Tag: shellmounds of the san francisco bay area

  • 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. 🙌🏼

  • Alameda Shellmound Map

    There’s a new map showing the Shellmounds of Alameda.

    It transposes the historic alameda shoreline onto the modern-day silohuette of the city. The map shows historic wetlands and tidal marshes, and the four Alameda Shellmounds.

    Map of the
    Shellmounds of Huchiun,
    ~Muwekma Ohlone Territory~
    Showing the Area Now Known As The
    City of Alameda

    By: Gabriel Duncan

    Description of The Map:

    The base map is comprised of the present-day shoreline of the Alameda and Bay Farm area, indicated by a gray-hashed outline; with the land-mass filled in white. The overlay to this map shows the pre-1900 shoreline of Alameda as a solid black outline.

    The Areas shaded in green comprise historical wetlands in the Alameda and Oakland Area. Alameda and Oakland were once connected. Alameda used to be a lush oak tree forest (Coast Live Oak), with verdant wetlands, and a thriving ecosystem. Alameda was also called la Bolsa de Encinal, or Encinal de San Antonio (a land grant reference.) First Peoples called this place Huchiun.

    The green dots (or markers) indicate the approximate positions of historic Ohlone shellmounds present around 1908, and before. The shellmound locations indicated in this map were compiled from three different sources:

    1. N.C. Nelson’s “Shellmounds of the San Francisco Bay Region” [1909, University Press.]
    2. Imelda Merlin’s “Alameda: a Geological History”, [1977, Friends of the Alameda Free Library]
    3. Oakland Tribune [“Skull reveals mound”, Feb. 11, 1945]

    What are Shellmounds?

    Shellmounds are the resting place of the First Peoples of this area, Ohlone people. Ohlone people built these ancient structures over thousands of years. There are so many mussel shells in a shellmound they have a bluish tinge. Shells were deposited on land by birds, as well as humans, and the natural course of the circle of coastal life.

    In the 1800’s until around 1980, Archaeologists and Historians thought that Ohlone people were extinct; and that these shellmounds were “trash heaps”. And they treated the mounds accordingly.

    Americans used the shells and bones inside the mounds to make aggregate for concrete; landfill for levees; overspread to grade train tracks; and even fertilize plants. Grave robbers stole things from the Ohlone people buried inside the mound, and sold them to museums or collectors. The famous shellmound that Mound Street is named after (the “Sather Mound”) was used to pave Bay Farm Road on multiple occasions.

    Shellmounds today are one of the most endangered historical sites in the Bay Area. But they still exist as a sacred resting place of the Ohlone ancestors. Alameda is the tribal homeland of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area, survivors of the Missions Fremont, Santa Clara, and Delores, and the Verona Band of Alameda County. For at least 10,000 years, Ohlone people have called this place home.

    Get an 24×18-inch copy of this map:

    Get this map as a thank-you gift for your donation of $25 or more to the Alameda Native History Project. 10% of your donation goes directly to the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area.

    References:

    1. Historic Wetlands; Gabriel Duncan 2023
    2. Historic Shoreline (1851-1877) Datasets produced by NOAA National Ocean Service
    3. Present-day Shoreline; City of San Francisco Department of Telecommunications and Information Services
    4. Tribal Regions; A Time of Little Choice: The Disintegration of Tribal Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area 1769-1810, Randall Milliken, Malki-Ballena Press, 1995
    5. Shellmounds of the San Francisco Bay Region, N.C. Nelson, University Press, 1909
    6. Alameda: A Geographical History, Imelda Merlin, Friends of the Alameda Free Library, 1977
    7. “Skull Reveals Mound”, Oakland Tribune, Feb. 11 1945
    8. Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area, Personal Interviews with Tribal Chairwoman Charlene Nijmeh, Vice Chairwoman Monica Arellano, Tribal Member Joey Torres
    9. Muwekma History Presentation to Alameda City Council, Alan Leventhal, Dec. 5 2022
    10. Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area Website, http://muwekma.org, Accessed Aug. 10, 2023
    11. “Road Paved with Bones Grewsome [sic] Covering On Bay Island Thoroughfare”, Alameda Daily Argus, Apr. 23, 1901
    12. “Fixing the Streets”, Alameda Daily Star, Aug. 13 1908
    13. “Mayor Has Idea on Roadbuilding: Takes Exception to Old Mound Being Used for Dressing on New Road”, Oakland Tribune, Oct. 9 1908
    14. “Routine Ruled the Meeting”, Alameda Daily Times, Sep. 29 1908
    15. “End Hauling Dirt to Island From Mound”, Oakland Tribune, Nov. 22 1908

    About the Cartographer

    Gabriel Duncan is the founder and principal researcher of the Alameda Native History Project. He is a recognized descendant of the Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute Tribe. Gabriel was adopted at birth, and born and raised in the city of Alameda, California. ANHP is devoted to researching and documenting the Indigenous History of Alameda, fostering indigenous representation and awareness in Alameda, and educating Alamedans about their local (living) history in a modern, nuanced way.


