and Salinan

The Esselen are a Native American people belonging to a linguistic group in the hypothetical Hokan language family, who were indigenous in the Santa Lucia Mountains of the region now known as Big Sur in Monterey County, California. 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. Experts estimate there were about 500 to 1200 individuals living in the steep, rocky region at the time of the arrival of the Spanish.

During the mission period of California history, Esselen children were baptized by the priests and at a certain age forcibly removed from their village and parents. Adult members of the Esselen tribe were forcibly conscripted and made 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 by disease, starvation, over work, and torture.

Historically, they were one of the smallest Native American populations in California and due to their proximity to three Spanish Missions they were likely one of the first whose culture was severely repressed as a result of European contact and domination. They were assumed to have been exterminated but some tribal members avoided the mission life 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.

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 (archeological site CA-MNT-88).