Category: The Urban Reservation

  • Muwekma Ohlone Tribe Sets Off on Trail of Truth with Chrissy Field Rally, and Golden Gate Bridge March

    August 4, 2024 – San Francisco, Calif.

    Hundreds of supports gather at Chrissy to give the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area a rousing send-off as they embarked on their Trail of Truth.

    Among the speakers were:

    • Charlene Nijmeh, Chairwoman of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area
    • Joey Torres, Muwekma Tribal Member and Culture Bearer
    • Richard Massiatt, Muwekma Tribal Council Member
    • Peter Ortiz, San Jose City Council Member
    • Nicole Shanahan, Vice Presidential Candidate
    • Members of the Oglala Nation
    • Razzle Dazzle, Miwok Elder
    • Members of Redrum M.C.

    Special performances by:

    • Calpulli Tonalehqueh Aztec Dancers
    • Muwekma Tribal Dancers
    • Razzle Dazzle, 12 Bears, Joey Torres, Miwok singers

    The rally was immediately followed by a march across the Golden Gate Bridge, the first part of Muwekma’s journey on the Trail of Truth.

    We were met on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge by a group of CHP and US Park Service Officers.

    But no one was arrested for the unplanned march across the bridge–because we didn’t stop and block traffic. We were allowed to go on our way.

    Charlene Nijmeh, the duly elected Chairwoman of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area; a tribe with hundreds of enrolled members, and over 10,000 years of proven history as the First Peoples of the San Francisco Bay Area.

    For more information about the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area, you can visit the Muwekma website at https://muwekma.org

    To watch videos and learn more about the Trail of Truth, and how you can help Ohlone people regain Federal Tribal Recognition, follow Muwekma on social media.

    Lots of videos are up and available on the Muwekma Ohlone tribe’s instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/muwekmaohlonetribe/


    Alameda is Muwekma Territory.

  • Acorn Granary Challenge Produces Storage For 2024 Harvest

    What is an Acorn Granary?

    Acorn Granaries are traditional Native American storage containers used to hold foods like dried berries, rice, squash, and tree nuts…. (In this case: acorns from the city-wide acorn harvest happening this fall.) …And keep them safe from animals and the environment over winter.

    What is the purpose of an Acorn Granary?

    To store food that people needed to survive during the coldest parts of winter, when no plants grow, and all of the animals are hibernating, or have migrated to warmed areas.

    Why are Acorn Granaries important?

    Acorns were one of the single most important food sources in California [Heizer 1957]. Over winter, the bounties of California’s many edible plants, and the abundance of wildlife normally acquired through hunting, trapping, or fishing, is replaced with a barren landscape.

    This is why it’s so important to gather as much food as possible; and to protect it from water, wind, rain, and the animals–who also depend on caches to survive through the winter.

    How widespread is the use of Acorn Granaries?

    It cannot be overstated: Acorns were one of the single most important food sources in California [Heizer 1957]. Most families had an acorn granary [Gifford 1932; Fremont 1843]. Granaries were meant to hold acorns as they dried over winter, however, granaries would be kept and maintained for many years.

    How many acorns does an Acorn Granary hold?

    Some granaries would hold just enough acorns to support a family until the next harvest. Other granaries could hold “ten to twenty sacks of acorns” [Gifford 1932]. Although, there’s no specific weight or volume measurement for how much a “sack” is. Heizer (in 1957), noted that Patwin communities had granaries with a capacity of about 6 to 10 bushels of acorns.

    Several studies included dimensions of varying types of granaries made by different California Native Tribes:

    On average, the granaries were about 3-4 feet in diameter, up to 10 feet high, and at least 2 feet off the ground.

    How many acorns were harvested during the Acorn Harvest?

    The only limit to how many acorns could be harvested was dependent upon the method of collection, and how many people were involved in the harvest.

    The Acorn Harvest happens once a year, when there is a nearly limitless supply of acorns adorning the more-than 87 million oak trees which are endemic to California. [Oaks 2040]

    Competition for Acorns

    Over 100 different kinds of animals eat acorns, including (but not limited to):

    • Bear
    • Chipmunk
    • Crows
    • Deer
    • Ducks
    • Foxes
    • Jack Rabbit
    • Jays
    • Mallards
    • Mice
    • Oppossums
    • Quail
    • Raccoons
    • Squirrel
    • Turkeys
    • Voles
    • Wild Hogs
    • Woodpeckers

    Every single one of these animals would gladly take a pre-foraged “snack pack” [that’s what a bear would call it] in a season when no other food is available.