    NOTE: This map was updated on 08/17/2023 to show the “Pre-1900 Shoreline”, Historic Wetlands, and Present-Day Land-mass; which are layers 1-3 on the list of references, above. Subsequently, those references have also been updated to reflect this change.
    Please Note: A new version of the Alameda Shellmound Map (Version 2.0) was released on July 18, 2024.
  • Shellmounds: Spanish and American Influence on Indigenous Burial Practices and Shellmound Use

    A shellmound is a graveyard, a mortuary complex, an ancient structure. It’s a place where the first peoples who live along the coasts and rivers of California, used to bury their dead. This article briefly explores why that is.

    Spanish Influence on Indigenous Use of Shellmounds

    This changed when Spain Conquistador’s invaded the San Francisco bay area, on June 27, 1776, and established what’s known now as The Presidio, in San Francisco, California. [On July 4th, 1776, thirteen British colonies in North American declared their independence, and formed the United States.] Three months later, on October 9, 1776, is when Mission San Francisco de Assisi was founded and missionization of the Bay Area officially began.

    This missionization of local indigenous people can be characterized by the abduction, forced baptism, and slavery of Indigenous people by Spanish Priests and Conquistadors. And, the outright theft of natural resources (like food) which indigenous people had helped cultivate and depended upon for all of their food, medicine, building materials, etc.

    In spite of the homefield advantage, and larger numbers, indigenous people could not defeat the colonizing Spanish force.

    Spanish conquistadors were cruel, paranoid, psychopathic, mass murdering kleptomaniacs. Their expeditions were marked by massacres of unarmed people; looting of villages’ water, food and gold; and the enslavement of surviving indigenous people. Indigenous objections to the Spanish invaders were often met with attacks on villages, and public executions–a fear tactic meant to terrorize local indigenous people into submission.

    Spanish Missions are places where indigenous people were brainwashed into accepting their slavery and the belief that “indigenous people are inferior to Spanish” colonizers, conquistadors, and especially clergy. Indigenous people were indoctrinated into the Catholic labor system by Clergy through coercion, torture, and threat. And reinforced with food, personal living quarters, better jobs, and some form of acceptance into the Spanish way of life.

    When Spanish colonizers had ruined the ecosystem by grazing, logging, razing, and waste, indigenous people found themselves with little choice but to join the missions or flee to places outside of the reach of the mission system. (In reality, no Indigenous Californians were safe from the missions, except those in the far North of California, where Missions did not exist.)

    Because the Missions were located in Central Areas; and because of the Area of Influence Spanish Invaders were able to exert dominance over was so vast (due to horses); indigenous people of the area known as the Bay Area were forced to abandon their burial practices because they had to abandon the land their graveyard was situated upon.

    This meant that indigenous people had to figure out how to bury their dead using the resources found away from the coasts and rivers they were used to.

    It also meant that, indigenous people were being buried in graveyards at Catholic Missions all around the Bay Area.

    American Influence on Indigenous Use of Shellmounds

    Soon, American aggressors would begin to appear in what they though was their frontier land; an “Indian Frontier”. This was during the time of the “Wild West”, when Indian Wars were being actively fought.

    The Indian Wars would be romanticized for years to come in newspaper stories, and on the screen especially during the 1950’s with such films/shows as:

    • Winchester ’73
    • Gunsmoke
    • The Lone Ranger
    • Davey Crockett
    • They Died with Their Boots On

    But there was nothing romantic about the real story of the California Genocide.

    Americans would purposely destroy or vandalize sacred sites for entertainment or out of spite. One famous shellmound, in Alameda, California, was used to pave Bay Farm Road in 1908. The bodies of ancestors were routinely ground up and used as aggregate for cement, or even calcium enrichment for roses and other flowers (instead of eggshells.)

    The vandalization, desecration and disrespect of Native American Graves and Bodies continues to this day.

