I am now writing Perfection and am placing here some links to information found on Ohlone Native Americans.
Main character, Elena Vienta, is half-Ohlone... her mother's family came from the Awaswas group of Ohlones. Their territory was from Aptos to about where Half Moon Bay is today.
Elena was born at Mission Santa Cruz in 1828, only six years before the missions were shut down by the Mexican government in 1834. The Mission had been under stress for many years, especially after the building of a nearby town, Villa de Branciforte, which has now been annexed into Santa Cruz. See: Santa Cruz Mission and Community History for details. This is where I wrote about Santa Cruz history after my 2011 trip to Santa Cruz to do novel research at the mission site and downtown library.
Elena's ancestors were from the town of Chatu-mu, a site now covered by the town of Santa Cruz. In the book I am writing that it was downriver from the Mission and Villa de Branciforte. The river is known as the San Lorenzo River, and I don't know what the Awaswas Ohlone name for it was.
Articles used to research for this novel:
"A Well Looking, Affable People... ": The Ohlone of Aulintak/Santa Cruz - by MaryEllen Ryan
The Ohlone People - Wikipedia
List of Ohlone Villages - Wikipedia
Awaswas Ohlone People - Wikipedia
Santa Cruz Spirituality: Communal - by Paul Tutwiler (Elena was in a fictional early commune near what we now call Pescadero.)
Santa Cruz Spirituality: Ohlone - by Paul Tutwiler
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