    This is why it is necessary to create: (a) a sturdy food container that (b) hides the scent of food, and (c) deters animals from eating through the container into the actual food inside.

    What are the different types of Acorn Granaries?

    Below is a list granary types–but the names aren’t official. There are no standardized names for granaries because over 300 unique languages were spoken in California.

    • Coil-type
      Acorns chill under a coil basket made from cordage. (Usually on a platform.)
    • Hanging basket
      Hung from sturdy tree-limbs, or from a frame made from lashed wood.
    • Tree platform
      Resting on platform build in the crook of a tree.
    • Free-standing
      Made with sturdy legs to resist wind, and other forces.
    • Rock-butt
      Granary resting on a rock. Sometimes stabilized by legs, or tied to frame/tree limb, or all of the above.

    Construction Materials

    Willow reeds & poles, and California Bay boughs, were gathered from the Indigenous Land Lab

    • Willow reeds and poles
    • Leaves and boughs from:
      • California Bay Laurel (Umbellularia californica)
      • Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis)
    • Natural twine
    Bay Laurel boughs were gathered during the Acorn Granary Challenge Session #3, at the Alameda Point Collaborative Farm2Market, where our events were held.

    Acorn Granary Construction

    After learning about the history, usage, and types of Acorn Granaries, we began granary construction over four sessions in July 2024.

    Rolling the frame onto the hoops.

    Completed granary frame.

    Loosely woven base of the granary. (Take note the base is larger than the frame.)

    Granary frame stuffed with bay leaves, sitting on base base, on top of tree rounds (with willow shims, lol.)

    Shoring up the granary, using willow poles to stabilize with tension & compression. (MIT undergraduate remix.)

    Granary Status: Ready for Acorns

    Special Thanks & Acknowledgments

    A huge shoutout, and special thanks goes out to the APC Farm2Market, for hosting our event, and the acorn granary.

    Another huge shoutout goes to the Land Partners, who are hosting the Indigenous Land Lab, another Acorn Granary, and have graciously allowed us to harvest all of the willow and California Bay we used (and will use) for Acorn Granary Construction.

    Special thanks goes out to everyone who participated in the Acorn Granary Challenge: Sandra, Liz, The Li & Pan Families, Natalie, Skipper.

    We also want to acknowledge the Alameda County Arts Commission’s ARTSFUND for their part in funding this awesome, and ongoing, experience.

    What’s next?

    The First Annual Acorn Harvest begins this Fall!

    Stay tuned for more announcements!

  • Alameda Shellmounds Web Map v2 Released

    Fully updated, featuring new historic wetlands, shorelines, and more.

    Available exclusively at the Alameda Native History Project.

    Find it on our website:

    NativeHistoryProject.org > Maps > Alameda Shellmounds Web Map

  • Alameda Shellmound Map Re-Released

    More detailed Alameda historical ecology.

    All four Alameda Shellmounds.

    Featuring Alameda’s Ancient Live Oak Forest, Historic Shoreline, and Bay Area Historic Wetlands layers.

    All juxtaposed against the modern day landscape to provide accurate scale and positioning.

    Available in several sizes.

    Preview the new Alameda Shellmound Map V.2. Available in 3 sizes. Get it now!

    More Detailed Historic Geography

    Because of the juxtaposition of the historic peninsula with it’s present day silhouette, it is much easier to see which parts of Alameda were physically connected and formed the peninsula more recently known as the “Encinal”.

    Both Alameda and Oakland are in a region referred to as Xučyun (also known as “Huchiun”.) Xučyun is part of the ancestral homeland of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area. Muwekma have lived in the Bay Area for over 10,000 years.

    Includes All Four Alameda Shellmounds

    For the first time, all four of the Alameda Shellmounds have been put onto one map. Most people only know about the shellmound on Mound Street. But there are more shellmounds, in Alameda. There were over 425 shellmounds in the Bay Area. Including Alameda’s largest shellmound, at the foot Chestnut.

    Why is this important?

    • The existence of the three other Alameda Shellmounds was overlooked by all of Alameda’s previous historians*, including long-time (since retired) curator of the Alameda Museum: George Gunn.
    • From 1948, to 2020: the Alameda Museum falsely identified the First Alamedans as “a branch of Miwok”, instead of “Costanoan” or Ohlone.
    • The Alameda Native History Project is responsible for stepping forward and correcting the record, and educating the public about the real Alameda Native History.

    This map proves that Alameda History is more than Victorian houses.

    See also: Shellmounds – What Are Shellmounds?