    Militias were paid by the United States Government, and (later) the State of California, to hunt and kill all indigenous people. The United States Army “expeditions”, especially what they liked to call “punitive expeditions”, were marked by the execution of indigenous men, and the rape, torture, and mass-murder of indigenous women and children.

    In 1848, the area now known as California was ceded by Mexico, at the end of the Mexican-American war. Two years later, California would officially earn statehood, and its first governor, Peter Hardeman Burnett, during his first State of the State address mentioned the California genocide explicitly.

    “A war of extermination will continue … until the Indian race becomes extinct,” Peter Hardeman Burnett, the First Governor of California continued, “the inevitable destiny of the race is beyond the power or wisdom of man to avert.”

    Now, all Indigenous people were actively under threat by all white people, who were paid for each “Indian” they killed, baby they stole, or person forced into slavery via “prisoner debt” to white business and property owners. Prison debt was money owed to a person or business for a crime committed against it. These were often times for extraordinary amounts of money which the debtor was only able to pay through involuntary labor or servitude. The prison debt system was created to control Indigenous People, and People of Color, and prevent them from gaining any foothold or capital in a society and world which white people viewed themselves as being solely entitled to because of their religious or racial beliefs.

    Once Native Californians were being displaced, forced onto reservations, into indebted servitude, boarding schools, orphanages; and their burial places forced abandoned, and desecrated by American invaders. Many indigenous people began the practice of cremation. One of the most common reason for why someone is cremated was because they wouldn’t be able to be buried with their ancestors, next to their loved ones, or with their family or tribe. It was better to live the afterlife free of their body than to have it defiled.

  • Finding the Alameda Shellmounds: Part One

    The Plaque at Lincoln Park

    It’s hard to say exactly what this plaque meant to me, growing up, adopted, in Alameda. This was a tangible symbol of my Native American heritage; something connected to my identity. Proof that my people actually existed somewhere. Even though I couldn’t see them, or be with them. It was also a source of horrors; knowing that I was living on an Indian Burial Mound.

    This was supposed to be an art project; with some ghost stories, hand made beading, and hand-made historic reproductions of traditional Native American garments and adornments.

    All I wanted to do was find out if my grandfather’s house really was built on an Indian Burial Mound. I thought I was asking a simple question, that local historians would be able to answer in the same way they could erudiate on Victorian Houses, and Electric Railways.

    Instead–when I went to the Alameda Museum–the subject was dismissed.

    “Somebody already did that,” I was told.

    An unnamed docent from the Alameda Museum asked me, “Wasn’t it just a trash heap?”

    Searching For Answers

    It soon became obvious that Non-Native Historians were neither interested, nor knowledgeable about the Alameda Shellmounds, or the First Alamedans;
    I realized I would have to perform the work.

    Not just to find out for myself; but to counter non-native apathy, and gate-keeping; and hold this knowledge in trust for other native people who search for their own heritage, too.

    But how do I find out more about the Alameda Shellmounds, and their history, when the Alameda Museum doesn’t even care?

    I would have to find, search, index, and analyze several volumes of information; across several sources, and locales.

    This is the progression of sources I consulted, regarding this topic. Research is still ongoing. Check the ANHP Wiki for specifics, excerpts, transcriptions, and more.

    Existing, Aggregated Information RE: Shellmounds in Alameda

    Books:

    • Alameda: A Geological History, Imelda Merlin, 1977
    • Shellmounds of the San Francisco Bay Area, N.C. Nelson, 1914
    Alameda Historic Records

    Learned:

    • Where the “Sathers Mound” actually was;
    • There was more than one shellmound in Alameda;
    • People used shellmounds to pave sidewalks and roads.
    Newspapers

    Search expanded to regional and state newspapers; like the Oakland Tribune, and the Alta Daily California.

    Learned:

    • First excavation of the Alameda Shellmound was 1892, sponsored by the San Francisco Call newspaper;
    • California Academy of Science was involved in 1892 excavation;
    • Several artifacts reportedly gifted to U.C. Berkeley Anthropology Museum.
    University/Research Institutions

    Relevant material found in the holdings of:

    • University of California, Berkeley;
    • San Francisco State University;
    • California Academy of Science.
    Museums
    • Phoebe A Hearst Museum, Berkeley, California
    • California Academy of Science, San Francisco, California
    • Coyote Hills Regional Park, Fremont, California
    • California Indian Museum and Cultural Center, Santa Rosa, California
    • California State Indian Museum, Sacramento, California
    • Alameda Museum, Alameda, California
      (Errantly attributed Ohlone artifacts to “a branch of the Miwok tribe” for decades.)

