Chalon people

The Chalon people are one of eight divisions of the Ohlone (Costanoan) people of Native Americans who lived in Northern California. Chalon (also called Soledad) is also the name of their spoken language, listed as one of the Ohlone (alias Costanoan) languages of the Utian family. Recent work suggests that Chalon may be transitional between the northern and southern groups of Ohlone languages.

The original Chalon homeland area is the subject of some local controversy. Initial studies in the early twentieth century placed them in the portion of the Salinas Valley that surrounds the modern town of Soledad, as well as in the adjacent lower Arroyo Seco area to the west and Chalon Creek are to the east. In contrast, a late twentieth century study gives the Spanish-contact period Chalon people the rugged Coast Range valleys centered farther to the east, including upper Chalon Creek, the San Benito River east of the Salinas Valley, and the small creeks around San Benito Mountain. The latter study assigns most of that Salinas Valley area to the Eslenajan local tribe of Esselen speakers.

While not much is known about the Chalon people specifically, certain characteristics are shared by the Californian tribes. This includes their diet which consisted of local wildlife such as deer and plants and nuts like acorns. Chalon territory was bordered by the Mutsun (another Ohone division) to the east, Rumsen (another Ohlone division) to the north, Esselen in the Salinas Valley to the west, Salinan to the south, and Yokuts in the San Joaquin Valley to the east.