The Resurrection of the Esselen Tribe

One example of what needs to be made right

A few years ago brother Rob wanted to do a documentary around Big Sur. The people, the jade hunting, and the scenery were an obvious focus. It didn’t work out as he thought.

The people Rob thought deserved to be showcased had displayed some of the questionable human traits you find anywhere. It wasn’t the pioneering spirit and idealistic adventure he envisioned.

His documentary stalled for a bit, before his RMFL family suggested his documentary could be a personal introspective. Deep Sur, the Battle of Conscientiousness was of mental pains and tribulations helped healed by the essence and nature of Big Sur.

In those many production trips into the Los Padres Forest and Santa Lucia Mountains, something was felt. It could be ghosts or orbs or spirits. It could be just the cold chill air. It could have been the incredible starry nights. Or all of the above. It all became that much more of a selfless endeavor.

In many of these areas are reminders and remnants of various Indian tribes. These are the original Americans and the people who lived simply to be in harmony with one another and this Earth for thousands of years.

Until the righteous oppressors invoked their cloak of colonialism upon these people to decimate them and annihilate them, almost completely.

This holocaust is undisputed, as there are only one set of facts and history here that after 250 years some form of reparations, formal apologies, and public respect is starting to come to be.

It is a morbid example of what has happened to nearly all peoples and cultures of color by the over-righteous oppressors. The vision of “privilege” still negatively affects many today and is still embedded in many, consciously and unconsciously.

In this small list below are the Indian tribes around Big Sur and the U.S. who never gave up and still live on to respect and honor their ancient existence with the spirit that threads through them today and forever.

Resource links:

The Esselen Tribe of Big Sur regain their ancestral lands

A history brief on the Esselen Tribe

The Wiyot people get back their center of the universe

The Kashia, the Ohlone, the Pit River tribe, and more

The Wyandottes will get their land back from the U.S.

The Slaughter at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota

The lost reverence and generational trauma of the Native American women today - 37 minute podcast