Ramaytush
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| Ramaytush (San Francisco) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in | United States (California) | |
| Total speakers | extinct | |
| Language family | Penutian | |
| Writing system | Latin alphabet | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1 | - | |
| ISO 639-2 | nai | |
| ISO 639-3 | cst | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
The Ramaytush are 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 virtually 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 northermost 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]
No known descendants of Ramaytush-speaking groups are active in Native American cultural or political activities today. 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.
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[edit] Ramaytush tribes and villages
Ramaytush groups, for the most part independent territorial local tribes, include[3]:
The Yelamu group, probably a multi-village local tribe, with the following villages within the present City and County of San Francisco:
- Sitlintac and Chutchui - on Mission Creek, the latter in the vicinity of Mission Dolores.
- Amuctac and Tubsinte - in Visitation Valley.
- Petlenuc - near the San Francisco Presidio.
On San Francisco Bay, south of San Francisco:
- Urebure - San Bruno Creek near San Bruno Mountain.
- Shalson (spelled Ssalson by Spanish missionaries) along San Mateo Creek and in the contiguous San Andreas Valley (present-day San Mateo). Their permanent or semi-permanent villages included:
- Aleitac - along San Mateo Creek in San Andreas Valley.
- Altahmo - (also spelled Altagmu) - along San Mateo Creek, in San Mateo or in the San Andreas Valley.
- Uturbe - along San Mateo Creek, probably in San Mateo, less likely in the San Andreas Valley.
- Lamchin - Las Pulgas Creek in present Redwood City and to the west on upper Union Creek.
- Puichon - lower San Francisquito Creek and nearby areas (present-day Cities of Palo Alto and Mountain View).
On the Pacific Coast, south of San Francisco:
- Aramai - coastal valleys just south of San Francisco. Its constituent villages were:
- Timigtac on Calera Creek in modern day Pacifica.
- Pruristac on San Pedro Creek in modern day Pacifica.
- Chiguan - Princeton Point and Half Moon Bay.
- Cotegen - Tunitas Creek and adjoining areas south of Half Moon Bay.
- Oljon - Lower San Gregorio and Pescadero creeks, north of Point Ano Nuevo.
[edit] Notable Ramaytush Ohlone people
- 1777 – Chamis of the village Chutchui. On 24 June 1777, at age 20 he became the first neophyte to join the Mission San Francisco.[4]
- 1777 – Xigmacse, A Yelamu chief, at the time of the establishment of the Mission San Francisco.[5]
- 1779 – Charquín, given the baptismal name of Francisco in the same year, appears to have been the leader of the first band of runaways in 1789. Exiled to San Diego, he died there in the spring of 1798.[6]
- 1783 – Mossués, captain of the village Pruristac, baptized in 1783[7]
- 1807 – Hilarion and George (their baptismal names) were two Ohlone men from the village Pruristac who served as alcaldes (mayors) of the Mission San Francisco in 1807. As such, they were at the beginning of a long line of Mayors of San Francisco.[8]
- 1893 – Pedro Evencio has been called the last (Ramaytush) Native American of San Mateo. His son José Evencio lived at Coyote Point until World War II; final whereabouts are unknown.[9]
- 1950s – Andrés Osorio, of Half Moon Bay, said to be the area's last "Indian", possibly Tulare or Mexican.[10]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
[edit] 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.
- 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.
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