    Features:

    Alameda’s Ancient Live Oak Forest

    This place we call Alameda was once called “La Bolsa de Encinal”. Meaning, “the Encinal forest”. Because the peninsula was host to a verdant, “ancient”, Live Oak forest. (The forest still exists. It just looks different.)

    Many of the first accounts of the historic peninsula use rather idyllic, and paradisaic language to describe the rich pre-contact ecosystem that thrived here.

    Alameda was once referred to as a “Garden City”. This is the place where the Loganberry was supposedly born.

    Historic Shoreline

    tl;dr : Everyone wants to know where the landfill is. [There! I said it, okay?] They don’t even really care where Alameda used to be connected to Oakland. Or about the ancient whirl pool in la bahia de san leandro. But, whatever.

    Look closer, and you can see the footprints of present day buildings. That’s the landfill.

    For real though, I made this layer using pre-1900 shoreline vector data I compiled for the Bay Area region, and stitched together.

    Bay Area Historic Wetlands layers

    In Version 1, I made a kind of sloppy polygon with historical shoreline vectors, and painted it green. It was a good placeholder for the historic marshes and wetlands of the Bay Area.

    Version 2 features the finely detailed historic wetlands layer created for the Bay Area Shellmounds Maps. It features very precise cut-outs for historic creeks, channels and waterways; and features full-coverage of the Bay Area region.

    If you want some actual historical eco-data, check out the San Francisco Estuary Institute. They have some brilliant historical ecology GIS you would probably love, if you’ve read this far.

    The Alameda Shellmound Map, Version 2, is ground-breaking in its completeness and exquisite detail.

    Available Now!

    Printed in vivid color, on premium paper. Purchase through the Alameda Shellmounds Map square payment link. 10% of all proceeds from Alameda Shellmounds Map sales go to the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area.

    [Footnote: Imelda Merlin mentioned numerous shellmounds in her Geology Master Thesis, but none of her assertions were backed up with any relevant citations. And geology is not archaeology, ethnology, or anthropology, the areas of study that normally concern themselves with Tribal Cultural Resources like shellmounds.

    Furthermore, the famous “Imelda Merlin Shellmound Map” was actually a map of Live Oak trees present in Alameda at the time Merlin wrote her thesis (in 1977).

    The “Map of Whitcher’s Survey of ‘The Encinal’ in 1853. In Alameda City Hall.”, cited on page 104 of Merlin’s thesis, has never been found by Alameda City Hall, the Alameda Free Library, or the Alameda Museum.

    Certainly this means Imelda Merlin has failed to meet the burden of proof required for institutions like Alameda Museum to take reliance upon her claims re: Whitcher’s Survey, and locations of any mounds. Yet, somehow, Merlin’s geology thesis was Alameda Museum’s sole reference regarding shellmounds. (For years Imelda Merlin’s geology thesis was viewed as the authoritative source of information about Alameda shellmounds.)]


    Decolonize History

    One of the ways Alameda Native History Project decolonizes history is by interrogating the record. This means tracking down and reading citations. Critically evaluating reports and studies for bias. And calling out poor research, and prejudiced conclusions for what they are.

    We decolonize history by updating the maps and diagrams of our past. Producing accurate, fact-based educational and reference materials to replace the biased and inaccurate educational products–which are still misinforming our schoolchildren and the greater public today.

    By providing a more nuanced and comprehensive perspective; and doing away with the old, over-copied handouts from decades past: we are able to shed the misinformed, and racist, stereotypes and quackery that typify generations which brought us things like: “kill the indian, save the man”, Jim Crow, and “Separate But Equal”.

    We vigorously challenge the cognitive dissonance of so many California Historians, asking “Where did all the Indians go?”, at a time when the entire United States had declared war on Native Americans. … Including the first Governor of California, who called for “war of extermination” against California Native Americans.

    These ideas, stereotypes, attitudes, and beliefs have managed to propagate themselves time and time again in the textbooks and lesson plans used to “educate” countless generations of Americans.

    Isn’t it time to set the record straight?

    👉🏼 Your purchase of the Alameda Shellmound Map supports our mission of decolonizing history. 🙌🏼

  • July 2024 Acorn Granary Challenge

    Free First Session Kicks Off Sunday July 7th; and Lasts All Month!

    Come join the Alameda Native History Project, as we build granaries for the First Annual Acorn Harvest!

    The Acorn Granary Challenge is a month-long series of free events which takes place on every Sunday at 10AM.

    Snacks and water will be provided.

    Reserve your space for free on our eventbrite page.

    What is an Acorn Granary?

    Acorn Granaries are traditional
    California Native food storage systems.

