Esselen Nation vs Esalen Institute

The ancestors and enrolled members of the Esselen Nation have been native to California for over 10,000 years. The historical and ancestral territory extends from the Santa Lucia Mountains, to Salinas Valley, up to Carmel, and along the Arroyo Seco Rivers. In contrast, the Esalen Institute is a retreat destination where people flock to cultivate deep change within themselves. The Institute offers workshops that focus on humanistic alternative education. Notice the similarities in the name of the present day tribe and the Institute. Due to legal issues, the descendants of ethnohistoric Esselen tribal groups from the greater Monterey Bay Area have become known as Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen Nation (OCEN). Esselen Nation has an enrollment of approximately 600 Bureau of Indian Affairs and Mission San Carlos/ Soledad tribal members.
The Esalen Institute is making hundreds of thousands of dollars hosting workshops, teaching meditation, hosting gatherings in their sweat lodge, and educating its members. Meanwhile, OCEN is struggling to regain some of their historical/ancestral lands. This is one of the devastating insults to the enrolled Esselen tribal members of the Monterey Bay region. The OCEN Chairwoman, Louise J. Miranda Ramirez, along with her tribal council, have been actively pursuing land that is sacred to the Esselen peoples and their culture. Ironically, the Esalen Institute is charging $400-6,750 (per person) for one retreat and the leadership of Esselen Nation are fighting for some control over their sacred land and oversight of their ancestral heritage sites. The Esalen Institute has an Esselen descendant who is not an enrolled tribal member, Tom Nason, on the property who practices his version of cultural rituals and ceremonies without consent from OCEN. Chairwoman Ramirez explained that these practices and ceremonies conducted without approval from the Esselen Nation is misuse of the tribe’s cultural heritage, and in fact, almost all of his ritual practices are based on the Lakota Sioux.
The policies, ceremonies, and practices of the Esalen Institute do not help any of the Esselen Nation members to maintain their cultural integrity or help foster the biocultural diversity of the Esselen historical/ancestral territory. OCEN has forwarded a vision to set up a cultural center, educational center, outdoor arena, and a hotel on their ancestral territory. The recently submitted OCEN proposal was not approved by the Monterey County Board of Supervisors. Chairwoman Ramirez explains how the funding from the hotel would help pay for the other centers on the proposed property. OCEN is greatly impacted by the Esalen Institute and the multimillion-dollar Esalen Institute is not contributing anything to OCEN. We are simply raising awareness about this issue to the public.
OCEN was Federally Recognized by Congress and the Interior Department through an Act of Congress in 1906, a year after the 18 unratified Treaties of California were discovered by Charles E. Kelsey of San Jose, who later became Special Indian Agent to California in 1905. Kelsey specifically identified Louise’s great-grandfather and family living on the Sur Rancheria during his Special Indian Census through 1905 to 1906. Ultimately, due to the illegal theft of California Indian lands through the lack of treaty ratification, Elder Esselen members along with other enrolled California Indians received $150.00 (per head of household) for the value of 8.5 million acres of land in 1950s and $668.61 for the value of 64,425,000 acres of land (the rest of California) in 1972. Some Elders asked for their land instead of the money. They were told by the government they had to take the money or lose it. Many of OCEN's current tribal members did not file and members like Louise's family did not receive any payment. Many California Indian tribes like OCEN were left landless and in poverty.
Esalen Institute
The Esalen Institute is famous for its dynamic process of using many forms of religious practices and thoughts in order to transcend the spiritual experience and to help other spiritualists discover their human potential and to balance the spirit, body, and mind. Esalen workshops are supposed to promote “a fusion of science and faith, cross-cultural exchanges, environmental responsibility, and an end to racism, sexism, and the Cold War.” “The land had been in Michael Murphy’s family since 1910, and Murphy persuaded his grandmother to let him run the place in 1961”. For Michael Murphy, the beautiful qualities of the landscape was the perfect place to start an institute relating to spirituality and alternative faiths. The Institute attracted young and educated white professionals that came from upper-class families.
Admittance into the Institute was highly selective in its early years of operation and required people to apply for admittance if they didn’t know anyone involved in the institute (Wood, 2008). The Esalen Institute is aware that they are situated on previously owned Esselen Nation lands and that they have borrowed Native American traditions, such as “the talking stick, the sweat lodge, the fire circle, the drum, the rattle”. Chairwoman Ramirez was advised that the Instructor at Esselen Institute even bought a dictionary of the Esselen language, Lex Welel, for $700 from a linguist who worked with Esselen Nation at the University of Berkeley. The Institute’s borrowing of some Native American traditions are questionable because there is no documentation of any tribal member granting permission for the use of any practices.
