On April 17, 1997, Corrina Gould was convicted in Alameda County Criminal Court, for:
willfully and knowingly, with the intent to deceive, by means of false statement or representation, or by failing to disclose a material fact, or by impersonation or other fraudulent device, obtained or retained [more than $950] aid under the provisions of this division for himself or herself or for a childnot in fact entitled thereto.”
California Welfare & Institutions Code Sec. 10980(C)2
Gould was sentenced to jail time, and fined.
There was also a civil judgment against Corrina Gould for the amount of $5,275 dollars, which was entered by her own confession:
I hereby confess… [d]efendant fraudulently received public assistance benefits from Alameda County that [she] was not entitled to by submitting false written statements under penalty of perjury.”
Corrina Gould, “Statement and Declaration for Confession of Judgment”, Alameda County Civil Case Number 1997002685
It is unclear how long Gould spent in jail.
The case file was destroyed pursuant to the law which governs case file retention. (Information about the offense, and Gould’s subsequent conviction is still available in the Alameda County Superior Court Criminal Index.)
Alameda County Superior Court Criminal Records Search (SEP-21-2021) for “Corrina Gould”
But the Welfare & Institutions Code statute Corrina was sentenced by enumerates terms of imprisonment as 16 months, 2 years, and 3 years, or “a fine of not more than $5,000,” or both. The Criminal Index indicated Corrina Gould’s sentence as “Sentence: 001 jail and fined.”
Corrina Gould was also sentenced to 36 months of probation for defrauding Alameda County Social Services. The exact dollar amount Gould illegally obtained is unknown.
At the time of Corrina Gould’s conviction for Welfare Fraud, she was working at the American Indian Family Healing Center, in Oakland, California. She would later work for the American Indian Child Resource Center, as a Title VII Coordinator. It’s unclear if either organization knew of Corrina Gould’s conviction for this type of fraud; or, whether or not Gould was involved in filing claims, and/or applying for benefits on behalf their clients.
Today, Corrina Gould is the spokesperson for Sogorea Te Land Trust, and Confederated Villages of the Lisjan, INC. She was also a co-founder of Indian People Organizing for Change.
Sources and Links:
County of Alameda V. Corrina Gould
Alameda County Superior Court, Civil Case #1997002685
County of Alameda V GouldCounty of Alameda V Gould Judgment Pursuant to ConfessionCounty of Alameda V Corrina Gould #1997002685Corrina Gould Confession of JudgmentCorrina Gould Signed Confession (SSN Redacted)Attorney Certification
For the first time, ever, an entirely independent research project, led by a Native American descendant, has produced a tangible representation of pre-contact Native American Spirituality and Engineering.
About the Alameda Native History Project:
The Alameda Native History Project is an independent, Native-led research project focusing on discovering unknown or misunderstood Native History, and educating the public through applied art and science. One of the stated missions of ANHP is the production of detailed, actionable information, that can be used to advocate for, and protect the San Francisco Bay Area Shellmounds.
A lot of people wanted to know, “What is a shellmound? What does a shellmound look like? How big were the shell mounds?”
While one could spend time curating schematics, maps, and historical images…. there are truths which reveal themselves.
The best way talk about shellmounds is to show them.
Basic traits of a shellmound….
Shellmounds range anywhere from about 3 to 70 feet tall.
Shellmounds have a diameter of about 10 to 300 feet.
Shellmounds have a distinctive domed shape, usually with a pavillion, and a ramp or walk-way down one side.
Each shellmound accounts for hundreds to thousands of Native Americans. Around 2,000 people were buried in the Emeryville Shellmound.
Shellmounds are not trash heaps.
Shellmounds are burial grounds.
Shellmounds are sacred burial structures, built by the first occupants of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Over 425 shellmounds existed in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Only a few dozen shellmounds still remain, intact, and undisturbed.
Augmented Reality
Feature: Alameda Native History Project’s Shellmound Model
Available Shellmound Models
There are two Shellmound Models available. They are version 2.5, and 2.6, respectfully.
