Salinan
consisted of two divisions,Northern (Antoniano) and Southern (Migueleno). A third division, extreme Coastal, may also have existed.
Location The people traditionally lived along the south-central California coast, inland to the mountains. Today’s Salinan descendants live mainly in the Salinas Valley between Monterey and Paso Robles.
Population Roughly 3,000 in the late eighteenth century, the contemporary population consists of hundreds of Salinan descendants.
Language Salinan was a Hokan language.
Historical Information
History Little is known about Salinan prehistory. In 1771 the Spanish constructed San Antonia de Padua, the first mission in Salinan territory. By 1790 this was the largest mission in California. Mission San Miguel followed in 1797 and also expanded rapidly. The northern division of Salinans became associated with the former mission; the southern with the latter mission.
Under some pressure, most Salinans abandoned their aboriginal customs and became acculturated to mission life. After 1834 and the secularization of the missions, the Salinan experienced a rapid depopulation, primarily as a result of intermarriage and assimilation. Survivors either worked on the large rancheros or else remained in their original homeland as small-scale ranchers and hunters and gatherers. By the 1880s, most of the few remaining Salinan worked on the large cattle ranches that overspread the area, retaining a memory of their Indian heritage as well as close contact with each other. Until the 1930s there was a Salinan community not far from Mission San Antonia known as The Indians.
Religion The Salinan offered prayer to the golden eagle, the sun, and the moon. Shamans controlled the weather. Souls went to a western land of the dead. Initiation into religious societies was important, probably within the context of the Kuksu and/or the toloache cults.
Government Salinan political organization by tribelet was typical of California Indians.
Customs Clans as well as a Deer-Bear ceremonial division may have existed in aboriginal times. Although generosity with property was considered a virtue, loans of currency came with high rates of interest. Girls did not undergo a formal puberty ceremony. The boys’ puberty ceremony involved the use of datura. (Datura was also used for pain relief.) Although the Salinan observed no formal marriage ceremony, marriage was formalized by gift giving and other customs. Divorce was relatively easy to obtain. The dead were cremated. The people played the bone game, shinny, ball races, games of strength, and possibly hoop-and-pole games. Shamans cured. They also poisoned and specialized in black magic. Medical treatments included bleeding, scarification, herbs, and sweat baths.
Dwellings Houses were domes, about 10 feet square, with a pole framework covered with tule or rye grass. Other buildings included communal structures and dance houses.
Diet Acorns were the staple food. The people also gathered wild oats, sage seeds, berries, mescal, and wild fruits. They hunted deer, bear, and rabbit, and they fished. They ate snakes, lizards, and frogs but not skunks.
Key Technology Both coiled and twined baskets were used for a number of purposes. Stone tools included scrapers, choppers, points, mortars, pestles, and bowls. Bone and shell tools included awls, wedges, and fish hooks. Wooden tools included mortars, combs, and spoons. Musical instruments included cocoon rattles, elderwood rattles and flutes, musical bows, rasps, bone whistles, and drums. The Salinan also had calendars, numerical and measuring systems, and some knowledge of astronomy. They cooked basket-leached acorn meal in an earth oven.
Trade Salinans and Yokuts enjoyed friendly relations, including visiting, mutual use of resources, and trade. The former traded beads and unworked shells for salt-grass salt, seeds, obsidian, lake fish, and possibly tanned hides. They also traded with other groups for wooden dishes, steatite vessels, and ornaments. Trade competition for the inland market for shells led to much enmity, particularly with the Costanoan. Beads of mussel and shell formed the basis of a local currency.
Notable Arts Pictographs, mostly angles, with some people and animals, appeared from about 1000 to 1600. Baskets were produced in aboriginal times.
Transportation Baskets were used to transport goods.
Dress Men wore few or no clothes. Women wore tule aprons, cloaks of rabbit or otter skin, and basket hats. Both sexes painted and possibly tattooed their bodies and wore abalone shell earrings.
War and Weapons Frequent combatants included Chumash and Costanoan Indians. Allies included the Yokuts. Salinans fought with sinew-backed bows and cane arrows.
Contemporary Information
Government/Reservations The Salinans have neither tribal land nor a formal organization. Most Salinan descendants live in the Salinas Valley between Monterey and Paso Robles.
Economy Salinan descendants work as ranchers and in the local economy.
Legal Status The Salinan Nation had not received federal recognition as of 1997.
Daily Life An informal network keeps Salinan identity alive. In recent years there has been a renewed interest in heritage and traditional culture.
