Selected by the San Francisco Chronicle’s as one of the top 100 western nonfiction books of the twentieth century.
“Beautifully imagined and written.”—Alice Walker
One of the most ground-breaking and highly-acclaimed titles that Heyday has published, The Ohlone Way describes the culture of the Indian people who inhabited Bay Area prior to the arrival of Europeans. With clear and accessible writing that is spirited and at the same time informed, Malcolm Margolin vividly recreates the Ohlones’ lost world. From his unique vantage point as a “friend of the family,” he updates this classic text with a new preface that tells stories of the Ohlones’ continued endurance and resurgence.
Nonfiction. Two hundred years ago herds of elk and antelope dotted the hills of the San Francisco-Monterey Bay area. Grizzly bears lumbered down to the creeks to fish for salmon and steelhead trout. From the vast marshlands, geese, ducks, and other birds rose in thick clouds "with a sound like that of a hurricane." This land of "inexpressible fertility," as one early explorer described it, supported one of the densest Indian populations in all of North America. Clearly and accessibly written, uniquely alive and at the same time informed, this well-loved classic vividly recreates the lost world of the Indian people who lived here such a short time ago.