Version 2.6 is in .REAL format, which is used with Adobe Aero, a mobile-based Augmented Reality platform.
Version 2.5 is in USDZ format. Universal Scene Description is used by Pixar (among other companies); and is now a native 3D Object Format for both iOS and Android 3D Object Viewer.
These shellmound models were created for educational, and research purposes. Commercial use of this model is strictly prohibited.
When featuring this model, please include the following citation: “Shellmound Model created by Gabriel Duncan.”
For the first time ever, an entirely independent research project, led by a Native American descendant, has produced a tangible representation of pre-contact Native American Spirituality and Engineering.
Shellmounds, up until now, have largely only been talked about as a theoretical object, which “used to exist.” And shellmounds have been used as a tool to gain funding, and political influence.
As a descendant of California Native Americans, adopted out of my tribe at birth, raised by white people, and growing up in a place like Alameda–which is a “good ole boy” town, and known for it’s white racist, residents, and it’s over-policing of people of color….
As all of that…
I needed more than these pretty words and vagaries.
More than a rock in the middle of Lincoln Park, in Alameda, Commemorating the Ohlone Shellmound the City of Alameda dug up and used to pave Bay Farm Road.
When public figures speak about shellmounds, they are referred to in terms of what shellmounds symbolize.
We’re given a rosy, idealized, wash of what life was like in the San Francisco Bay Area before the Spaniards and “White People” came.
It’s very light on details, but gives us just enough to sort of “dream” of what life was like.
This is all well and good if you’re not that interested.
If all you wanted was a simple answer to the question of,
“What happened to those shellmounds in Emeryville and Alameda?“
“Where was the shellmound in West Berkeley?“
But some people want to know what it looked like, really. In the sense of being able to know where things were. Being able to see what kind of plants were growing at that time (some plants and animals have gone extinct in the intervening 300 or so years.)
Some people would like to see the same attention devoted to Native American History, Research, Preservation, Conservation, and Education that has been devoted to:
Bodie State Historic Park Bodie, California
Old Mining Towns
Victorian Houses
Military Forts and Installations
Warships
Mount Rushmore
Stone Mountain
Arlington National Cemetery
Foreign Archeology & Anthropology
We’re entering an era of what could be considered “Salvage Archiving“, or something of the sort.
Where an impetus should be placed on saving those withered, orphaned pages, plastered to the back of shelves, and in the dark grimy corners of filing cabinets. Getting those pages archived, digitally. Creating new renditions of old data and information, in modern formats. In high-fidelity.
Why? Because they’re primary sources.
The last scribbled field notes, and crumpled photographs that are almost lost to history; but which carry the little bits and pieces glossed over by researchers who were never looking for more than statistical data, or a PhD. Or who just hunted for the citation, without bothering to read and comprehend the rest.
These bits of real world meta- and scrape-data…
We need our histories, language, and secrets, to help us re-imagine what a De-Colonized Future really looks like. To help us repatriate the ancestors being returned to us from these museums and universities. And we need land back, so we can have a place to bury our ancestors, and let them rest in peace.
Native American History and Culture was taken away from the First Californians.
It was cataloged and scattered around the world, to different museums, universities, and private collections. Everything from our oral histories to our ancestors’ bodies are in pieces.
This is our inheritance. Our family property.
It should not have to take feats of academic, and legal, scholarship to gain access to our own language, history, and the physical bodies of our ancestors.
But not everybody knows they’re family…
There was a time in America where white-passing Hispanic people claimed to be White, and light-skinned Native Americans pretended to be Mexican.
This was because Native Americans who were caught in public, off the reservation, could be subject to arrest–where a white man could “buy an Indian” as a slave–forced on to a nearby reservation, or just killed on the spot.
Indian Census Roll
Mexicans and Spaniards were allowed agency, and relative freedom, when compared to the possibility of being criminalized and sold into slavery, or killed.
So that’s why many Native Americans declared Mexican ancestry, and took Spanish last names, or married into those families: to hide from the terror and racism Native Americans were subjected to by the American Government.