    • Granaries were made all over California. – The acorn was one of the single most important food items in California.
    • “Hanging Basket” stores acorns off the ground. – Some tribes built platforms to perch granaries atop of. But not all granaries were suspended.
    • Material defines shape. – Some granaries are made with twisted stems, blades, and vines to form a Coil Basket (or “Birdnest” design. ) Others are made with small bushells of wild grass and thatched into an “Inverted Basket” (or, Thatched-Cone Design.)
    • Holds acorns overwinter. – An Acorn Granary must be resilient enough to hold Acorns over the winter. Repaired and reused over many seasons.
    • Basket-in-shell design. – Every granary is created with an outer shell made from strong, natural material resistant to animals and insects.

    Hands-On Learning Experience and Cultural Exchange

    Learn about the different plants used to make Acorn Granaries; and how pests were managed before GMO and RoundUp.

    Learn how to split willow to make reeds, experiment with creating the different kinds of Acorn Granaries. Strategize how to keep out squirrels, crows, and other hungry critters!

    Each week will have a different focus, as we move through the steps of Acorn Granary Construction, and preparing for the harvest.

    From splitting willow to making various cordage, and thatching wild grass: We will work with a mix of materials old and new. And also address the non-native plant and their uses in construction and pest management.

    Most of the material gathering will take place at the Indigenous Land Lab, and the processing of cordage, thatching of wild grasses, and splitting willows will happen in town, during the Granary Construction.

    This is meant to be a very mellow and open-ended process that frankly invites a little bit of creativity, and welcomes a contemporary breath of fresh air.

    And we’re also open to this process taking longer than a month.


    Here’s a ballpark timeframe for construction and harvest preparation.

    • June-July: Gather Materials and Build Acorn Granaries
    • August-September: Continue to prepare for Harvest, Monitor Oak Trees
    • October-November: Harvest Acorns! Fill, Complete & Install Granaries

    Why Are We Making The Granaries Now?

    The main goal here is to be totally ready by the time the acorns start to fall!

    This is why we’re creating the granaries now: So we can harvest, sort, and pack our acorns into these granaries as efficiently as possible.

    But, we also want to give ourselves the greatest chance of success by using multiple granaries of varying construction materials and methods. This will also give us some data to analyze and use to plan for next year!

    Please join us for some or all of these events!

    Everyone is welcome!

    Reserve Your Space at the Acorn Granary Challenge Here.

    To learn more about the Indigenous Land Lab, and how you can volunteer to gather more materials for granary construction:

    Visit the Indigenous Land Lab Page, or email collab@nativehistoryproject.org!

  • Indigenous Land Lab Begins

    This is less a news event, than this is a prayer for healing, learning, and success. I’m humbled and ecstatic to say the Indigenous Land Lab is happening.

    There is land for a lab. With amazing potential. There are seeds. And water.  We are ready to begin.
    
    "All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today."

    The plan, right now, is to have a (mini) propagation lab, small nursery, and 3 Sisters x Victory Demo Garden.

    And all of it will be made from the ground up.

    What a great place to start. This is exciting.

    You can share in this awesome journey, too!

    Bring gloves, a hat, and your waiver. LOL. (No, for real, it’s for our fiscal sponsor.)

    We’ll provide water, some shade, and (hopefully) lunch during official workdays. (At least snacks!)

    We would love for you to join us!

    If you would like to sign up to work on the Indigenous Land Lab with us, please use this Indigenous Plant Lab Role Selection form:

    https://forms.gle/zCe8ab5VnPwQDJYMA

    You can support the Indigenous Land Lab in other ways, too!

    The first, of course, would be by donating landscaping & gardening equipment you no longer use. But, we would be especially grateful for the use of your walk-behind “brush mower”, “brush hog” or “rotor cutter”.

    The land we have is wild, and untamed. It’s overgrown with invasive grass, some hemlock, and a random shrub or two. This is why our list sounds more like a fire crew equipment list than what you’d expect for an established garden.

    Here’s a list of what we would really like to get our hands on:

    Tools

    • Metal Rakes
    • Shovels
    • Pickaxes
    • Hoes & Scrapers
    • Chingaderas (a fire tool good for “extracting deep rooted fuels”)
    • Post drivers
    • Saws (hacksaw, chainsaw)

    Equipment

    • A walk-behind Brush Mower/Brush Hog/Rotocutter
    • Rototiller
    • Supply locker/chest/weatherproof box

    Supplies

    • Chicken-wire
    • Fence Posts

    If you wish to donate any of these tools, or if you have other tools you’d like to donate:

    Please send us an email ( collab@nativehistoryroject.org ) so we can arrange a good time to come to you, receive your generous donation, and supply you with a donation receipt you can use for tax purposes.

