Meet with us Wednesday morning, July 31st to meet your fellow volunteers, learn about the Indigenous Land Lab, and help plan the future of our restoration/conservation nursery and demo garden!
Everyone is welcome. All skillsets are valuable. You don’t have to get dirty to contribute. You can be a great grant writer or donation getter, and that’s just as awesome!
Proposed Agenda
Welcome & Intro
Report on Harvest & Gathering Operations
Status Update on the Land Lab
New Developments
Land Lab Design
Timeline for Land Lab Prep & Construction
Acorn Granaries & Harvest
Budget discussion
Plan upcoming Work Days, Workshops, Etc.
Prepare for Acorn Granary Construction at the Indigenous Land Lab
Meeting Info
This is an Online Meeting using Google Meet. You do not need to download the app to attend the meeting, you can use your web browser to connect.
👉🏽Use your Chrome Browser or Google Meet App for the best experience.
June 24, 1979; Gay American Indians banner at Civic Center during San Francisco “Gay Freedom Day Parade”. Photo by Joe Altman.
It’s official, the first and oldest Two-Spirit Society in the Nation, the Gay American Indians, will be appearing as their own contingent in the San Francisco Pride Parade to celebrate their 49th year in existence.
This year’s (2024) theme is “Visibility is Our Essence“.
What’s more, homophobia and learned anti-traditional behavior on reservations across Native America helped form a mass exodus of LGBTQ Native American people from their homelands, into the cities.
Because of the discrimination and ignorance both at home, and in the Castro (and other cities), LGBTQ Native American people suffered from depression, and languished from being kept out of and separated from the social support networks enjoyed by our white gay counter-parts. This situation only compounded a suicide and substance abuse epidemic–which started soon after the Relocation Act (of 1956), and still plagues our communities today.
Just because we were weren’t let into businesses and bars on the Castro certainly did not mean we were spared from “Gay Diseases” like, AIDS–which ravaged the Gay American Indian community. In fact, the AIDS Epidemic hollowed out the Native American LGBTQ community worldwide.
And, the ignorance and homophobia surrounding the virus created an impenetrable stigma which resulted in the unnecessary pain and suffering, and indignities seen across the Gay Community, but which profoundly Two-Spirit People in their own Native American communities–some of which would not let their own relatives be buried in their own cemeteries, on their own homelands.
HIV/AIDS testing and care services are still needed in Native America.
The other 36% of people who are not on medicine may not be at fault. They may be part of the 20% that doesn’t even know they’re infected; they may be unable to receive the care they need because of stigma from within their rural healthcare communities (which I have experienced first-hand) or because of the myriad barriers to gaining access to, and retaining, HIV/AIDS care and treatments.
The amount of research The lack of testing & research done on the prevalence, rates, and effects of HIV/AIDS on Native American People and Communities means that most Health & Service Agencies are blind to the true extent and impact of the epidemic on our friends and relatives. This issue became front and center when, in 1987, the late Jodi Harry became the first Native (that we know of) to be diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. [Harry would later take his own life.]
GAI will never forget the brothers and sisters we lost to HIV/AIDS. And we honor them every day we continue to breathe and fight for the rights and representation of our Two-Spirits relatives everywhere.
The Term “Two-Spirit”
… Refers to Native American people who do not fit the Western/European idea of what Men and Women are, and what their roles in society should be.
[The whole premise of this first sentence is offensive to Native American people because we honestly don’t care what white people think of us. And, it’s for the very reason that all People of Color have been disregarded, or all together regarded as a monolith, that has led to countless inequities in every facet of our existence in society, from healthcare to sports. In fact, the consideration and explanation of People of Color by people who treat mayonnaise as a spice, and consider the sun an enemy has never really worked out for us, at all.]
The term “two-spirit” came about as a preferred moniker to the term “berdache“–which is a french slur meaning “boy whore”–and is widely offensive to LGBTQ Native American People from a diverse plethora of tribes, communities, and backgrounds–and especially Lesbian Women, and people Assigned Female At Birth (AFAB.)
Because of the work the Gay American Indians did in bringing forth their research, and the opinions of researchers like Will Roscoe, Paula Gunn Allen, Maurice Kenny, in the first Gay American Indians Anthology: “Living the Spirit”….
