The Tamien, also spelled Tamyen or Thamien, are one of eight language divisions of the Ohlone people. Their homeland covered most of present-day Santa Clara County, with dozens of villages across the valley, several of them on Coyote Creek. The name is on record from 1777, when the padres of the first Mission Santa Clara wrote that the native people called the place on the Guadalupe River Thamien.
After 1777 most Tamien people were taken into Mission Santa Clara or Mission San José, and a large majority died of disease in the mission era. Their language, Tamyen, is thought to have fallen out of use in the early 19th century. Today several Ohlone organizations, among them the Tamien Nation and the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, are active in the region, and they disagree about who speaks for the valley’s first people. A light rail and Caltrain station in San Jose carries the Tamien name.