    One more way to support the Indigenous Land Lab is to donate to the Alameda Native History Project.

    Alameda Native History Project donation link.

    Alameda Native History Project is fiscally sponsored by The Hack Foundation (d.b.a. Hack Club), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN: 81-2908499). As such: all donations you make are tax deductible.

  • Save Shellmounds (Not Parking Lots)

    Shellmounds are ancient structures created by thousands of years of indigenous occupation.

    Shellmounds are cemeteries, or mortuary complexes. The final resting places of the first people to live in this place we call the San Francisco Bay Area.

    There were once over 425 shellmounds in the San Francisco Bay Area alone. In fact, there were many more shellmounds than that.

    If you look closely at the distribution of shellmounds in Marin and Sonoma Counties, and apply that density to the rest of the Bay Area, you will very easily top 600 shellmounds.

    Despite the fact that shellmounds are cemeteries, hundreds were still destroyed all around the Bay Area.

    And–to make matters unimaginably worse–the bodies inside were ground up, and used as overspread to level out train tracks, and build massive infrastructure (like the Angel Island Immigration complex.)

    “How was this possible?” (You may ask yourself.)

    Wouldn’t someone be able to tell there were bodies inside of these mounds?

    Yes. People could tell there were bodies in the mounds.

    Even though some news stories feature witnesses who described bones disintegrating, or “turning to dust” as soon as they were handled…. People are still finding skeletons in places like Alameda, California, whenever they dig somewhere for the first time in a hundred years–which isn’t hard to do when many houses in Alameda are 100 years old.

    In spite of the desecration, and destruction visited on hundreds of shellmounds here in the San Francisco Bay Area, many still survive. And a surprising amount shellmounds survive intact.

    The most well known, “intact” shellmounds in the Bay Area reside in the Coyote Hills Regional Park. They are known as the “Ryan” and “Patterson” Mounds.

    They join a long list of shellmounds which have been reported upon and studied over the past 100 years or more.

    This list includes (but is not limited to):

    • Ellis Landing (Contra Costa)
    • Emeryville (Alameda)
    • West Berkeley (Alameda)
    • San Bruno Mound (San Mateo)
    • Miller Mound (Colusa)
    • Alameda Shellmound (Alameda)
    • Ryan Mound, and Patterson Mound (Alameda)
    • Burton Mound (Santa Barbara)
    • Herzog Mound (Sacramento)

    … Just to name a few.

    Excerpts of Illustrations from “Shell midden” surveys in SoCal showing shellmounds in situ:

    Many of the ancestors and artifacts exhumed and stolen from these mounds reside in the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, on the University of California, Berkeley Campus.

    These objects and human remains were taken during a period of “salvage archaeology“. Which was a period of intense extractive and exploitive research into Native American Language, Arts, Culture and Religion under the premise that the “Aboriginal Indians of North America” would soon become “extinct”.

    Obviously, much of this work was made easier by the dispossession, missionization, forced internment (on reservations), and annihilation, that Indigenous People endured since First Contact with Europeans.

    Just as Indigenx, Native American, First Nation and all First People of this place survived colonization: so did their shellmounds.

    It’s up to us to break the cycle of destruction. The cycle of purposely disconnecting people from the places they come from. And then destroying those places (literally) for no other reason than the speculative amount of value or resources the land is worth.

    One of the ways we can put the earth back into balance is by letting those who are from this earth gain access to their ancestors; and traditional places (like hunting camps) and resources (like a river) which provide a tribal cultural benefit.

    Traditional tribal hunting grounds provide a tribal cultural benefit as source of traditional sustenance…. A river (or certain parts of it) where fish are caught, or plants or other things are gathered, is a natural resource which provides a tribal cultural benefit.

    There is an air gap between the idea of land stewardship as a Native American landscaping service; and land stewardship through traditional cultural practices which have shaped much of the natural ecosystems of the Bay Area for over 10,000 years.

    Render of a shellmound on the shore of the Carquinez Strait.

    The mounds which still exist are not flat; have not been dug out; and are certainly not parking lots, transit stations, or shopping malls.

    Parking lots are not “undeveloped” space.

    Parking lots are not “open space”.

    Parking lots have been levelled, packed, and paved.

    …Just because parking lots are flat does not mean the land “isn’t developed”.

    You need to know this:

    When we talk about saving sacred sites. We’re talking about real sacred sites. Places which have been spared from development, either by ignorance, or by luck.

    Render of a shellmound across the bay from San Francisco. Possibly in Albany, or El Cerrito.

    Shellmounds are a part of the natural environment.

