According to Mission baptismal records, Camillo (whose native name was Heumon) was the son of Aurelio and Aurelia (whose native names were Inutia and Mineru). Aurelio and Aurelia were baptised in a Spanish Mission on 11 July 1818, along with their daughter (Camillo's sister) Bellina (native name Ysac) and her husband Bellino (native name Chamismelo). Camilo was baptised on 9 Jan 1819. Aurelio died in Dec 1830, and was buried on 16 Dec 1830, probably at the San Rafael Mission. It is not know when Aurelia died or where she was buried.
Camillo married four times to native Californians. He married(1) Elena on 22 Oct 1822. Elena died in April 1830. He married(2) Candida on 22 May 1831. Candida died on 13 Mar 1835. He married(3) Cayetana on 13 Jul 1835. Cayetana is said to have been the daughter of Chief Marin, after whom Marin County gets its name. Cayetana died on 21 Nov 1850, possibly after falling off a horse. Camillo and Cayetana had one son and two daughters, who were baptized at the mission in Gollina. Their son, Juan Pablo, was born in 1839. Their first daughter, Mascima Antonia was born 18 Nov 1841, and was baptized on 5 Dec 1841; her godparents were Gregorio Briones and Maria Antonio Martinez. Their second daughter, Maria Antonio, was likey born in Aug 1845, and was baptized on 31 Oct 1845; her godparents were William Richardson and his wife Maria Antonio Martinez. Gregorio Briones was the patent holder of Rancho Bolinas, and William Richardson was the patent holder of Rancho Sausalito. Juan Pablo died in a boating accident on 28 May 1851 along with the father of the man who would marry Maria Antonio. Camillo married(4) Susanna Maria, an Indian girl some 12 or 13 years old, on 5 Jan 1852.
According to family history, Camillo's father built the first adobe building in Marin County around 1828, and Camillo built the second in 1837, possibly by using bricks from his father's building. Camillo's Adobe measured 24 x 16 feet, was 8 feet high, and had walls 3 feet thick. In 1840, an Adobe addition was attached to the west wall, producing an "L" shaped building with three rooms. The remains of this building are still visible, and protected within the Olompali state park.
Camillo operated a thriving ranching operation, and traded livestock with the Mexicans at Sonoma and wheat with the Russians at Fort Ross. He planted an orchard and vineyard. He was the only native American holding both Mexican and U.S. government land grants in northern California. Camillo was a cultural link between the California Indians and the Californios. He was respected as being "fine, intelligent, shrewd, clean-cut, capable, and punctual". He became friends with General Mariano Vallejo, the military commander of California.
In October 1843, Vallejo petitioned the governor of the Mexican province of Alta California, Micheltorena, to grant 8,900 acres to Camillo. The site of the village then became known as Rancho Olompali.
During the "Bear Flag Revolt", on June 24 1846, the "Battle of Olompali" occurred when a violent skirmish broke out between a troop of American Bear Flaggers from Sonoma and a Mexican force of 50 from Monterey, under the command of Joaquin de la Toree, at Camillo's adobe. Several men were wounded and one man was reportedly killed, the only fatality associated with the brief California revolution.
After California was annexed by the United States following the Mexican War, many land grant holders were forced off their lands by the new government. In 1852 Camillo sold most of his land to James Black, Marin County's first tax assessor, who later became one of the largest landowners in Marin county. Black paid $5,200 in gold coin for the property. Black gave Rancho Olompali to his daughter, Mary, for a wedding present when she married Dr. Galen Burdell, one of San Francisco's first dentists, in 1863. Camillo retained a 632-acre parcel which was called "Alapacocha" in later transactions.
Mascima (also known as Mary Maxima) married(1) Henry Holden Bennett, an American, on 12 Jun 1854, likely with Camillo's encouragement. Soon after Bennett's death in 1856, Mascima married(2) Henry Harper Willard. They had thirteen children. After Henry's death in 1888, Mascima married(3) Armstrong McCabe on 31 Jul 1891. Armstrong died, possibly at the hands of Mascima's son, Frank, who accused him of bigamy.
Maria married Joseph Knox sometime after 1855. A marriage certificate dated 2 Dec 1882 has been found, but this is likely a replacement document. They had two children.
Camillo also adopted another girl, who married John Pingston, a "free man of color". They had a son, Juan Jose Pingston. Camillo conveyed approximately 20 acres in the extreme southwest corner of Apalacocha to John on 14 Feb 1853.
Camillo died in 1856, of unknown causes. Stories have circulated down through the years that Camillo buried his gold and forgot to tell his wife and daughters where it was hidden, and that he had been forewarned of his death when he had his will prepared in 1855.
Soon after Camillo's death, his daughters, in partnership with their husbands Joseph Knox and Henry Willard, purchased part of Rancho de Sanel in Mendocino County and moved north. The remaining tribal members may have accompanied them, serving as their vaqueros in the cattle drive.
On 26 Nov 1860, "Being in want of money for a Maintenance," Mascima and Maria sold Apalacocha, to John Knight, their Mendocino attorney, for $3,693. With that transaction, the last of aboriginal Olompali passed into American ownership.
Sources:
Ralph Thacher
Mildred Brooke Hoover
Richard Thomas
Mission baptismal records
"An exceptional adaptation: Camillo Ynitia, The Last Headman of the Olompalis",
by Pamela McGuire Carlson and E. Breck Parkman, California History Quarterly
65 (December 1986), pp. 238-247, 309-310