I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this Ohlone/Costanoan Esselen Nation is one of those small obscure Tribes from long ago that some how got resurrected in the nineties. They are not a state Tribe and were never a federally recognized either. As far as I know they were scattered or went extinct during the Spanish mission colonization in the 1700's.
Their official website is, of course put out by them. And all last names are Mexican.
This is another case of "Seems like someone likes going through archives of 300 year old documents and pulling the name of some small obscure tribe and resurrecting it as an existing people." A quote from Milehigh.
Unfortunately we have frauds fighting frauds. I think we need to take a closer look at this Ohlone/Costanoan Esselen group.
Diana
Esalen is mentioned in so many threads here, but unless the search function is borked again, it doesn't have its own thread.
Now it does.
For a start, here's a story about their conflicts with the local Natives from whom they stole their name, and whose ceremonies they are mimicking and selling to other pretendian nuagers. People are getting injured in their plastic sweats, and non-Natives are declaring themselves elders and forming fake tribes. Some of the members of the fake tribe are famous white people who are actors or musicians.
http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/news/cover/esselen-nation-accuses-esalen-institute-of-playing-indians/article_34581a0a-864c-11e4-a4fe-73724961ddad.html