… And comments and narratives from Two-Spirit People like GAI co-founders Barbara Cameron, and Randy Burns; Erna Pahe; and people like notable activist and Tribal Law Expert Clyde Hall during the 1993 American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting….
In 2025, next year, the Gay American Indians will be celebrating their 50th Anniversary. And we are going all out. We are going to be creating story boards and presentations to honor:
GAI co-founder Barbara Cameron, and her legacy as an activist, SF Pride Board Member, published author, and more.
Memorial to GAI Members who Lost Their Lives to HIV/AIDS
Commemorating GAI Veteran and Their Service To Our Country
History of Gay American Indians over Five Decades, from 1975 to 2025
If you are a GAI Member, or are an archivist, photographer, or someone who has articles, photos, recordings or other things which you think will help us tell the story of the Gay American Indians’ 50 Year Legacy, please reach out to us directly so we can arrange a time to talk about your collection/item.
If you would like to show your support for Gay American Indians, and Two-Spirits everywhere, by marching with us in this, or next years’ San Francisco Pride Parade, you can reach out to us by emailing: gai@nativehistoryproject.org.
Check out GAI’s event Friday, June 28th:
For more info email GAI@nativehistoryproject.org; or call Randy Burns (650) 359-6473
Many events and happenings during Two Spirit Pride week are being held at the Waller Urban Retreat Center, in the Haight Ashbury District of San Francisco.
The Waller Center is serving as a Pop-Up Native American Retreat Center during the week; as the Two Spirit Queer Alliance hosts GAI Alumni, Elders and Native Community Members from all over the nation.
Check out the Two Spirit Momentum Calendar here to find out more about the Events Planned!
In the Indigenous Bay Area, water and life have always gone hand-in-hand. It was impossible to tell where the sea truly ended on this coast. Even inland, the San Francisco Regions’s natural aquatic resources are used with reverence, and traded throughout the region (and beyond.) Salmon connect the sea to the rivers, streams, and lakes of California, and they are a living link shared by many Indigenous People in California.
Did the First People of the Bay Area Benefit from the Waterbodies and Waterways through Sustenance Fishing?
It is without any doubt that the First People of the place we now call the San Francisco Bay Area have used, worn, consumed, or cultivated almost all of the things in the pre-contact environment. This includes the natural aquatic resources of the San Francisco Bay Region.
You already know about salmon; edible plants, like kelp, eelgrass; but, think even smaller, like byssal thread–the stuff that holds mussels together in their beds–which was mainly used as an adhesive. These are the Traditional & Cultural Tribal Beneficial uses.
It’s established that Indigenous people engaged in Sustenance Fishing, individually.
As a group, Tribes engaged in Tribal Sustenance Fishing by working together to catch or gather larger numbers of natural aquatic resources like fish, shellfish, and vegetation, to be able to feed their group (or Tribe).
The shellmounds’ very existence is proof that this is true because of the sustained consumption, gathering, and use of shellfish it would take to gather the amount of shells used for the burials, and cemermonies, that shellmounds physically represent, and immortalize [as tangible evidence of this use.]
Consider also, the sheer amount of tools, currency, jewelry, and clothing, which is made from shells proves a continuous Tribal Cultural Beneficial Use for the last 10,000 years.
Surely, the shellmounds are the emodiment of the Traditional, Cultural, and Sustenance, Tribal Beneficial Uses for the WaterBodies of the San Francisco Bay Region?
Yes, Indigenous People have engaged in Sustenance Fishing, and Tribal Sustenance Fishing in all of the waterbodies in the San Francisco Bay Region for at least 10,000 years. And, that Sustenance-based use directly influences the innumerable Traditional, Cultural, [and Ceremonial] uses in First People’s societies.
Natural Aquatic Resources and Indigenous Ceremony
The less opaque “Tribal Beneficial Use” of the waterways and waterbodies of the San Francisco Bay Region (or “Basin”) are their ceremonial uses and connections.
This is because ceremonies for things like funerals, and ancestor worship has not been performed at shellmounds regularly in the region since approximately the 1770’s [which is when the Bay Area began to be invaded, and occupied, by Spain, Mexico, and the United States (in that order.)
