Where to find Selected Primary and Secondary Sources regarding the Native American (Indigenous) History of the East Bay.

Sources for the studious, tenacious, and determined, scholars.

Muwekma Ohlone Tribe

Muwekma Ohlone Tribal Recognition Process

US DOI Bureau of Indian Affairs, Petition #111 Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of San Francisco Bay, CA

Muwekma Tribal Publications (Research Documents)
Featuring articles by Les Field, Alan Leventhal, and more.

Randall Milliken

A Time of Little Choice: The Disintegration of Tribal Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1769-1810

Native Americans at San Jose

Old research papers by

  • Maxwell Uhle (Final Report on the Emeryville Shellmound),
  • N.C. Nelson (Shellmounds of the San Francisco Bay Region),
  • Robert F. Heizer (The California Indians, a source book),
  • Richard Levy (Handbook of the North American Indians),
  • and Alfred Kroeber, among others.

Can be found under Keywords like:

  • Costanoan“; “Mission Indians“; “California Indians”; “Shellmound”; “Verona Band“; “Fremont Indian“; “Rosemary Cambra”; “Jose Guzman”; etc.

Find UC Berkeley Research Papers

Access Archive Finding Aids

These resources are for people who are willing to commit the time and effort into finding and reading the primary and secondary resources created by anthropologists, archaeologists, the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, and Ohlone People themselves.

This is not a complete list of sources. For instance, the California State Universities are another source for information not listed here–even though Alan Leventhal is associated with the CSU system. This is just a selected list of some resources to get you started.

If you find other resources for primary and secondary materials which are not listed here, please let us know.


Right now, we’re in the process of finding and compiling local archival sources.

If you are an individual or organization who also keeps their own libraries and collections regarding this subject, or Native Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area, and you would like to share, please don’t hesitate to reach out.