It wasn’t until recently that people started talking about their abuelitas,
“I think mentioning something that they were really some part American Indian, or Native American?”
These people, with surprise ancestry, or “hidden heritage” cannot be discounted. They have been completely oblivious to their own ties to this land, and these shellmounds.
But, an awakening is happening, the veil of [necessary?] secrecy is finally being lifted.
This begs to question the fairness of gate-keeping.
Tuibun Village Reproduction Coyote Hills Regional Park Fremont, California
Shouldn’t the living descendants of these ancestors be given the opportunity to visit, experience, and learn about all of these things?
Is it really the role of anyone to deny them their birth rite, or the ability to at least find some solace or peace within themselves; because here is a place where they can pilgrimage to learn about themselves?
How can we really expect to know what “rematriation” or “land back” looks like, if we don’t even know what Native Land looks like (outside of vast pictures of forests, and dingy shots of dust-swept reservations?)
How can we teach ourselves, and each other about what Native Land really is, without being able to visit it, or even talk about what they look like?
Examples like the diorama of the Tuibun (Ohlone) Village at Coyote Hills Regional Park, in Fremont, California, are invaluable to helping one imagine, envision or just “picture what it was like.”
There is more than one type of “estranged”, or, “dis-enfranchised” Native American….
Strange word, “dis-enfranchised”.
There are Native Americans who were adopted, who grew up outside of their communities.
People who never chose to be separated from their people, and Tribe. People who were never given the opportunity to be reunited. Sometimes forever.
As a descendant of California Native Americans, adopted out of my tribe at birth, raised by white people, and growing up in a place like Alameda–which is a “good ole boy” town, and known for it’s white racist, residents, and it’s over-policing of people of color….
As all of that…
I needed more than these pretty words and vagaries.
More than a rock in the middle of Lincoln Park, in Alameda, Commemorating the Ohlone Shellmound the City of Alameda dug up and used to pave Bay Farm Road.
The symbolism of shellmounds is tied to colonization, and landback, and rematriatrion, and gardens.
But this only uses shellmounds as a strawman, an existential fallacy. Because the argument is only ever over places where shellmounds have been destroyed.
But what about the other shellmounds?
Shellmounds still exist in the San Francisco Bay Area
Every article says the San Francisco Bay Area had at least 425 Shellmounds. But these rely on the recitation of the same, stale facts. The main narrative, and recurring implication, is that, all the shellmounds have been destroyed, and there’s nothing left but three locations in the San Francisco Bay Area:
Emery Bay outdoor mall, in Emeryvile, California;
Glen Cove, in Vallejo, California; and,
Spenger’s Parking Lot, in Berkeley, California….
Because the mission of the Alameda Native History Project was to discover what happened to the Alameda Shellmounds; and that, of course lead to researching other Shellmound locations, I learned: of these three locations, only the shellmound in Emeryville is the correct location.
Alameda Native History Project map showing true location and observed (approximate) dimensions of West Berkeley Shellmound.
Upon closer inspection both Glen Cove and West Berkley Shellmounds exist, or existed about 100 feet away from the locations Corrine Gould has alleged, on average. Which wouldn’t be such a big deal if there weren’t huge protests and millions of dollars spent in legal battles over protecting a thing that wasn’t even there. It’s not even a masked-man fallacy. But it’s close. (Especially in West Berkeley.)
This brought about frank questions like, How come Corrine Gould is only interested in Shellmounds that are already destroyed? How come her groups aren’t interested in protecting other shellmounds, like the four at San Rafael Rock Quarry? (She went out to Miwok Territory, despite the fact she’s Ohlone and occupied Glen Cove Park, without the permission or endorsement of the real tribes who’s territory Vallejo falls in.)
Is it just easier to advocate for seizing parking lots? An open space can fit hundreds of protestors, and garner much more attention, when it’s in the middle of a city. Places like outdoor malls, and the center of a shopping district are perfect for garnering public attention. Maybe that’s why more remote mounds in places like Contra Costa and Marin county haven’t been advocated for?
