Esselen

The Esselen were the Native American inhabitants of what is now known as Big Sur on the Central Coast of California. There is archaeological and linguistic evidence to indicate that their territory formerly extended much further north, into the San Francisco Bay Area, until they were displaced by the entrance of Ohlone speakers some 2,500-4,500 years ago. Image File history File links Esselen_lang. ... Image File history File links Esselen_lang. ... Jump to: navigation, search Native Americans is a term which has several different common meanings and scope, according to regional use and context. ... View inland (east) from Route 1 Daily June fog in Big Sur. ... Jump to: navigation, search State nickname: The Golden State Other U.S. States Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) Senators Dianne Feinstein (D) Barbara Boxer (D) Official languages English Area 410,000 km² (3rd)  - Land 404,298 km²  - Water 20,047 km² (4. ... Jump to: navigation, search USGS Satellite photo of the San Francisco Bay Area. ... Map of the Costanoan languages The Ohlone, (formerly Costanoan), are an ethnic group whose members lived in what is now the San Francisco Bay Area and Monterey Bay areas of California until after the European discovery and settling of this area. ...

They resided in the upper Carmel and Arroyo Seco rivers, and along the Big Sur coast. There were also settlements in the coastal mountains. They lived in one of the most beautiful areas of the Pacific coast, among redwoods, plunging seacliffs and spectacular beaches. They lived off of hunting and gathering and resided in small groups with no centralized political authority. Carmel is the name of several places: Carmel, Indiana, USA Carmel, New York, USA Carmel Hamlet, New York, USA Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, USA Carmel, Western Australia, Australia Carmel features in the names of some people: John Carmel Heenan, 1905-1975, Cardinal, Archbishop of Westminster Carmel is also the...

The Esselen probably numbered about 1,185-1,285 in 1770. They were absorbed into the mision population, at Mission Carmel, and many died from disease, demoralization, poor food, and overwork. A number of people today can still trace their ancestry to the Esselen.

The Esselen is an language isolate. Very little data on this language has survived; there was one word list collected during the Mission era and John Peabody Harrington managed to collect some more data in the late 19th century. It was originally proposed to be a part of the hypothetical Hokan family, but has since been classified as an isolate. A language isolate is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical (or genetic) relationship with other living languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common to any other language. ... Jump to: navigation, search John Peabody Harrington (1884-1961) was an United States linguist and ethnologist and a specialist in the native peoples of California. ... The Hokan language family is a hypothetical grouping of a dozen small language families spoken in California and Mexico. ...

The Esalen Institute in Big Sur is named after this group. Jump to: navigation, search Esalen Institute is a center for humanistic education, a nonprofit organization devoted to multidisciplinary studies ordinarily neglected by traditional academia. ...

The definitive work on the Esselen is by Gary S. Breschini and Trudy Haversat (2004), titled "The Esselen Indians of the Big Sur Country: The Land and the People." This work is 240 pages in length, contains over 200 color photographs and 63,000 words of text. It was published by Coyote Press, Salinas, California.