Alameda Native History Project

Category: Articles

  • N.C. Nelson Shellmounds Coastlines: Then vs. Now

    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.

  • West Berkeley Shellmound (Oops)

    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….

    (more…)

  • Stealing the San Pedro Shellmounds

    Building an Empire with Stolen Bones

    Stealing the San Pedro Shellmounds

    Sign the petition,
    “End the Practice of Using Native American Graves for Landfill & Construction”
    https://www.change.org/SaveSanPedroPoint

    (more…)

    Pages: 1 2 3 4

  • Stop fighting with each other; unite and fight colonization!

    Recognize the Urban Reservation, and envision an Intertribal Future for the San Francisco Bay Area.

    An open plea for togetherness, and effective organizing; and for the protection of all shellmounds in the San Francisco Bay Region.

    After checking out Timbisha Shoshone Tribe v. Salazer, in the United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia, No. 11-5049, decided May 15, 2012, one major thing popped out to me, that seems to be a recurring theme–other than lack of standing, and failure to state a cause of action…

    In-fighting. Sabotage.

    (more…)

    Pages: 1 2 3 4 5

  • A Brief History of the Alameda Native History Project

    Phase 1: “Unauthorized Alameda: The Indian Burial Mounds”;

    The true story of what actually happened to the Mound off High Street, in Alameda, California.

    Includes Haunted Alameda:

    A collection of ghost stories about living on and around the Alameda Shellmounds.

    Phase 1

    Unauthorized Alameda:

    The Indian Burial Mounds

    Mission: Find the true history of the Alameda Shellmounds.

    Objectives:

    1. Find out where the only known Alameda Shellmound was.
    2. Find out what happened to the mound.
    3. Find out where I can see the artifacts from the mound.
    Status: Complete

    Outcome:

    1. Learned there are 4 Shellmounds in Alameda; and where they are, today.
    2. Learned there were 2 excavations of the Shellmound off High Street, in 1892 & 1908–when the mound was leveled-off. But bodies still remain just under the surface of places which remain largely untouched since those first houses were built.
    3. Found the final, grisly fate of the “450 indians with stone implements”. The remains of Native American people were ground up, and used as aggregate, for paving Bay Farm Road. (Remains were also used for a number of other roads, and sidewalks.)
    4. Learned that there are over 425 shellmound sites in the San Francisco Bay Region.

    All of this will be addressed in later articles. Excerpts of the Articles on both excavations will be grouped together, and populated in the Wiki. But… this project has a lot of departments, [seriously, it’s bigger on the inside,] so bear with me.

    Findings:

    1. Shellmounds are, first and foremost, cemeteries; and should be respected, not disturbed.
    2. The actual, pre-contact, population density of Native Americans in the Bay Area is grossly under-stated.
    3. Not many people know about the shellmounds, despite that fact that many shellmounds are usually less than 15 minutes away from any place in the San Francisco Bay Area.
    4. Gate-keeping, and white-washing exists in all facets of academia; and must be countered in every way reasonably possible. History should be based on fact. And sources needed to be vetted more often.
    5. There must be a proactive effort to identify and protect Native American graves on private property; and to educate the public, and concerned persons, about the development, and usage of non-invasive sensing technology that requires no touch, and no digging.
    6. The interface for said effort with private property owners and occupants should include reassurance that their land rights should not be infringed upon, either; but creating a permissive easement, and/or right-of-way for descendants, and tribal members to come visit with their ancestors is something that can go a long way in settling the affairs of the land.

    Phase 2 of the Alameda Native History Project is a natural next-step for the project.

    After gathering, compiling, indexing and aggregating information about the Alameda Shellmounds, it made sense to see where other shellmounds in the San Francisco Bay Region are.

    “This phase of the project includes a lot of mapping, satellite imagery, and field research.

    It’s the perfect mix of the things I love: travel, investigation, maps, and history.”

    Gabriel Duncan, for the Alameda Native History Project

    Mission: The Search for Undiscovered History

    Objectives

    1. Conform N.C. Nelson’s, “Map of the San Francisco Bay Region Showing Distribution of Shell Heaps” to the current geography of that same region. Fully plot, and find the geographic coordinates of the mounds marked as “still present”. [Completed.]
    2. Use satellite, photogrammetry, Light Detection and Ranging, and other imaging available to analyze said coordinate for specific elevation and topographical qualities.
    3. Make a list targets to investigate, and perform a preliminary investigation to determine if further focus is warranted.
    4. [Reserved.]
    STATUS: Ongoing

    Stay tuned for more.

  • Alameda Native History Project Wiki MOVED TO https://nativehistoryproject.org/wiki

    Alameda Native History Project Wiki MOVED

    The ANHP Wiki Has Moved

    Please update your links.

    The new URL is: Https://nativehistoryproject.org/wiki

    This concludes the AlamedaNativeArt.com Service Announcement.

  • San Francisco to get brand new Native American Cultural District called “The Village”!

    Check out the article on Curbed SF to find out more.

  • What is the “Urban Reservation”?

    The Urban Reservation

    Parsing History from Actuality

    First post. And a definition of the concept of an, “Urban Reservation”.

    The Urban Reservation, to me, is a place that can be quickly defined as analogous to the American idea of the “ghetto“. The distribution of ethnicity is unimportant; the defining point is that these areas do not offer enough food [external], jobs, or services (ranging from water & sanitation, to healthcare.)

    Let’s be clear, though: American Ghettos were created by Redlining, Segregation, “Black-listing”, White Flight, just… rampant racism.

    Here’s an article from EconoFact.org, “Concentrated Poverty and the Disconnect Between Jobs and Workers“, which is pretty detailed. I pulled together a couple of other articles, and linked them at the bottom of this page.

    Other forms of ghettos exist. Some rural areas closely match the defining properties of ghettos. The only difference is that these areas suffer because of low population density–State and Federal funding is usually allotted by population; therefore, less populated areas receive less funding. Smaller populations also do not attract large corporations. Industry in rural areas is generally mineral, and agriculturally based; and introduces pollutants, and negatively impacts community and environmental health in myriad ways.

    (more…)