{{Short description|Native American people of the Santa Clara Valley in Northern California}} {{Infobox ethnic group | group = Tamien | native_name = | native_name_lang = | languages = Tamyen (Santa Clara Costanoan) | religions = Kuksu, Ohlone mythology | related_groups = | regions = Santa Clara Valley, California | image = Tamyen map-01.svg | image_caption = Map of historical Tamien territory }} thumb|Lope Inigo, a Tamien man who lived at Mission Santa Clara de Asís<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SYxvDwAAQBAJ&q=Lope+Inigo+tamyen&pg=PT13|title=Historic Bay Area Visionaries|last=Chapman|first=Robin|date=2018-10-15|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=9781439665503|language=en}}</ref> [[File:Mission Santa Clara de Asís (1849; oil on canvas).jpg|thumb|Mission Santa Clara de Asís (1849; oil on canvas)]]

The '''Tamien people''' (also spelled '''Tamyen''', '''Thamien,''' or '''Thámien''') are one of eight linguistic divisions of the Ohlone people, who are groups of Native Americans who live in Northern California.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tamyen |url=https://cla.berkeley.edu/languages/tamyen.html |access-date=2024-11-22 |website=California Language Archive |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Keane |first=Monica |title=Research Guides: The Ohlone in Santa Clara: Home |url=https://libguides.scu.edu/c.php?g=1018983&p=7380788 |access-date=2025-10-21 |website=libguides.scu.edu |language=en}}</ref> The Tamien traditionally lived throughout the Santa Clara Valley.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-06-20 |title=San Jose pre history|url=https://www.sanjosehistory.org/pre-history/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131106141953/https://www.sanjosehistory.org/pre-history/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2013-11-06 |access-date=6 November 2013 |language=en-US}}</ref> The use of the name Tamien is on record as early as 1777; it comes from the Ohlone name for the location of the first Mission Santa Clara (Mission Santa Clara de Thamien) on the Guadalupe River.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CHL No. 250 Mission Santa Clara de Asis and Old Spanish Bridge Site - Santa Clara |url=https://www.californiahistoricallandmarks.com/landmarks/chl-250|access-date=2025-02-13 |website=California Historical Landmarks |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Historical Information - Mission Santa Clara de Asís - Santa Clara University |url=https://www.scu.edu/missionchurch/historical-information/ |access-date=2025-10-21 |website=www.scu.edu}}</ref> Father Padres Tomás de la Peña mentioned in a letter to Junipero Serra that the area around the mission was called ''Thamien'' by the native people.<ref>Kroeber, Alfred L. 1925. ''Handbook of the Indians of California''. Washington, D.C: ''Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin'' No. 78. (map of villages, page 465)</ref><ref>Hylkema, Mark. ''Archaeological Investigations at the Third Location of Mission Santa Clara De Assis: The Murguia Mission 1781-1818,'' 1995. Caltrans Report (CA-SCL-30/H) (page 20)</ref> The missionary fathers erected the mission on January 17, 1777, at the native village of So-co-is-u-ka.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Santa Clara |url=https://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21522 |access-date=2024-11-22 |website=California State Parks |language=en}}</ref>

==Language== Traditionally, the Tamien people spoke the Tamyen language, a Northern Ohlone language, which ceased to be spoken since possibly the early 19th century. "Tamyen", also called ''Santa Clara Costanoan'', has been extended to mean the Native people of Santa Clara Valley, as well as the language they spoke. Tamyen is listed as one of eight Costanoan language dialects in the Utian family, although the cogency of the Utian language grouping (combining Miwokan with Ohlone) is contested.<ref>Randall Milliken, Laurence H. Shoup, and Beverly R. Ortiz, "Ohlone/Costanoan Indians of the San Francisco Peninsula and their Neighbors, Yesterday and Today" (2009), Chapter 2 Native Languages of West-Central California, https://www.nps.gov/goga/learn/historyculture/upload/chapter-2.pdf</ref> Tamyen was the primary language of the Native people living at the first and second Mission Santa Clara (both founded in 1777). Linguistically, it is thought that Chochenyo, Tamyen, and Ramaytush are dialects of a single language. This is not to imply, however, that Chochenyo, Tamien, and Ramaytush people ever belonged to a single unified tribe.<ref>{{Cite web | title=Native Americans of the San Francisco Bay Area (Part 2): Ohlone Culture - Early California Resource Center | url=https://www.californiafrontier.net/ohlone-tribe-culture/ | access-date=2025-08-01 | website=www.californiafrontier.net}}</ref>

==Territory== Tamien territory extends over most of the present day Santa Clara County, California, and was bordered by communities that spoke other Ohlone languages: Ramaytush to the northwest on the San Francisco Peninsula, Chochenyo, East Bay, Mutsun, south of San Martin, and the Awaswas to the southwest.

==Tribes and villages== The ''Tamyen'' (''Tamien, Thamien'') people are associated with the original site of Mission Santa Clara (Mission Santa Clara de Thamien) on the Guadalupe River, 1777. The entire Santa Clara Valley was populated with dozens of Tamyen-speaking villages, several on Coyote Creek.

