The Ohlone Way

Indian Life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area

By: Malcolm Margolin

Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett

The culture of the Indian people who inhabited the Bay Area prior to the arrival of Europeans

Two hundred years ago, herds of elk and antelope dotted the hills of the San Francisco-Monterey Bay area. Grizzly bears lumbered down to the creeks to fish for silver salmon and steelhead trout. From vast marshlands geese, ducks, and other birds rose in thick clouds “with a sound like that of a hurricane”. This land of “inexpressible fertility", as one early explorer described it, supported one of the densest Indian populations in all of North America.

One of the most groundbreaking and highly acclaimed titles that Heyday has published, The Ohlone Way describes the culture of the Indian people who inhabited the Bay Area prior to the arrival of Europeans. Recently included in the San Francisco Chronicle’s “Top 100 Western Non-Fiction” list, The Ohlone Way has been described by critic Pat Holt as a “mini-classic”.

Reviews

“A beautiful book, written and illustrated with a genuine sympathy....A serious and compelling re-creation.” (The Pacific Sun)

“Remarkable insight in to the lives of the Ohlone Indians.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

“Margolin conveys the texture of daily life, birth, marriage, death, war, the arts, and rituals, and he also discusses the brief history of the Ohlones under the Spanish, Mexican, and American regimes...Margolin does not give way to romanticism or political harangues, and the illustrations have a gritty quality that is preferable to the dreamy, pretty pictures that too often accompany texts like this.” (Choice)

©1978 Malcolm Margolin (P)2020 Audible, Inc.

A Must Have Book and Audiobook

The understanding of an almost lost information on the Bay Area (San Francisco and Monterey) Indian people and culture. Please read 📚 for your information and educational value.

Great book

Loved this book. Finally got to learn about native Americans of the Bay Area. I recommend!

Quality Audiobook

This is a must-listen if you are interested in the Native American experience in the Western United States (or just interested in a great listen all-around). The narrator is fantastic and really owns the material. The settings set forth in this book are detailed and the minutia are well explained. It's almost like I'm there, with the Ohlone people in their villages.

Worth reading if you want to know history of California

Very interesting story about original peoples of California. Learned a lot about their culture and history and beliefs

Will be rereading this book for years

I bought the book and audio versions. Every person should learn the ecologies, lifeways languages, and spirituality of the people who lived on the land before them and learn about this this relationship more

Racially biased outdated BS

If you want to hear a white guy from Massachusetts’s 1970s fairy tale version of indigenous life, based on a bunch of racist, biased colonialist and settler narratives from the 1800s, then this is the book for you.

If you want to learn about pre-colonist indigenous life in California, look elsewhere. Like, to indigenous authors. Or people with any academic training in the field whatsoever.

I’m sure this is what passed for woke in 1978 in Berkeley, but Audible should be ashamed of themselves for perpetuating this trash and trying to paint it as truth almost a half century later. If I could I could give the story negative stars, I would.