F I R S TP R E V332NEXTLAST

Teepee Frame, Bolinas Beach
The first residents of the Bay Area were four distinct tribes: the Coastal Miwoks, the Wintun, the Yohuts, and the Ohlone. Isolated from outside influence, they had no knowledge of metals and were hunter-gatherers who did not engage in agriculture. Any motivation to develop was stifled by the area's rich abundance of fish, shellfish, fowl, game, and edible plants, acorns being a staple of their diet. This abundance of food also meant that warfare was virtually non-existent as there was plenty for everyone. Their weapons were developed for hunting and not for war. A placid people, they lacked the ferocity of Plains Indians such as the Comanche or Sioux. Only sixty years after the discovery of gold, confrontations with white settlers and European diseases completely wiped out the Bay Area Native American tribes, the last contact with a "wild" Californian was recorded in 1911.
[ MAP J-8 ]