Description
There were probably as many as 21 Salinan villages in the extending just south of Mission La Soledad to the north of San Luis Obispo. The Salinans had good trade relations with the Yokuts of the Central Valley, but with their closer Ohlone neighbors there seems to have been a good deal of hostility. Today, many Salinan people still live in the area of their ancestors, Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties, and are active in the local mission communities, especially those of San Antonio de Padua and San Miguel. When European settlers arrived on the southern Big Sur coast in the 1880s, they found some native people living on Mill Creek south of the present-day Nacimiento-Fergusson Road.
Language
Salinan
Culture
Salinans were Hunter-gatherers and, like most other California tribes, were organized in small groups with little centralized political structure. The Salinan practiced "agriculture" by burning off the brush under the oak trees to expose the ground where the acorns fell in the autumn. Often favorite medicinal herbs and food plants were transplanted to the village sites to be conveniently near when needed. Today these plants, such as the elderberry, can still be found growing near old middens and village sites, testifying to the efforts of the ancient people. Their main diet during the summer consisted of fish and shell fish.