"What Must It Have Been Like!": Critical Considerations of Precontact Ohlone Cosmology as Interpreted through Central California Ethnohistory

Abstract

In the summer months of 1992, an archaeological excavation took place south of San José, California, under the direction of Ohlone Families Consulting Services (OFCS), the archaeological consulting firm of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe. Members of the tribe unearthed the skeletal and artifactual remains of their ancestors, which were buried in two separate cemeteries that have been dated to 3000 and 1500 B.P., respectively. The Muwekma called the site (CA-SCL-732) Kaphan Unux or Three Wolves site, because the remains of three wolves, in addition to a number of other animal remains, were ritually interred among the human burials. 1