    “Somebody already did that.”

    Imelda Merlin

    Imelda Merlin is a famous Alamedan. Her Master’s Thesis for the University of California, Berkeley, was published in 1977 as Alameda: A Geological History. This book contains a Map of Live Oaks, which features several shellmounds.

    Imelda Merlin’s book is considered the “Alameda bible” as far as local historians are concerned. It contains excerpts from, and references to, some of the core historic records of the City of Alameda. However, the map is of Live Oaks, and does not appear to be a serious attempt to show the accurate locations of shellmounds which existed in Alameda around 1850; and the sections concerning indigenous occupation of Alameda and extremely light on verifiable citations.

    N.C. [Nels Christian] Nelson

    Was an anthropology student at the University of California, Berkeley. Worked for John C. Merriam. Merriam and Nelson both went on an exploratory expedition of the San Francisco Bay Region, where Nelson surveyed and analyzed shellmounds.

    In 1914, N.C. Nelson published his findings in “Shellmounds of the San Francisco Bay Region”, which featured the “Map of the San Francisco Bay Region, Showing the Distribution of Shell Heaps”.

    This is the most thorough survey of the Bay Area Shellmounds ever made; and Nelson’s work is heavily cited by historians, newspapers, and researchers, alike. Nelson’s map represents the positions of shellmounds he and his team personally observed, which makes his work a primary source.

    Confronting the Current Record

    Reconciling local “common knowledge” with Public Records and Official Studies
    Issues presented by Imelda Merlin’s Map

    Citations are missing, incorrect, and/or do not substantively match or explain the locations of shellmounds in content, or context. For instance, the 1850 “Whitcher’s Survey” map of the Alameda area has been lost to time, even though it was referenced as being on prominent display in Alameda’s City Hall. This survey appears several times in Merlin’s work, all with hand-drawn additions by Imelda Merlin, herself.

    Multiple Versions of N.C. Nelson’s Map

    Aside from the official U.C. Berkeley, University Press printing of Nelson’s Map; there are versions with more Shellmounds, and different numbers. However no addendum or update by Nelson has been recovered; drawing into question the accuracy of these other, unofficial, maps purportedly attributed to Nelson.

    Complete Reliance by Non-Native Historians on Unvetted Sources

    Hometown pride may have blinded local historians. But even credible witnesses can give unreliable testimony. There is an argument for considering Merlin’s map as a Tertiary Source.

    Non-Native Attitudes that the Burial Mound Issue is “Settled”

    Resulting in a fundamental lack of knowledge and comprehension of local historical events by local historians and curators–who are supposed to be the experts on this subject, among other Alameda History. The assumption that there is nothing more to find, and no more to learn about the Alameda shellmounds, meant that no research was performed regarding the History of the First Alamedans–until now.


    As this project continued, I learned that there was a lot left unsaid, and even more Alameda History to be uncovered beyond answering the question: “What happened to the shellmounds?”


    End Part One

    Stay tuned for Part Two.

  • The Alameda Shellmounds Map: The First Alamedans

    Created using derivatives of open-source data, including (but not limited to) USGS, NOAA, USCG, NASA, Google Earth. Analyzed, processed, and produced by the Alameda Native History Project, using open-source software available to anyone with a smart phone, and the most basic computer.

    Why did the Alameda Native History Project create these maps?

    Necessity

    The first map created by the Alameda Native History Project was the geographicaly-conformed (or “geo-conformed”) version of N.C. Nelson’s historic 1909 Map of the San Francisco Bay Region Showing Distribution of Shell Heaps. This 20th Century version of Nelson’s map was painstakingly converted, and conformed, to 21st century Geographic Coordinate Systems.

    Geo-conforming Nelson’s map made it possible to accurately plot the coordinates marked on Nelson’s map; and perform Present Day Observations of the Bay Area Shellmounds.

    The San Francisco Bay Area Shellmound Map now has over 300 confirmed locations. The accuracy of this map has improved considerably over time; and the research version is now accurate to within 100 feet.

    This was because maps like those featured by the Stanford University’s Spatial History Lab were little more than photocopies of the original coastal surveys, with graphic overlays.

    While this might be impressive to some, the lack of any real functionality or new information derived from this kind of exercise was underscored when I tried to find/use this information in the context of the Shellmounds of Alameda.

    This made it necessary to recreate a map of the historic shoreline of the San Francisco Bay Region, and hand-plot more than 300 shellmounds, just so I could view these maps and take screenshots of them to share with you. All in an effort to show you where the Shellmounds of Alameda are.

    Clarity

    Reproduction of Whitcher’s Survey.

    The same geo-conformance process was applied to an historic map of Alameda, which has become the Alameda Museum’s sole reference concerning the shellmounds of Alameda: Imelda Merlin’s “Alameda: A Geographical History”. This book is a Geology Master’s Thesis, by Imelda Merlin, who lived and died in Alameda, California.

    The fact that Merlin was an Alameda resident; and that Alameda Museum owns the copyright to the book should be immaterial to the generally dubious nature of a photo-copied map, with hand-drawn notations.

    In spite of the fact that Imelda Merlin was a student at the University of California, Berkeley, it appears that the most relevant information created by N.C. Nelson–for the archaeology department of the same university–was avoided altogether by Imelda Merlin in her work.

    For the aforementioned reasons, it was determined that Imelda Merlin’s work merited careful scrutiny and interrogation.

    Because, at this point, I already had two other sources of location information compiled for the Alameda Native History Project:

    1. Public Records Aggregate

    Any mention of Alameda Shellmounds in the following archives/libraries/collections:

    • All references to the Alameda Shellmounds at the Alameda Free Library:
      • this includes references in the Historic Alameda Newspaper Archives, and the “Alameda Historic Reels”;
      • as well as Clipping Files, Alameda Historical Society Card Catalog [Defunct];
      • Library Catalog, and Special Collections.
    • Online Newspaper Archives, Indexes
    • Online Finding Aids
    • Genealogy Websites, National Archive, and More.

    References were logged, and copies of the documents were saved. Then the documents were analyzed, information was extracted, and processed to produce an aggregated list of locations of the Alameda Shellmounds–according to explicit references in these sources.

    Then the locations were geocoded, and plotted to create a map that … I don’t even know what to call. “Shellmounds Mentioned in the News”? “Historic Shellmounds”?

    “Public Records” is not a very attractive label; but it might be the best label for that layer on the Alameda Shellmounds Map. [So, in case you ask “What is the Public Records Layer on the Alameda Shellmounds Map”, now you know.]

    2. Nelson’s Map of the SF Bay Region Shellmounds

    Like I said, this was the first map I painstakingly recreated. So, therefore, I had the locations Nelson marked within Alameda.

    When I analyzed the base map printed in Imelda Merlin’s book, I was able to use these sources to help conform Merlin’s base map with current Geographical Coordinate Systems, so I could plot the positions marked in the Imelda Merlin layer in the Alameda Shellmounds Map.

    I used innumerable copies of maps, surveys, photographs, and other visual representations of Alameda, from 1880 to 1910 to help conform the “Whitcher Survey” referenced in Merlin’s Map. I was never able to find a true copy of the “Whitcher Survey”. The survey is not at City Hall–as Merlin’s book states–or in the Alameda Free Library. The Museum did not have it, at last check.

    I also looked to see if any map copy provided by the official website of a University, or Government Institution, or the publisher itself, or a credible archive, actually included similar shellmound positions during the time Merlin’s map was created.

    TL;DR: they do not. Not even the Land Grant Case Maps, or the legit Combined, Drafted, or Official Coastal Surveys of that time, have even a hint of a shellmound anywhere. (I even tried to find a copy of the coastal survey used in a well-known documentary about the Shellmounds of West Berkeley, but was unable to track down the file before publication.)

    However, even though Merlin’s map diverges from the Official Historical Record, she did capture something in her hand-drawn sketch: all of the dots on her map correspond to places where Ohlone graves have been found.

    In spite of the fact Merlin calls the First Alamedans “Miwok”–instead of Ohlone. In spite of the fact that Merlin doesn’t even mention the map in the actual narrative (or “text”) of her book. In spite of the fact that the map was published in her thesis (which was then published a few years later, in a book) without any references, or citations–aside from the coast survey base map.

    Somehow, she manages to highlight the same places I have located using mentions of Ohlone graves and Native American remains found in historic Alameda newspapers. Many of these discoveries happened decades after the publication of Merlin’s work. …Which could indicate that these discoveries are coincidences, rather than correlations.

    It makes sense that the discovery of human remains would be carefully guarded; only mentioned in whispers between Alameda insiders, and related professionals. Certainly, the newspaper would be encourage to leave anything like that out. … At least until the houses were sold.