==Politics and tribal controversy== In 1925, Alfred Kroeber, then director of the Hearst Museum of Anthropology, declared the Ohlone extinct, which directly led to the historic Verona Band of Alameda County (whose lineal descendants established the unrecognized Muwekma Ohlone Tribe) losing federal recognition and land rights.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Brown |first=Patricia Leigh |date=2022-12-11 |title=Indigenous Founders of a Museum Cafe Put Repatriation on the Menu |language=en |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/11/arts/design/hearst-museum-ohlone-cafe-repatriate-medina.html |access-date=2023-08-13}}</ref> Land claims made by the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe have caused great confusion about which entity represents Tamien people. While Muwekma claims to be "{{sic|comprised |hide=y|of}} all known surviving American Indian lineages aboriginal to the San Francisco Bay region who trace their ancestry through Mission Dolores (Ramaytush), Santa Clara (Tamien), and San Jose (Chochenyo)", this statement is false and the tribe is composed mainly of lineages with ancestral connections to the Pleasanton Rancheria.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.muwekma.org/historical-overview.html/|title=Historical Overview|website=Muwekma Ohlone Tribe}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | title=Muwekma Myths Part I - The Association of Ramaytush Ohlone | url=https://www.ramaytush.org/muwekma-myths-part-i.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230131071128/https://www.ramaytush.org/muwekma-myths-part-i.html | access-date=2025-08-05 | archive-date=2023-01-31}}</ref> The Association of Ramaytush Ohlone have accused the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of "undermin[ing] the Indigenous Sovereignty of other Bay Area Native Peoples" and partaking in "internalized colonialism and lateral oppression."<ref>{{Cite web | title=Muwekma Myths Part II - The Association of Ramaytush Ohlone | url=https://www.ramaytush.org/muwekma-myths-part-ii.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230312161630/https://www.ramaytush.org/muwekma-myths-part-ii.html | access-date=2025-08-03 | archive-date=2023-03-12}}</ref> The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe has also received backlash from the Tamien Nation for encroaching on Tamien Nation traditional tribal territory.<ref>{{Cite web | title=Op-Ed: Tamien Nation deserves to be recognized as historical Los Gatos tribe {{!}} Los Gatan {{!}} Los Gatos, California | url=https://losgatan.com/op-ed-tamien-nation-deserves-to-be-recognized-as-historical-los-gatos-tribe/ | access-date=2025-08-01 | website=losgatan.com}}</ref>

On January 25, 2022, in a virtual presentation at Santa Clara University, Tamien Nation Councilwoman Quirina Luna Geary claimed that the historic Tamien were not tribelets, rather "a nation based on Tamyen-speaking villages."<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=SCU Archives & Special Collections Presents The Tamien Nation |url=https://santaclarauniversity.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=5b1432e7-e164-41cf-8848-ae29001f48ed& |website=Panopto.com |time= minute 12:45}}</ref> Geary claims that her great-grandmother (Mutsun Ohlone) described Mutsun-speaking villages as one "Mutsun Nation"; by similar logic Geary concluded that the Tamien must have been one Tamien Nation as well, however this claim has not been proven.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=SCU Archives & Special Collections Presents The Tamien Nation |url=https://santaclarauniversity.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=5b1432e7-e164-41cf-8848-ae29001f48ed& |website=Panopto.com |time= minute 9:25}}</ref>

In 2024, it was announced that the Tamien nation would receive $6 million in state funds in support of tribal land return and stewardship in California, as approved by Governor Gavin Newsom.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Flores |first=Jessica |title=Two Bay Area Indigenous groups awarded millions in California land stewardship grants |url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/california-tribal-land-stewardship-grants-19433351.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250626140323/https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/california-tribal-land-stewardship-grants-19433351.php |archive-date=2025-06-26 |access-date=2025-10-21 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |language=en}}</ref>

==See also== * Ohlone tribes and villages in Santa Clara Valley * Namesakes: ** Tamien Station ** Tamien, San Jose

== Citations == {{reflist}}

== General and cited references == * Hylkema, Mark (1994). "Tamien Station Archeological Project", published by Bean, Lowell John, editor, in ''The Ohlone: Past and Present Native Americans of the San Francisco Bay Region''. Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press Publication. pp.&nbsp;249–270. {{ISBN|0-87919-129-5}}. * Levy, Richard (1978). "Costanoan", in ''Handbook of North American Indians'' Vol. 8 ''California''. William C. Sturtevant, and Robert F. Heizer, eds. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. pp.&nbsp;485–495. {{ISBN|0-16-004578-9}}, {{ISBN|0160045754}}. * Milliken, Randall (1995). ''A Time of Little Choice: The Disintegration of Tribal Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area 1769–1910''. Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press Publication. {{ISBN|0-87919-132-5}}. * Teixeira, Lauren (1997). ''The Costanoan/Ohlone Indians of the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Area: A Research Guide''. Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press Publication. {{ISBN|0-87919-141-4}}.

==External links== * [https://www.tamien.org/ Tamien Nation] * [http://www.muwekma.org/index.html Muwekma Ohlone] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20071005231503/http://www.muwekma.org/news/Muwekma-opinion-092106.pdf Muwekma request for federal tribal recognition Court opinion 9/21/06]

{{Ohlone}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tamyen People}} Category:History of San Jose, California Category:History of Santa Clara County, California Category:Mission Indians Category:Ohlone