Summer 2024

ESSELEN WOMEN A Growing Voice Among the Monterey Peninsula’s Fir st People B Y AME L I A WARD F OR 10,000 YEARS , THE E SSELEN PEOPLE HAVE LIVED HERE . A T ONE TIME , THEIR LANDS ENCOMPASSED AN AREA EXTENDING FROM THE S AN F RANCISCO B AY AREA DOWN TO L OPEZ P OINT , SOUTH OF B IG S UR . B UT BY THE TIME OF COLONIZATION , THEIR LANDS HAD DWINDLED ( DUE TO PRESSURE FROM P ENUTIAN SPEAKING TRIBES ), TO A COASTAL AREA STRETCHING FORTY MILES FROM THE C ARMEL M ISSION DOWN THE B IG S UR COAST AND INTO THE S ANTA L UCIA M OUNTAINS . T HEY LIVED IN SMALL FAMILY GROUPS AND , AS HUNTER - GATHERERS , THEY MOVED SEASONALLY TO FOLLOW FOOD SOURCES , LIV - ING BOTH ON THE COAST AND IN THE MOUNTAINS . T HE E SSELEN LANGUAGE , A H OKAN TYPE , IS IN THE FAMILY OF LANGUAGES SPOKEN BY N ATIVES INDIGENOUS TO CERTAIN PARTS OF C ALIFORNIA AND REGIONS SURROUNDING THE LOWER C OLORADO R IVER . M ISSION E RA T HE E SSELEN T RIBE WAS ALWAYS SMALL , BUT MISSION LIFE NEARLY DECIMATED THEIR POPULATION . J UNIPERO S ERRA ESTABLISHED M ISSION S AN C ARLOS B ORROMÉO DE C ARMELO IN 1770 AND M ISSION S AN A NTONIO DE P ADUA IN 1771, GATHERING THE E SSELEN AND OTHER LOCAL TRIBES TO LIVE AND LABOR AT THE M ISSIONS . (E SSELEN WERE ALSO LATER TAKEN TO M ISSION N UESTRA S EÑORA DE LA S OLEDAD , WHICH WAS FOUNDED IN 1791.) T HE S PANIARDS INTRODUCED DISEASES FOR WHICH THE N ATIVES HAD NO DEFENSES AND THE HARSH LIVING CONDITIONS OF MISSION LIFE RESULTED IN HIGH INFANT AND CHILD MORTALITY RATES . B Y THE EARLY 1800 S IT IS ESTIMATED THAT 90% OF THE E SSELEN HAD PERISHED — ONLY 100 KNOWN MEMBERS SURVIVED . 168 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R 2 0 2 4