Esalen Exploitation of Esselen Biocultural Diversity
The Esalen Institute’s sweat lodge ceremony was built on top of Esselen Nation’s ancestral cemeteries. A concrete circle was placed on top of their ancestors’ burial grounds to hold the sacred fire for the ceremonies. Chairwoman Ramirez states that these ceremonies should be held on the earth, and her ancestors should not have concrete on top of them. The Institute has also diverted the naturally heated healing sacred waters into concrete tubs, which paying attendees can enjoy with attendance in the workshops. Chairwoman Ramirez states, “Why did they have the right to take this sacred water that had always been used for healing, install pipes, and control it?” The waters were given to our people by the Creator. The Institute is not selling the water, but they are making visitors pay for the use of the water. There is a policy that the public can use the tubs for a price and during the early hours of the morning before Institute attendee's wake from their overnight stay on the property.
Cultural Appropriation
Cultural appropriation is described as the act of taking certain aspects from a different culture, which is exactly what the Esalen Institute is doing. Esselen Nation receives none of the profits that the institute is making off of their sweat lodge ceremony, even though it incorporates their language and is taking place on land in their ancestral homeland. This in and of itself should be enough to condemn this ceremony, however the instructor of this course has taken things a step further, “adopting” non-native people into his fictitious Esselen tribe. While Tommy “Little Bear” Nason is a descendant of the Esselen people, this indoctrination of outsiders, for a price, is hurting the rest of the tribe. In this instance, one member of a cultural group is essentially selling their cultural practices to others without the consent of his people and the consent of Chairwoman Louise Ramirez. This act could be considered cultural appreciation if it were freely given and these people were being taught the actual significance of these practices and the effect this is having on the tribe itself. If this money were going directly to OCEN, they could use it to address some of the issues they are currently facing.
Tom Nason teaches the Lakota belief system, and is personally contributing to cultural appropriation by using this belief system to make money. He represents himself as an Esselen leader however he has refused the numerous offers of membership in the Esselen Nation. In fact, at one point, Tom Nason created a separate entity called the Esselen Tribe that consisted of a few Esselen people and “adopted” non-Native members with no blood ties to the Esselen. The members of this tribe who were Esselen descendants eventually left to join the Esselen Nation as more people were adopted into his “tribe.” These former members also withdrew their petition for Federal Recognition under the authority given them as Council Members/leaders of the Esselen Tribe.
Issues Faced by OCEN
Chairwoman Ramirez did not know at the time that the Esalen Institute was going to be built and expanded. Over this time, she has had several of OCEN's ancestral burial grounds disturbed by outsiders. There have been archeologists, developers, and classes that have disturbed these burial grounds with and without Chairwoman Ramirez’s approval. At one time, a class dug approximately nine feet down, which is about the level in which native people were using the land. Abalone pendants, many other artifacts, and bones were all found by archeologists. Developers disturbed approximately six known Esselen ancestral burials and many artifacts that were in the ground. Chairwoman Ramirez simply asked the members of the Esalen Institute to give the artifacts back, or put an onsite museum where they can be displayed and protected. Instead, they did not retrieve the artifacts that were given away, and continued to dig and disturb the land even with over 20 violations against them.<ref name=":0" /> Many people do not always get permits to dig the land, but many do it anyway.
Chairwoman Ramirez explained that if human bones are found, the coroner has to be contacted, and the bodies need to be determined as Native American or not. If they are Native American, Chairwoman Ramirez should be next on the list to contact. Instead, a different man was contacted. This man, Tom Nason, claims to represent two thousand adopted non-Native members of the Esselen Tribe. Nason is of Esselen descendant, but he is not a part of OCEN which was a Federally Recognized Tribe known as the Monterey Band of Monterey County. He goes out to Esalen Institute and does their ceremonies, and adopts people into his tribe. The people who are adopted into the tribe are not true Esselen tribal members that cannot prove that their genealogy is Esselen or even California Indian.
Future Projects for OCEN
Chairwoman Ramirez is hoping for land to be granted to OCEN by Monterey County. A portion of Fort Ord under the Base Closure Act was to be set aside for OCEN, however political power brokers have taken over that acreage. Furthermore, unfortunately, Monterey County Board of Supervisors believed that the OCEN was going to build a casino on this land. There are plans for a hotel built on this proposed land and it will be surrounded by a cultural center, a wellness center, an educational center, and organic gardens. The buildings plan to have green roofs, and there would only be underground parking lots, so cars would not be visible on ground level. The inclusion of a hotel would assist OCEN in repaying financial supporters, after all who wants to give away the money to assist OCEN and not be repaid? Chairwoman Ramirez told the Board of Supervisors that she and her council would sign a legal document stating that they would not put a casino on this land, but there was no luck. Instead, the group supported a racetrack that was said to be a sport, and not gaming like a casino.<ref name=":0" /> Chairwoman Ramirez still hopes to gain access to land.
Current Status
Chairwoman Ramirez does not want OCEN to be affiliated with the Esalen Institute. This is hard when an entire page of the Esalen Institute’s website is dedicated to information about the Esselen Tribe and Esselen history. Those paying for the ceremonies at the Esalen Institute should know that they are not Esselen. Knowing the situation between Esselen Nation and Esalen Institute, Chairwoman Ramirez wonders why people are so accepting of Esalen Institute’s information, goals, and claims. Although, one of the main struggles for OCEN is to obtain a piece of their ancestral homeland to hold ceremonies and to lay their ancestral remains to rest.

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