Regardless of the new questions the research has uncovered, the Alameda Native History Project has a self-proclaimed mission to educate the public about shellmounds, and provide detailed, actionable information for their preservation, and protection.
As such, this project will continue to produce and release educational and research materials; to bring attention to all San Francisco Bay Area Shellmounds, and advocate for their protection.
But it’s hard to do that when the leading voice is trying to limit, or stifle the discussion about Shellmounds, to the point of providing incorrect information about their locations.
So let’s start with this:
What is a shellmound?
A lot of people wanted to know, “What is a shellmound? What does a shellmound look like? How big were the shell mounds?”
And, while one could spend time curating schematics, maps, and historical images there are truths which reveal themselves.
Basic traits of a shellmound….
Shellmounds range anywhere from about 3 to 70 feet tall.
Shellmounds have a diameter of about 10 to 300 feet.
Shellmounds have a distinctive domed shape, usually with a pavillion, and a ramp or walk-way down one side.
Each shellmound accounts for hundreds to thousands of Native Americans. Around 2,000 people were buried in the Emeryville Shellmound.
Shellmounds are not trash heaps.
Shellmounds are burial grounds.
Shellmounds are sacred burial structures, built by the first occupants of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Over 425 shellmounds existed in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Only a few dozen shellmounds still remain, intact, and undisturbed.
ANHP Shellmound Model Featured in Augmented-Reality
Available Shellmound Models
This video has loud background noise.
There are two Shellmound Models available. They are version 2.5, and 2.6, respectfully.
Version 2.6 is in .REAL format, which is used with Adobe Aero, a mobile-based Augmented Reality platform.
Version 2.5 is in USDZ format. Universal Scene Description is used by Pixar (among other companies); and is now a native 3D Object Format for both iOS and Android 3D Object Viewer.
These shellmound models were created for educational, and research purposes. Commercial use of this model is strictly prohibited. When featuring this model, please include the following citation:
Acknowledging our occupation of Native Land; and the way we benefit from Mission Enslavement of Native Americans, the enslavement of people we know as African-American, and the California Genocide is not this easy.
The Sins of Colonialism can not be washed away with more blood money.
Direct investment in the community is what’s needed, instead.
Tribal Groups of the San Francisco Bay Region. Compiled and Plotted by Gabriel Duncan, for the Alameda Native History Project. Version 2.1.5.8.21
“Tribal land claims are complex, and overlapping.”
You’ve probably heard that before.
While one group may be the most vocal about claiming their ancestral land, rest assured, there are other groups who claim that exact same place.
While it’s true Indigenous People shared many spaces with each other for a plethora of reasons, including mutual survival, the actual “Tribes” in the San Francisco Bay Area were formed thousands of years ago.
In spite of the fact that the California Native American Heritage Commission recognized corporations as Tribes, it’s important for you to recognize the difference between a corporation and a Tribe.
This is especially important Today; when seeking out indigenous people and tribes to consult with on various projects like land acknowledgements, cultural easements, land back, or deciding whether or not to pay into a “land tax” scheme.
Indigenous People/Native Americans/First People can all do something that the Bureau of Indian Affairs refers to as “Establishing Indian Ancestry”.
Proving our Ancestry, or Blood Quantum, is a common challenge Native Americans face. It may not be right, but it’s the reason we know who our nearest Full Blooded Relative is.
Blood Quantum is an ugly, racist concept. [A tribe is made of family. That’s how tribes work.]
But it’s how we separate the Elizabeth Hoovers and Ward Churchills from actual Indigenous People.
“Who’s your grandmother?” Is one of the most common questions you get asked when you talk about the rez. We keep track of who is who. It’s not hard, because it’s such a small world. But, even if we aren’t close, we’re still native; and we still look out for each other.
It’s appropriate to ask someone basic questions about their tribe, such as:
What is the name of your tribe?
Where is your tribe from?
