The Second Annual Acorn Harvest begins in August. This year, we will be gathering Acorns outside of the City of Alameda, into Alameda County, and beyond.
The reason for this is two-fold.
The first, almost all of the Oak trees in the City of Alameda are exclusively Coast Live Oak. These trees are in the Red Oak family.
The second, is that we have new partnerships and collaborations sprouting throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
Red Oak Family? Why does this even matter?
Red Oak Trees have a two year acorn cycle. Meaning, the acorns take two years to grow and mature. In the context of the Acorn Harvest, this means no mature acorns will be available in Alameda until 2026–two years from our first harvest in 2024.
Oh… So which Oak Trees are going to have acorns, then?
This is actually great as far as the harvest goes. Because we’ll be hunting some of the most tasty acorns available. White Oak Acorns have relatively low tannic content compared to the Coast Live Oak acorns we had in abundance last year.
If you attended any of our Acorn Processing Workshops, Acorn Flour Production Days, or any of our Acorns! Culinary Series events, then you had the opportunity to taste these acorns in their various states of processing.
As an aside: One of our long-term goal is to produce blends of acorn flour for both taste and function. So being able to introduce you to these different varieties of Acorns, to harvest, taste, and cook with, is big plus in and of itself.
How do you find these White Oak trees?
We’re using a mix of GIS Analysis and In-Person Verification. Using Open Source Data we found through the California Oaks website, we were able to access several raster layers of relevant data, and then convert them into vector form we could overlay onto our own custom made maps to accurately target areas were would could find the oak trees we need.
Our next step was to find, identify, and surveil these trees in our area of interest; and to keep a running log of acorn ripeness to help time acorn harvest dates that we (hopefully) can communicate to our dedicate harvest volunteers with advance notice.
That’s all great; but how can I help?
We’re so glad you asked!
We want to find property owners/land managers who have oak trees that currently have ripening acorns.
We can describe this to you more in depth, but tl;dr the acorns need to be big, and not tiny little buds.
We want to find people who are willing to surveil the acorns in their area.
We need to start building teams, and training people to harvest acorns.
We’re looking for donations of LARGE BACKPACKS, HUGE RUCKSACKS, BACKPACKING BAGS, etc.
We’re also looking to raise the funds to properly hydrate and ensure the safety of our Harvest Teams.
In June 2025, I was invited by Courtney Cummings, a Northern Cheyenne, Arikara, and Muscogee Creek woman who serves as the lead organizer of the Richmond Powwow, to support the 15th Annual Richmond California Powwow. We met at an event I was co-organizing and became friends. Courtney asked me to help with Powwow planning, and I agreed. I set up her Instagram Powwow account, attended multiple events with her, and designed the official Powwow flyer.
This was an important year. It marked the fifteenth anniversary of the Richmond Powwow, and the event was scheduled to be held at the Richmond Civic Center in the Memorial Auditorium. That venue is a major upgrade from previous years. Courtney told me it had been difficult to keep the Powwow going in recent years because it was hard to find a space. She was proud to have secured the venue and excited for the event. I supported it because I believed in what it could represent.
The Powwow was originally described to me as a way to honor local Native history. My first flyer concept was designed around the Santa Fe Indian Village in Richmond, a historic shoreline community where Native families lived in converted boxcars. That history is rarely acknowledged, and I wanted to center it. When I showed Courtney the design, she said the boxcars looked too “sad” and asked for something more cheerful. She said she wanted a “Native flower design,” like the floral beadwork we often see, with a style similar to traditional Mexican flower motifs. I revised the flyer based on that feedback and created a second version, which became the final one.
Courtney also offered me the $150 Powwow Planning stipend, and I told her to use it for the Powwow instead. She said it should go toward sponsoring a special, so I chose a Sneakup Special. I was not doing this for compensation. I knew there was a good chance I would be doing more than just donating graphic design services. I would probably also end up spending my own money, and possibly some of ANHP’s money as well. I believed in the purpose of the event and showed up in good faith.
I even took time off work to help Courtney move out of an unsafe space. That wasn’t part of any agreement. I did it because I thought we had a friendship and a shared commitment to the community. That makes what happened next harder to excuse.
Even though this was the fifteenth anniversary of the Richmond Powwow, and it was being held at the Richmond Civic Center, Courtney had no serious plan to include Muwekma. What she offered instead was a wishy-washy, noncommittal idea about maybe having them do a tule boat demonstration or giving them a table. No one had asked for that. It was tokenism. There was no plan to honor them, no invitation to speak, and no effort to recognize their authority or presence on the land where the event was taking place.
