February 2018 - The Salinan Indians

This month we share some information taken from writings  by Louisiana Dart about Salinan Indians, the early inhabitants of this area.

According to several  articles in the  SLO Tribune, Louisiana Clayton Dart was an energetic booster of what was then called the San Luis Obispo Historical Society.  She was a popular storyteller and  wrote a number of books about area  history.  She  became curator for the SLO Historical Society and was at the helm for 24 years.  She died in 1995 at the age of 93..

Read more here: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/photos-from-the-vault/article57375908.html#storylink=cpy

Mrs. Dart was the writer of “Vignettes of History In San Luis Obispo  County”, which has some interesting information about the county, including the  Missions and the Indians. (cited in this document)
The inside cover of the book lists a copyright by Louisiana Clayton Dart, 1978, San Luis Obispo.  (published about the time the Friends of Adobes in San Miguel completed restoration of the Rios Caledonia) It also indicates that the soft cover book is “a collection of scripts written for a radio program.” She notes that it is ” through the generosity of Mission Federal Savings, she presents some of them with historic photographs.  The style of the writing is in the vernacular used for radio.”
 As you view some of the excerpts here you will notice that some details differ from those by other sources, which I’m finding typical of historical writings, but the writing style and information is interesting and worthwhile.
Hope you enjoy it,  If you want to read more, you can find a copy to read at the Rios Caledonia Library and I did notice some copies are available online, for a price.

Mrs. Dart talks about the Salinan Indians:

“The Salinan Indians were given their name by the White Man.  No one actually knew their real Indian tribal name and so historians called them the Salinans because they lived in that area drained by the Salinas River.”

“In 1602, Vizcaino saw a few Salinans on tule rafts.  These primitive rafts greatly resembled the tule rafts used today  by the Indians of Bolivia on Lake Titicaca.”
“But it was not until 1769 when Portola passed through our county and into Monterey County on his famous land  expedition, that the group was discovered and noted by the White Man.  They saw 10 different towns or settlements with a population of 30 to 400 each.  Portola numbers the Salinans seen by his party as 1200.”
“According to Kroeber,  the Salinan Indians were completely omnivorous.  They ate fish, reptiles, birds, and mammals (except skunks and coyotes understandably).  Their diet was enriched with six kinds of acorns, three of grasses, three of clover, six kinds of berries, and two of pine nuts.  They ate wild oats, buckeye , sunflower, chia, and sages.  They ate wild grapes, prickly pear, yucca, and brodiaea bulbs.  The latter are the bulbs of the lovely hyacinth blue wild flower we look forward to in spring --but not as food.  The Salinans, like the Chumash, raised no crops as the wealth of early California plant life furnished them with an abundant diet.”  (p.5)

“These California Indians were closest to their neighbors, the Yokuts on the east.   The  Costanoans, to the north, were their enemies.  They were indifferent to the Chumash.”

 “The Salinans cremated their dead and so the historians and archeologists lament today that few artifacts are found as their possession were generally burned with them.”
“The baskets of the Salinans were similar to those of the Yokuts in both material and technique.  They were not as fine as the Chumash.  We know the names of three of their dances--The Huksui, by a feather covered performer, the Hiwei, by men and the Lolei, by women.  They believed in medicine men almost as a religion.”
“Their music was unattractive to our ears.  The main instrument was a musical rasp --two notched sticks rubbed against each other and producing, to us, a grating sound.”
 “Mission San Miguel Arcangel reports an amazing custom of usury among the Salinans and that is that they loaned one another shell money at 100% interest per day!”
“ Tragically for the Salinans, four generations of contact with early Spanish civilization practically extinguished them.  In 1923 only 40 remained.  
These people are all gone now, but the beautiful Missions which they supplied the labor for are among two of our finest --San Miguel Arcangel and San Antonio de Padua.”

“MISSION SAN MIGUEL.   Founded July 25, 1797, by Padres Lasuen and Sitjar.  The lands of this mission extended from the Tulares on the east, to the sea on the west and from the north boundary of the San Luis Obispo district to the south line of  San Antonio.  It had its workshops and little factories where the good Padres taught the Indians the useful arts.  Its property was confiscated in 1836 and sold at auction in 1846.  The courts subsequently declared the sale invalid.”

”MISSION SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA.  Between King City and Jolon.  “In a beautiful oak-studded glen, in the center of the Sierra Santa Lucia, its bell was hung over the branches of an oak,” and the mission founded by Junipero Serra July 14, 1771.  Once prosperous with its herds of cattle, flocks of sheep and little work shops--now alone, deserted, decaying and falling away.  Even the shrubbery, no longer touched by gentle hands, seems withered and brown.”