Who is your Tribal Chairperson?
Are you enrolled in your tribe?
If they are a Tribal Chairperson, it’s okay to ask them how long their term is, and when the next elections will be held.
It’s true that the Native American Heritage Commission is the agency in California which determines the proper Tribes To Consult for NAGPRA and Planning Purposes.
But, the Native American Heritage Commission does not seem to vet the lists, judging by how many corporations are considered not only Tribes, but the “Most Likely Descendant” to Native American Burial Grounds and Cultural Resources.
Corporations cannot be Tribal Governments because the exercise of sovereign powers is not a charitable purpose. Sovereign powers include the right to repatriation of remains, as declared in the United Nations Declaration of Indigenous Rights, article 12.
After studying maps, and reading literally thousands–maybe tens of thousands–of pages about the First Peoples of the San Francisco Bay Area; I’ve learned a lot.
It took a while to read works from the beginning (1800’s), up to the latest, including Randall Milliken’s work; which goes beyond the 2009, “A Time of Little Choice”.
He also did work on the Graton Rancheria; and the Confederated Coastal Miwok and Southern Pomo tribes.
But I found Milliken’s “Ethnohistory and Ethnography of the Coast Miwok and Their Neighbors, 1783-1840” on Marin Miwok‘s website. That document has a map of “Coast Miwok and Pomo Communities withing the Zone of Franciscan Mission Disruption, their Probable Locations and Possible Boundaries”. Very handy. I immediately printed it out and used it to figure out where Indian Beach is in all of this.
This map was really hard to conform using present-day landmarks.
Not only has sea-level risen considerably in the past 112 Years; but much of the coast line noted in the Coastal Survey has eroded, or used as fill, to erase much of what was open water along the San Francisco Bay Area Shorelines.
This is something that was especially noted in later studies of Bay Area Shellmounds: the possibilty that a mound which had been observed in 1908, was probably lost to the sea by erosion, before the 1970’s and 1980’s.
The changing topography of the Coasts, rising sea level, and dredging and landfill (among other things) have made it futile to argue about some places, like West Berkeley; where no one has a good idea of where the West Berkeley Shellmound actually was, despite the address of Second & Hearst given to it.
People would rather argue over the location of Strawberry Creek, and it’s accompanying marsh instead of taking another hour or two to just read the studies, and find the specific location.
Other mounds did not have the luxury of being named specifically. For instance, the Fernandez site, a shellmound situated in the Rodeo, California area, a little South-West of Martinez, California did have a partial coordinate address mentioned. But, when the coordinated are viewed, the location hovers over the waters off San Pedro Point.
There is also another mound, which was located in the bay, around where Midshipman Point is, which is just gone. No mention of whether the mound was actually standing in 1908, whether it was covered by water, or used to fill the area south of California State Route 37, where it meets the Lakeville Highway.
Furthermore, trying to rectify Nelson’s map to the shoreline of the interior of the San Francisco Bay Area was even more difficult, considered about half of the shorelines are artificial. That is: the shorelines have either been filled or dredged, and do not match the historic shorelines. This made it very hard to judge the specificity of the locations of the shellmounds mapped by Nelson.
Nelson (1909) Map, rectified to Present Day Map of San Francisco Bay Region.
But, by using 29 control points, I’ve managed to rectify the map to the best of my ability.
This map shows the Tribal Lands and Shellmounds of the San Francisco Bay Region.
Bay Area Tribal Lands & Shellmounds; created by Gabriel Duncan, based on Nelson(1909) Shellmounds Maps; Base map is “Watercolor” by Stamen Designs.
Most maps of this area show “Language Groups”. I think it’s important to specifically mention that Language Groups are not Tribes, and do not accurately reflect the culture or specific Identity of a Tribal Group, or “Triblet”.
I guess the first thing I should say is that I know this looks like some kind of CIA/COINTELPRO hit job on a local Native American Leader. Before I tell you that’s not what I actually set out to do, let me answer some basic questions, and give you a background….
