Month: April 2023

  • SF Bay Area Shellmounds Are Some of the Most Endangered Cultural Resources in the World

    Save Shellmounds Not Parking Lots campaign image of archaeologists sifting through soil in a cemetery. Title reads: “You wouldn’t let them dig up your grandma. Why would you let them dig up ours?”

    The San Francisco Bay Area had well over 425 shellmounds.

    Gabriel Duncan, from the Alameda Native History Project, estimates the true number of shellmounds around the S.F. Bay Area’s shoreline is closer to seven or eight-hundred shellmounds, which existed before European invasion and colonization.

    Shellmounds are ancient burial grounds used by the First People of the San Francisco Bay Area for over 10,000 years. Shellmounds form ancient mortuary complexes created by Ohlone, Miwok, and Karkin people. Shellmounds were not village sites; but they were places where ceremonies dedicated to indigenous ancestors were performed; and large seasonal gatherings were held nearby to celebrate the unity, harmony, and balance indigenous people share with the earth, each other, our ancestors, and all creation.

    Grave robbing by universities and treasure hunters; as well as desecration by railroad companies, oil refineries, and quarry operators, has made the remaining San Francisco Bay Area Shellmounds one of the most endangered cultural resources in the world.

    One of the chief defilers of shellmounds are quarry companies. These companies are still operating today, at places like the San Rafael Rock Quarry–which is home to no less than five shellmounds; and Dutra Materials Quarry, in Richmond, California–an area dotted with the highest concentration of shellmounds in the East Bay.

    But not much is being said about the historical and ongoing desecration and defiling of indigenous bodies to build the infrastructure and institutions all around us.

    This is surprising, considering the amount of time, effort, and fundraising which has gone into “preserving” a parking lot in West Berkeley, and protesting a thriving and established shopping mall in Emeryville, California.

    While other cities and corporations used shellmounds to level their train tracks, and pack for roadways: the Angel Island Immigration Station is one of the best surviving answers to the question of “What Happened to the Shellmounds?”

    Angel Island was home to about four shellmounds. All of which were quarried and used as a base for the concrete to construct the immigration buildings now standing as Angel Island State Park. However, there is no mention of this fact in the park brochure, or uttered by any tour guide on the island.

    The historical and continuing desecration goes unspoken, and right before our very eyes; all over the San Francisco Bay Area.

    Instead of directly addressing and challenging the corporations and cities responsible for the desecration of Ohlone, Miwok, and Karkin burial grounds, and sacred sites: advocates and allies are being fooled into believing these parking lots (in West Berkeley), and post-industrial waste sites (in East Oakland) are the priority for the fight against desecration of indigenous land. This is not true.

    “Saving” parking lots is not an indigenous priority over stopping the desecration of indigenous sacred sites today.

    Optic-driven, PR events, like urban gardens, and cultural easements to use our own land for free, do not address the fact that shellmounds are being quarried into extinction. That these ancient structures are being erased by shoreline development, and urbanization of the San Francisco Bay Area waterfront.

    This situation will not change; the desecration will not stop, until our supporters and allies start to critically assess the information being given to them by non-profit corporations trying to fundraise for their money, and compare that with information provided by scholars, experts, and bona fide tribes like the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area.

    Save shellmounds. Not parking lots.

  • Save Shellmounds Not Parking Lots

    Collage art of a shellmound with historic Alameda newspaper articles in the background, with the title words “Save Shellmounds Not Parking Lots”. Artwork by Gabriel Duncan.

    While these places may be on our traditional homelands, and within our tribal territories: Brownfields properties and Supferfund sites are neither appropriate, nor respectful gifts of atonement to the Indigenous People the entire Western Hemisphere was stolen from.

    It is a waste of resources for indigenous non-profiteers, like Corrina Gould, to focus primarily on post-industrial sites, like the place she alleges is the “West Berkeley Shellmound“.

    It is an improper use of our allies’ time, energy–and money–to have them marching around an empty parking lot, and futilely protesting an established and thriving shopping mall (Bay Street Emeryville).

    All of this takes away from the reality: Ohlone cultural resources in the San Francisco Bay Area are being destroyed by development at an alarming rate.

    Without intervention, Native American cultural resources, like shellmounds, and the fragile ecosystems they inhabit and have supported for over 10,000 years, will be destroyed. Paved over, without a second thought for anything other than their “fair market value”.

    Parking Lots and Abandoned Post-Industrial Spaces are not a priority; compared to Federal Recognition, Federal Land Grants, and the establishment of a Tribal Land-base and an official, recognized, Ohlone tribal reservation, and sovereign tribal territory.

    Urban Gardens do not address the Land Back movement in a relevant way.

    Cultural Easementslike the one proposed at Joaquin Miller Park, in Oakland, Californiaare not actually land back, and do not benefit the cause Corrina Gould (under the auspices of Sogorea Te Land Trust) purports to advocate for (all the while pretending to be the “tribal chairwoman” of a non-profit corporation posing as a bona fide tribal government.)

    In fact, PR events like the dedication of part of Joaquin Miller Park, in Oakland, and the renaming of a park in Alameda, are completely irrelevant to the actual cause of land back, rematriating the land, and the real priorities of bona fide tribal governments, like the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area–a tribe Corrina Gould would be a member of, if she weren’t so focused on personal gain, instead of advocating for her own tribe, and all Ohlone people.

    All of this only confuses the well-meaning public; and takes attention and purpose away from the legitimate means of land back, and the mechanisms which exist to attain justice, land, and equity for Ohlone people in the San Francisco Bay Area.

    As long as people realize their time and energy is better spent on an achievable goal, like Federal Re-Recognition & The Establishment of a Muwekma Land-base: Land Back is something we can see happen within our lifetimes.


    For more information on how you can help Ohlone people regain Federal Recognition, and get their Land Back, visit the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area’s website at: http://muwekma.org

  • Toxic Land Is Not Land Back : Proper Remediation Must Be Performed First

    Just to be clear: eating food grown in contaminated soil may not result in contaminated food…

    Even though petrochemical aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are largely unstudied “likely” carcinogens–some of which have been found to move through the soil easily into water; and that contamination can move from soil to food to animals.

    Petrochemical Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) include chemicals like Benzene, Naphthalene, Xylene, and other chemicals which are part of a complex and ever-changing family of petroleum-derived products.

    While we know that lead, mercury, arsenic, and other heavy metals can concentrate in root vegetables, causing various ailments. The effects of PAH have not be sufficiently researched or linked to the varying illnesses of those living in and around former brownfields and industrial complexes, or exposed to contaminated soils.

    While everyone is so excited to line up for their #landback/#rematriatetheland photo ops, ask yourselves if this is the land that you actually want back.

    Proper remediation, decontamination, and detoxification of these places must be done by the city/government and/or corporations “giving” this land back.

    It helps no one to turn a blind eye to the real-world challenges behind soil and water contamination.

    Exposing us to contaminated soil through dust, accidental ingestion, or to the detritus which accumulates on vegetables and fruit above the ground, is not healing. It’s a slow death.

    Furthermore, a substance doesn’t just have to be “carcinogenic” to cause harm. Some mutagenic substances can be carried down through generations.

    Part of a proper #landacknowledgement not only mentions the @MuwekmaOhloneTribe; it admits to the harms western society committed against the environment during colonization and industrialization.