But not all was lost. The First People of the San Francisco Bay Area are alive and well.]
Shellmounds, today, exist on private property, and are inaccessible to the Indigenous people whose blood relations are buried there. While it is difficult to compel land owners to grant Easements For Tribal Beneficial Uses… Government Agencies and Departments should create policies granting such Cultural Easements For Tribal Beneficial Uses upon request.
It should be assumed that water, and the proximity to it, played a large role in the selection of the location shellmounds, because shellmounds are found almost exclusively near the shores and riverbanks of the San Francisco Bay Area.
We should also assume that funerary practices included natural aquatic resources (like shellfish, fish, vegetation) which were gathered and used as ceremonial objects, to make special clothing, for the ceremony, or things given to the decedent for use in the afterlife; or, to protect their body on earth; or, for other myriad reasons, including: it was their favorite [object here.]
It’s not surprising then, that the amount of direct influence shellmounds and the waterways and waterbodies of the San Francisco Bay Region have on each other leave almost no corner of the Bay Area untouched.
Composite map of San Francisco Bay Basin Plan Waterbodies shown in lines and polygons.
There are three sets of data here. Just like there are three colors.
The green features show the San Francisco Bay Basin Waterbodies.
Yellow features are part of the wider network of waterbodies to which shellmounds are connected.
Red features show where shellmounds and basin waterbodies are intrinsically linked.
Fix geometries. (It helps to make a spatial index.)
Reproject to NAD83 California State Plane Zone 3
Find features for layers which matched the location of shellmounds within my margin of error, and with consideration to the average size of shellmounds recorded.
You know, then do the cosmetic stuff, as you can see in the picture above.
Consider the Confidentiality of Tribal Cultural Resources
Is this a bad time to point out that N.C. Nelson’s Shellmound Map was hand-plotted, using a completely different geographic coordinate reference system? I think that matters….
Use This Information As Another Reason to Listen to Indigenous Voices
It is an ethical obligation for Indigenous People to be included, respected, and listened to in the planning process. Not just to check the boxes on the Environmental Impact Assessment, or after a burial has already been disturbed.
Tribal Cultural Resources, and Tribal Beneficial Uses must also be taken into account when facilities Water Treatment Plants, Oil Refineries, and Quarries, seek to renew their license to operate.
Especially when those facilities generate large quantities of hazardous waste, endanger nearby communities, and deprive indigenous people of their beneficial use of natural aquatic resources and Tribal Cultural Resources through:
The illegal occupation of unceded land. (No, for real, the treaties were never ratified. Indigenous people in the Bay Area never gave away anything, and never will.)
Destruction of Tribal Cultural Resources to create infrastructure, like levees, landfills, and larger things like water treatment plants, and municipal dumps (many are on the shores of the San Francisco Bay Basin).
Forced Extinction and Endangerment of Native Plants and Animals, especially whales, fish, shellfish and aquatic vegetation.
The spoiling of natural resources through pollution, dumping, and paving.
… Among other things.
The Shellmounds of the San Francisco Bay Basin are not only Tribal Cultural Resources, they are intrinsically connected with the Tribal Beneficial Uses of this region’s natural aquatic resources.
Extracted Basin Plan Lines and PolygonsExtracted Basin Plan Lines and Polygons (Dissolved by Waterbody Name)
Both are fronted by Corrina Gould, an Ohlone woman, who has managed to command the attention and monies from thousands of people in the San Francisco Bay Area, and beyond.
Corrina Gould has been lauded for her fundraising to establish urban gardens; create ad-hoc Ohlone language programs; and even negotiate for a cultural easement at a well-known park, in the City of Oakland, California.
But Corrina Gould’s work has been done without the inclusion, consultation, or participation of her own tribe.
And the victories that Gould has managed to score, however shallow—and in the name of “all Ohlone people”—do not actually benefit all Ohlone people. In fact, Corrina Gould is actively diverting money and support away from her own tribe.
Shuumi Land Tax, (fundraising donations) collected by the Sogorea Te Land Trust, does not go to all Ohlone People.
“Shuumi” stays within the Sogorea Te Land Trust, and is only disbursed to Corrina Gould’s personal corporation: the Confederated Villages of the Lisjan Nation, INC.–which, in turn, only benefits Gould’s immediate family.
[For reference, Corrina Gould’s immediate family are:
(1) herself, (2) Cheyenne Gould, (3) Deja Gould, and (4) Chatah Gould.
For all intents and purposes, these are the only members of what Corrina Gould alleges is a “confederation of villages”.]
And…. While Corrina Gould claims that her non-profit corporation is a Tribal Government, it is not. And, despite Corrina Gould’s claims that she is a Tribal Chairwoman, she is not.
Tribal Chairpersons are voted for by the enrolled members of a tribe, in a democratic process which all legitimate Native American tribes are required to employ, per the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Not only do enrolled tribal members vote for the Tribal Chairpersons; they vote for Tribal Council Members; and vote for or against the laws, regulations and actions taken by their Tribe.
At most, Gould was “elected” as CEO by the Board of Directors of her corporation.
But, in reality, Corrina Gould is the self-appointed Chief Executive Officer of a corporation she formed to affect the illusion of legitimacy; a shell corporation she could use not just for her own personal monetary gain, but also satisfy her narcissistic need to be the only indian in the room—the end-all, be-all expert on Ohlone “indianness”.
Gabriel Duncan
The fact that the three officers of the Confederated Villages of the Lisjan Nation, INC.are:Corrina Gould, Deja Gouldand “Chayenne Zepeda” (AKA, “Cheyenne Gould”), should be a red flag regarding the legitimacy of the corporation as a “tribal government”, and “confederation of villages”.
The name of Gould’s corporation itself; a so-called “confederation of villages” forming a “nation” would imply the Confederated Villages of the Lisjan Nation, INC. is a large group of people—presumably, Ohlone people—who represent a number of different Ohlone villages in the San Francisco Bay Area.
If this were true: one would expect to see a roll or roster of villages; articles of confederationsigned by representatives of all the villages in the confederation.
The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe is composed of all surviving lineages of Missions San Jose, Delores, and Santa Clara.
Muwekma boasts over 700 enrolled tribal members; and a proven, documentedcontiguous history of living in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 10,000 years.
Muwekma is a Chochenyo word which means la gente (“the people”.) This is a commonality, for tribes’ names to literally mean “us”, or “the people”. The reason why is mostly philosophical, and only a teensy bit linguistic; but this is true for the majority of groups of people when asked “what do you call yourselves?” [Indigenous People have the right to name themselves, and be referred to by the name they choose. UN Resolution 61/295; adopted Sept-13-2007.]
Alisal was the Land Grant Rancheria Muwekma people lived and worked on after the secularization of the missions, as vaqueros.
Much of this land was later bought by the Bernal family (which became Pleasanton), and a southern portion was purchased by Randolph Hearst.
Muwekma people have called themselves by a few names: Lisjannes, Muwekma, the Mission San Jose Band of Indians, and Ohlone.
However, Ohlone people have never called themselves “Chochenyo”, or “The Chochenyo”, because Chochenyo is an Ohlone Language, not a tribal group.
And Muwekma people have never referred to themselves as the “Verona Band of Alameda County”; this was a name used to identify Muwekma people by the U.S. Government, used in their own internal BIA/Department of Interior documents.
Aside from the fact that:
“Lisjan” is a Chochenyo and Nisenan name for Pleasanton, California; that,
Corrina Gould’s corporation is not a confederation of Ohlone villages, or a Tribal Government; and that,
Shuumi Land Tax doesn’t actually go to the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area…
There is the very real and (largely) unreported pattern of hostility and contempt that Corrina Gould harbors for any person who tries to advocate for, or even dares to mention the name “Muwekma”.
In the four years the Alameda Native History Project has been operating, I have come into contact with countless indigenous people who have (tried to) work with Corrina Gould in various professional and academic capacities. These credible people, experts in their fields, sought me out, to tell me about their experiences with Corrina Gould, after I publicly withdrew my support, and admitted my own mistake in ever co-signing the narrative that Gould had appropriated (almost word-for-word) from the history of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area.