    Shellmounds support the ecosystems they reside in.

    Shellmounds are not parking lots!

    Aside from the spiritual impact of shellmounds to their surrounding areas: shellmounds today provide habitat for plants and wildlife where that habitat is endangered–and, under constant threat of development.

    You can help protect sacred land by protecting the environment around it.

    You can help protect sacred land by advocating for its conservation, and return to the San Francisco Bay Area Ohlone Tribe: the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe.

    While support for land trusts,
    and ideas like “rematriation” are wonderful….

    Fundraising campaigns like “Shuumi Land Taxtake away from the real causes of Ohlone Tribal Recognition, Ohlone Tribal Sovereignty, and Ohlone Ancestral Land Back.

    Ohlone people deserve respect and deference. When you give your land acknowledgment or money, do your research first. Don’t confuse non-profit corporations with actual tribes.


    *The Shellmounds section of this website has more links to information.

  • BART Decolonized: Travel the Indigenous Bay

    It’s The Bay

    The Indigenous Bay, that is.

    Alameda Native History Project has remixed the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) System Map to show:

    • Bay Area Tribal Regions
    • Station Names
    • Indigenous IATA [Airport] Codes

    Travel the Indigenous Bay with Native Pride!

    A small run of prints are available now on our merch page.

    Get yours before they run out!

    For real, though, once they run out, it’s going to be a minute before another run is printed. And you’ll be forced to make due with one of our other awesome maps.

  • Sogorea Te Land Trust is Not an Ohlone Organization

    Here’s a breakdown of how these articles are misleading, and what the truth is behind Ohlone Land Back:

    1. The “West Berkeley Shellmound” is Not Being Given Back

    The Parking Lot was bought for ~$27 Million Dollars.

    Nothing about this is an act of charity, or legitimate “return” of native land. The fact that the property being purchased is a 2.2 acre parking lot–instead of a real shellmound–is kind of embarrassing; especially because these headlines are so wrong.

    Just because the City of Berkeley City Council voted on an agenda item with the title:

    Adopt first reading of an Ordinance authorizing the City to acquire the portion of the West Berkeley Shellmound located at 1900 Fourth Street and also authorizing the City to transfer that property to the Sogorea Te Land Trust, thereby returning the land to the Ohlone people.

    City Council Special Meeting eAgenda March 12, 2024

    Does not mean that land is actually being returned to Ohlone people.

    It’s a conclusory statement based on the bandwagon fallacy: that donating money, creating cultural easements, and transferring property to the Sogorea Te Land Trust benefits Ohlone people.

    And this false equivocation between a non-Ohlone organization, and “The Ohlone People” is dangerously close to the impersonation of a tribe. Especially when the transfer of money, property and benefits meant for the enjoyment of an Ohlone Tribe goes to an organization which is neither a Tribe, nor Ohlone.

    2. The City of Berkeley did not Buy the West Berkeley Shellmound

    The City of Berkeley only chipped in about $1.5 Million worth of City Money. That’s less than 10% of the total purchase cost of the West Berkeley Parking Lot–which is $27 Million Dollars.

    For comparison, Sogorea Te Land Trust kicked in about $5M along with the $20M donation the trust recently received from the Katalay Foundation. So, the Katalay Foundation is the primary underwriter for this purchase.

    I just want to note that the Valuation for the land at 1900 4th Street, which are two parcels [57-2101-1-3, and 57-2101-5], is currently $9,690,000.00 (or $9.69M).

    …And also let you know that the valuation for this property jumped between 2022, and 2023; from a combined (Land + Improvements) value of $1,306,140, to its current, $9,690,000. That’s a difference of $8,383,860 in value, in just one year. I’m not sure if this has to do with $60K worth of delinquent property taxes being paid in December 2023. But there hasn’t been any obvious change on the ground which would indicate a higher valuation.

    All of this is to say that a purchase cost of $27 Million Dollars is way more than what the land is worth.

    So, there’s actually a really good chance the inflated cost of the property includes legal fees and losses involved in the decade long struggle of the property.

    And, if that’s true, this is much more of a win for the developers than it is for anyone else. Like, $18 Million Dollars more.

    3. Sogorea Te Land Trust is Not An Ohlone Tribe or Organization

    Sogorea Te is not even an Ohlone word. Sogorea Te is a place name for Glen Cove, in Vallejo, which is currently Wintun and Patwin Territory.

    Sogorea Te Land Trust is a non-profit Land Trust that’s supposedly gathering money to purchase [Ohlone] land to return to indigenous people; support “rematriation”; and create urban gardens, and community centers.

    However….