Richmond, Huchiun-Aguasto, is Muwekma Territory. It has been for over 10,000 years. Not including Muwekma is more than an oversight. It is an act of erasure. It disrespects the real, traceable roots of the Tribe and the 600-plus enrolled Muwekma people who descend from this place.
Courtney also asked me to speak at a youth education event hosted by the Point Molate Alliance on July 1. The official invitation was sent on June 18, 2025, by Pam Stello, Co-Chair of the Point Molate Alliance, which is a project of the Blue Frontier Campaign. I accepted the invitation on June 24. Pam acknowledged my acceptance and said she would follow up with additional program details, but she did not send those details until June 29, less than 48 hours before the event.
The session was initially presented to me as an opportunity to speak about the local Native history of Huchiun-Aguasto, the Point Molate shoreline, and Ohlone history more broadly. I assumed this was the kind of Native history and Ohlone history they wanted, because it should have been obvious that I advocate for the actual Ohlone Tribe. Courtney knew this. We had already had several conversations about the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, Corrina Gould, and the harm they have caused. I expected that my role would be to speak about the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area, the importance of tribal recognition, and the protection of sacred sites and tribal cultural resources.
But when Pam finally sent the program on June 29, it was the first time I saw that the session was titled “Ohlone History and Point Molate Hopes,” and that Courtney was listed as the Point Molate representative for the Confederated Villages of the Lisjan. I was never told any of this. Courtney never disclosed that she would be acting as an agent for the Confederated Villages of the Lisjan Nation, Inc. or Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. I use the word “agent” deliberately here because she was doing business on their behalf, representing them publicly, and promoting their agenda.
This was not a misunderstanding. It was a bait and switch. I was invited under one set of expectations, then set up to co-present with someone representing a fraudulent group that I had never agreed to support. Courtney had a duty to disclose that she would be representing the Confederated Villages of the Lisjan at this event. She did not. She knew who I was, what I stand for, and what the Alameda Native History Project represents. We had spoken directly about Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and Corrina Gould. She knew how important it was that Muwekma be acknowledged and respected. But instead of being honest, she withheld the truth and let me walk into a situation that would have compromised my integrity and betrayed the very Tribe I advocate for.
CVLN is not a tribe. It is a nonprofit organization created in 2018. It has no federal or state recognition, no tribal governance, no enrollment, no treaty history, and no documented continuity. The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area is the only federally recognized tribal successor to the Verona Band. Muwekma has a documented line of tribal governance and a legal and ancestral connection to Point Molate and the broader Huchiun-Aguasto area.
The Confederated Villages of the Lisjan Nation, Inc. (formerly, “Confederated Villages of the Lisjan, Inc.”) and the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust have been condemned by Muwekma in a public statement titled “Corina Gould’s Wide-Ranging Identity Fraud, the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, and the So-Called ‘Lisjan Nation.‘” These two entities, along with their founder Corina Gould, have used nonprofit frameworks and cultural tokenism to erase Muwekma’s presence and position themselves as gatekeepers to land and visibility in the Bay Area.
Courtney never responded to the email. When I followed up by text, she laughed.
That moment did not hurt my feelings. It exposed everything. It showed she knew exactly what she was doing and that she did not care about accountability, respect, or the harm she was causing. She left the conversation completely and became singularly focused on getting the Powwow flyer. This was not just a lapse or miscommunication. It was intentional avoidance.
After I formally withdrew from the Point Molate event, cited the erasure of Muwekma, and sent the Tribe’s official statement, Courtney never once engaged with the core issues. She did not follow up about the statement, did not acknowledge my withdrawal, and made no effort to address the harm she helped facilitate. Her silence made it clear that she had no interest in truth, accountability, or sovereignty. She was only concerned with getting the Powwow flyer in hand, regardless of the serious concerns I had raised or the betrayal involved.
So I gave her the flyer, exactly as she requested. I added “HONORING MUWEKMA” on purpose, because it was clear she never intended to. That flyer was delivered without compensation, under a limited-use license, and in full alignment with the values of the Alameda Native History Project.
This is not about personal drama. This is about sovereignty. This is about refusing to participate in the erasure of the only Ohlone Tribe with federal recognition, historical continuity, and legal standing in the territory where this Powwow took place.
If you are unfamiliar with the details or want to understand the full context, read:
