Costanoan Rumsen Carmel Tribe

The Costanoan Rumsen Ohlone Tribe are the indigenous people of the Cental California Coastal area and existed peacefully in this region for thousands of years before Spanish Missionaries arrived in the 1760’s. After years of enslavement under the Spanish missionary system the Tribe was forced into exile to avoid violent persecution by settlers and California State sponsored racist policies toward Native Americans. The Costanoan Rumsen tribe moved to Southern California and found work on the ranchos in 1864.

With ancestral lands ranging from San Francisco Bay to Big Sur and numbering at least 15,000 before European contact, the Ohlone people have been largely written out of historical accounts of California and erroneously recorded as extinct. Today the Costanoan Rumsen Tribe has over 2,000 members, with Tribal offices located in downtown Pomona, and are emerging to reclaim their cultural practice, language, and ancestral lands to the north, while letting others know of their continued existence, concern for the environment, and the desire for unity amongst all peoples.