    None of the money Sogorea Te Land Trust has raised, has benefited any actual Bay Area Tribe.

    Not the Yocha Dehe Wintun Tribe, Wintu Tribe of Northern California, Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco, or the Costanoan Rumsen Carmel Tribe, just to name a few.

    The only group benefitting from the Sogorea Te Land Trust’s work seems to be a corporation posing as a Tribal Government, the Confederated Villages of the Lisjan Nation, INC.

    But the fact that:

    • Sogorea Te Land Trust is so often being confused with an Ohlone Tribe, or representing an Ohlone Tribe; and the fact that,
    • Sogorea Te is now accepting land on behalf of “the Ohlone people”; and the fact that,
    • Sogorea Te Land Trust is not correcting this misidentification, false equivocation, or,
      • Making it clear that the Sogorea Te Land Trust is not an Ohlone tribe, and does not speak for one…

    Means that the Sogorea Te Land is getting closer and closer to impersonating a tribe, or at least benefitting from the false impression that the Land Trust is an Ohlone Tribe or Ohlone Tribal Organization–which it is not.

    4. The West Berkeley Shellmound is not “endangered”

    It’s destroyed.

    But it’s easier for people to believe they are helping to “undo”, or “right centuries of wrong” by allowing a Land Trust to purchase an insignificant piece of what’s left of the West Berkeley Shellmound.

    Wallace, W.; Lathrap, D. (1975) Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Vol. 29, “West Berkeley (CA-Ala-307): A Culturally Stratified Shellmound on the East Shore of San Francisco Bay” https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4616g044

    The West Berkeley Shellmound has been declared “one of the most endangered historic places” in the U.S. But it’s a parking lot.

    Out of the over 425 historic shellmounds in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Berkeley Shellmound doesn’t even make the list of “endangered places” when you compare it to the shellmounds actively being quarried in San Rafael and Richmond.

    I would argue: the only reason the West Berkeley Shellmound has received so much attention is because it’s a flat, empty space which is easy to fit a hundred protestors on top of. [Other shellmounds are behind fences, and protected by Oil, Quarry and Other Industries’ Private Security Companies.]

    But, as a sacred site that needs protecting, the West Berkeley Shellmound is at the bottom of the list–mostly because it’s already 👏🏽 been 👏🏽 destroyed 👏🏽; and, also, because the Spenger’s Parking Lot is not where the shellmound used to be.

    Map of West Berkeley showing CA-Ala-307 (West Berkeley Shellmound)

    The historic location of the West Berkeley Shellmound is on the other side of the train tracks, under what’s now mostly a Truitt & White Lumber Yard.

    5. Lisjan has never been the name of any Ohlone Tribe

    It’s not even an Ohlone word.

    It’s actually a Nisenan place name for “Pleasanton”.

    Lisjan (or “lisyan”) does not appear in any historic mission records–or anywhere else–until 1921: when a Muwekma Ohlone ancestor (Jose Guzman) said “Yo soy lisjanes“, to define himself as someone from the Bernal, and Alisal Rancherias, in what’s known as Pleasanton today.

    Aside from the fact that “Lisjan” appears in an interview of Muwekma ancestor Jose Guzman, which occurred about 87 years after the secularization of the Missions in California: there is nothing to prove that an Ohlone village named Lisjan ever existed. In fact, the only thing passages referring to “Lisjan” prove is that “Lisjan” is the place name for Pleasanton, California; not East Oakland–where Corrina Gould claims the “Lisjan” homeland is.

    To dive in deeper to the references of “Lisjan” in the 1921 interview of Jose Guzman: Guzman was busy discussing how his family came from the North–which was Nisenan territory, where the word “Lisjan” came from–to Pleasanton. In this passage, Guzman talked about his family’s history, and of his grandfather speaking Russian.

    But, let’s be clear: Lisjan is not an Ohlone word at all.

    So a woman calling herself the chairperson of an Ohlone “tribe” (which is supposedly a “confederation” of Ohlone villages) named after Pleasanton, but based in East Oakland, should be considered extremely suspect. 🚩🚩🚩

    6. Confederated Villages of the Lisjan Nation, INC. is a Corporation, Not a Tribe.

    Corporations Are Not Tribes.

    Corporations can never be tribes.

    Especially non-profit corporations.

    The exercise of sovereignty is not a charitable purpose.

    Real tribal governments are tax exempt because they’re actually a sovereign nation under a Constitution. A lot of Corporations claim to be Tribal Governments, but they are lying. It’s fraud, straight out.

    Tribes can create corporations through State Law (State-Chartered Corporation), through Tribal Law (Tribally Chartered Corporation), or through Section 17 of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.

