The Alum Rock Park: A Part of Native American History

Who would know that joining my 3rd grade son's field trip to a simple park would mean discovering an interesting place that played an important role in the city of San Jose and in a Native American tribe's history?

The Alum Rock Park was the first municipal park in California. Founded in 1872, it is located at the east of San Jose. It has ridge trails that boast of a wonderful view of the Santa Clara Valley, and a canyon on which the park itself is cradled.

Bikers and hikers frequent the place. It is not your ordinary park of flat, wide grass that allows simple walking, running, and other sports. The plants you see are not found in other parks. It has poison oaks, sagebrush, some live oak trees and sycamores. The park is also home to a wide variety of birds, deer, bobcats and occasional mountain lions.

Originally known as "the reservation", people thought that the huge rock near the entrance contained alum. Thus, the change in its name.

The canyon used to have mineral springs. People flocked to the place because of a natatorium, which was a huge, indoor heated swimming pool. Many felt that its water was beneficial to their health. Mineral baths, restaurants and buildings were built. Because of the large amount of visitors, an electric train brought the people to the park to enjoy these wonderful amenities.

But because of overuse, the springs became extinct. The ones left produce very little water to this day.

Despite the huge change, the Alum Rock Park is still a must-see. An interesting part of the park is the Youth Science Institute, found in its belly-button. They have an able staff and volunteers who give lectures and tours to students and guests. A huge part of their talk would focus on a certain group of Native Americans, the Ohlone, who resided in this place once upon a time.

The Ohlone are also known as the Costanoan or Muwekma. They lived in Northern California that included San Francisco, the Santa Clara Valley, the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Monterey Bay area, the Alameda County, Contra Costa County and Salinas Valley.

The Ohlone were harvesters and lived mostly on crushed acorns, grass seeds and berries. They used deer skin as part of their own clothing.

Since they chose to reside in this area where water has always been abundant, it seems logical that they included fish and other seafood in their diet. They made ornaments and accessories from shells and bones of fish and seafood.

Of course, the houses of the Ohlone people were not preserved anymore. But back then, they lived in conical houses made of the bark of trees. But those who lived along the bay shore and valleys lived in dome-shaped houses made of woven or bundled mats.

The Ohlone lived simple lives when they kept to themselves. They were then tried to be Christianized sometime in the mid 1700's when the Spanish soldiers and missionaries came from Southern California. In 1794 to 1795 there was a huge group of Bay Area Native Americans who were baptized and moved to Mission Santa Clara and Mission San Francisco. It led to a big migration that eventually caused food shortages and the worst epidemic.

Thereafter, the population of this tribe suffered due to death and cultural shock. There was a very high infant mortality rate also. They did not also know where to live because there were many disputes over their lands. By the early 1880s the northern Ohlone were almost extinct and the southern Ohlone had been displaced from their land.

Today, there are still a few Ohlone tribes that exist and are petitioning for tribal recognition. These tribes are the Mutsun of Hollister and Watsonville, and the Muwekma Ohlone tribe of the San Francisco Bay area.