This project completely, and uncompromisingly protects, and will continue to protectthe anonymity of our sources; because, some of these sources are afraid of being subjected to even more harassment and possibly violence from Corrina Gould’s supporters than they have already experienced. [However, we are not afraid. And, this topic–and the subjects within this essay–need to be discussed and brought to the general public; because they are newsworthy and important.]
This public mis-understanding is especially problematic because it means that Corrina Gould is diverting money and support away from the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Franciso Bay Area; the tribe from which Corrina Gould is a recognized descendant. [Alameda City Council, “Listening Session and Partnership Opportunities with Local Indigenous People and Ohlone Tribes“, Dec-6-2022]
So, while people generously donate to a corporation, which they believe will help all Ohlone people….
While the Sogorea Te Land Trust, and Corrina Gould, continue to profit from the public’s belief their donations fund programs which benefit a much larger group of Ohlone people than they actually do….
Ohlone people will continue to suffer harms from colonization and political erasure–not just from the United States, and Spanish Governments’ policies of eradication and assimilation–but also, from misinformation and diversion by someone who would rather exploit their own indigenous identity (, and the public’s genuine good will and support for Ohlone people) for personal gain.
These are the top two priorities of the indigenous people of the San Francisco Bay Area. Once known as “Costanoans” because they, Muwekma Ohlone people, are among the First Peoples of the California Coast.
Let them know that the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area has been in the Bay Area for over 10,000 years; and they deserve a land base on their own tribal homeland.
Muwekma deserves reaffirmation of their status as a Federally Recognized Tribe. Muwekma has the right to have a land base on their ancestral homeland, in a region where they are in danger of being gentrified and priced out of.
Collage art of a shellmound with historic Alameda newspaper articles in the background, with the title words “Save Shellmounds Not Parking Lots”. Artwork by Gabriel Duncan.
While these places may be on our traditional homelands, and within our tribal territories: Brownfields properties and Supferfund sites are neither appropriate, nor respectful gifts of atonement to the Indigenous People the entire Western Hemisphere was stolen from.
It is a waste of resources for indigenous non-profiteers, like Corrina Gould, to focus primarily on post-industrial sites, like the place she alleges is the “West Berkeley Shellmound“.
It is an improper use of our allies’ time, energy–and money–to have them marching around an empty parking lot, and futilely protesting an established and thriving shopping mall (Bay Street Emeryville).
All of this takes away from the reality: Ohlone cultural resources in the San Francisco Bay Area are being destroyed by development at an alarming rate.
Without intervention, Native American cultural resources, like shellmounds, and the fragile ecosystems they inhabit and have supported for over 10,000 years, will be destroyed. Paved over, without a second thought for anything other than their “fair market value”.
Parking Lots and Abandoned Post-Industrial Spaces are not a priority; compared to Federal Recognition, Federal Land Grants, and the establishment of a Tribal Land-base and an official, recognized, Ohlone tribal reservation, and sovereign tribal territory.
Urban Gardens do not address the Land Back movement in a relevant way.
In fact, PR events like the dedication of part of Joaquin Miller Park, in Oakland, and the renaming of a park in Alameda, are completely irrelevant to the actual cause of land back, rematriating the land, and the real priorities of bona fide tribal governments, like the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area–a tribe Corrina Gould would be a member of, if she weren’t so focused on personal gain, instead of advocating for her own tribe, and all Ohlone people.
As long as people realize their time and energy is better spent on an achievable goal, like Federal Re-Recognition & The Establishment of a Muwekma Land-base: Land Back is something we can see happen within our lifetimes.
For more information on how you can help Ohlone people regain Federal Recognition, and get their Land Back, visit the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area’s website at: http://muwekma.org
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”.
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.
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.)
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:
Shellmounds are, first and foremost, cemeteries; and should be respected, not disturbed.
The actual, pre-contact, population density of Native Americans in the Bay Area is grossly under-stated.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.]
Use satellite, photogrammetry, Light Detection and Ranging, and other imaging available to analyze said coordinate for specific elevation and topographical qualities.
Make a list targets to investigate, and perform a preliminary investigation to determine if further focus is warranted.