    But Corporations are not Tribal Governments, because Tribal Governments are Sovereign Nations which exist outside of the normal U.S. Corporate Structure.

    7. Corrina Gould isn’t a tribal chairperson.

    There are a number of different reasons why Corrina Gould is not a Tribal Chairperson. The fact that the Confederated Villages of the Lisjan Nation, INC. is not a tribe is the strongest. And it’s evidenced on the faces of everyone you see in every picture of CVL’s “tribal members”.

    Real Tribal Leaders are actually voted for by Tribal Members who represent all the different families which make up a Tribe.

    Look at the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area:

    Muwekma Ohlone Tribal Members pose for a picture in San Jose, California during a ceremony to commemorate the removal of the racist Fallon statue.

    The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe was federally recognized; they have a documented 10,000 year history continuous habitation in the San Francisco Bay Area; not just Federal Documentation, but family trees, and DNA documentation directly linked to archaeological sites.

    The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe is comprised of all the remaining known Indian lineages who survived the California Missions. They have over 614 enrolled tribal members.

    The reason why the Muwekma Ohlone tribe seems like it’s “The San Jose Tribe”, or is only in Santa Clara is because Mission San Jose was down in Fremont. That’s where all the “Indians” got let out from when the Mission systems closed down. So that’s why the Governor issued an order re: squatters on Mission Lands; and why the present-day Muwekma population is distributed the way it is. [That is a completely different historical topic for another day.]

    “But we have members all over the Bay Area,” Muwekma Chairwoman Charlene Nijmeh told me. This includes places outside of San Jose, like Castro Valley, Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco–and even in Manteca, and Sacramento, and beyond.

    But this is an argument about Traditional, Hereditary Muwekma Territory. And that territory includes Berkeley, and Oakland, and Alameda, and Albany. This whole area is Muwekma Ohlone Territory. The only reason they’re not here is because they haven’t got their land back.

    When you look closer, the “tribe” Corrina Gould purports to represent is comprised only of her own immediate family members.

    Official Portraits of the Confederated Villages of the Lisjan Nation, Inc. have never shown many (if any) members of the tribe Corrina Gould purports to be the Chairwoman of.

    Take this into consideration when you compare the Confederated Villages of the Lisjan Nation, INC. to real tribes, like the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area–which has 600+ members from many different families, who have well-documented, hereditary links to their land and ancestors.

    The pictures of the Confederated Villages of the Lisjan Nation, INC. usually have 5 or 6 actual Ohlone descendants, and the rest of the crew is comprised of Gould’s non-indigenous (“white”) supporters–who are no more Tribal Members than Ward Churchill or Elizabeth Hoover.

    Corrina Gould capitalizes on the public’s confusion about who Ohlone people are and what a tribe is.

    That’s why so many people mention the “Chochenyo Ohlone”, and the “Lisjan Ohlone” without ever knowing who they’re actually supporting.

    If Corrina Gould were really trying to educate the public, she would have told you the truth a long time ago, and actually stepped aside to let the real tribe she came from benefit from the work she purports to do “for Ohlone people”–instead of doing it for her personal benefit, and the benefit of her immediate family members.

    It’s up to you to educate yourself before you give money, land, or support to Native People.

    We get it, you feel guilty about what your ancestors did Native Americans.

    But your desperation to absolve yourself of your White Guilt, and the Sins of Colonization lead you into problematic “fixes”, following straw man causes which end up contributing to the erasure of the very people you’re trying to help.

    Which leads me to this last point….

    8. If you really want to help Ohlone People:

    Stop giving money to the Sogorea Te Land Trust. It does not go to Ohlone People.

    Support the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area as they fight to regain Federal Tribal Recognition on the Trail of Truth!

    The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area is the real, bona fide, tribe of this area.

  • Alameda Oak Tree Registry

    You can contribute to the annual Alameda Acorn Harvest by giving us access to the ground around your Oak Trees. (Yes, it’s that easy.)

    During the Alameda Oak Tree Survey, we identified 405 properties; which host at least one Oak Tree. Those locations were cross-referenced with the Alameda County Parcel Map; resulting in the discovery of 440 parcels.

    Is your property on this map?

    Assessor’s Parcel Number List

    This number can be found on your Deed, Property Tax Records, or by searching the Alameda County Assessor’s Office.

    Mobile-Friendly link to the Google Sheet.

    Alameda is the unceded territory of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area.

    Help reduce waste and conserve culture by allowing us to gather Acorns on your property.

    Stay tuned for more news & information about our 2024-2025 Programming.