    It’s not hard to have editorial control when real estate companies were the primary revenue sources for local Alameda newspapers. Furthermore, the Redline wars in Alameda were brewing long before residents voted to approve Measure A, in 1973.

    In a “closed”, racist, housing economy, where BIPOC are excluded, and declining property values could be caused by even a whisper of non-white interest in a neighborhood: the prevalence of bones underfoot could undermine the appeal of an entire city.
    Historic Redline Map showing Oakland, Berkeley, and Alameda

    Alameda was probably a place where the surrounding Indigenous communities would come to bury their dead.

    When you take into account historic newspaper articles like the one below (from 1893;) and the preponderance of subsequent articles concerning Native American Graves and Remains found, and then plot those locations into their own map, you get a layer of “Remains & Relics Found”.

    While it is the Euro-Centric imperative to determine a single point; and explicit boundaries: the size and nature of the shellmounds was as much a mystery to these colonizers as it is to us today. For different reasons though.

    Early anthropologists, archaeologists, and ethnologists lacked the imagination necessary to make the logical leaps necessary to recognize the purposefully obscure nature of our infrastructure, or decode the metaphors we left in notes and drawings for our friends.

    Because of this, and because white people destroyed as much of our stuff that they possibly could (on purpose [I don’t know why]), we are now–in many cases–left with the remnants of remnants.

    Because the records concerning these events, and the mere existence of the massive burial grounds under the City of Alameda, and the cities of the rest of the San Francisco Bay Region have been actively concealed, and suppressed, this story has remained untold.

    Alameda’s Indian Mounds“, published in The San Francisco Examiner, on Sunday, March 26, 1893:

    “When the progressive Alamedan decides to build a home of his own on a section of the encinal that have been allotted to him by his favorite real estate dealer…

    He does not order work suspended when the excavators, who have undertaken the task of building his prospective basement, run across a well preserved skeleton or turn up a hideous looking skull.

    He has become used to such things and he knows

    in all Alameda there is scarcely a square yard of ground that does not harbor the crumbling remains…”

    The pieces of the puzzle can still be found.

    And so, Nelson’s Map, Merlin’s Map, and the Public Records map were offered as three separate layers of the Alameda Shellmounds Map; so that you may also discover and analyze the similarities and differences between the locations, yourself.

    The other layers mentioned, such as “Remains & Relics Found”, and more are also available to view using the layers panel of the Alameda Shellmounds Map.

    As our records continue to grow, and new information found, the map and this site continue to grow as well.

    Aesthetic &
    Availability

    Let’s face it: no one wants to look at nth generation copies of copies.

    I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of trying to squint, and adjust brightness, contrast, and gamma until I can barely almost read the most important part of this chapter….

    I want to look at a webmap of the San Francisco Bay Area Shellmounds. I need my experiences to be more interactive, and offer more than an empty citation to a book I can’t even find anymore. I want to see a scan of the book. And read the citation myself.

    But even that’s not enough. I find myself getting triggered by the language of these old, dead, white men that I just want to fight.

    Most of these narratives are written from an all-white perspective, often using racial slurs, and offensive descriptions. For the past 74 years, the Alameda Museum has furthered the “gentle savage” myth that permeated Victorian Era culture in America. And continues to push the idea that Ohlone people just disappeared from Alameda, and the Bay Area, entirely.

    It’s been the same narrative since “time immemorial”. (Even that phrase is from a white-washed narrative meant to pander to a White Gaze that isn’t even a majority anymore.)

    California History, when it comes to Indigenous People, is broad, at best. Very little space or effort is given to properly naming, or describing Native Americans, how they looked, where they lived, what they ate….

    Most textbooks will even allude to American Indian relationships with White People as something symbiotic; and leave this chapter of history conveniently blank, to make room for the concept of Manifest Destiny.

    The history that we are being taught has specifically avoided the policy of indigenous extermination enacted by a California Governor in the late 1800’s; California’s military support of Indian Wars in Oregon in the early 1900’s; or, how Los Angeles stole water rights from Tribal Nations in the Central Valley and has helped to destabilize the California ecosystem, with devastating effects.

    We are not taught about this.

    We have instead been dazzled by trains, bridges, and pretty houses with gardens, like babies with a ring of keys.

    California is the most diverse state in terms of Tribal Nations, with over 300 Indigenous Languages Spoken in California, alone. We are astronomers, conservationists, artists, engineers, doctors, and so much more. Our stories and contributions matter.

    Ohlone people still live in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area could use your help in fighting for federal recognition.

    The Native American, Indigenous People that you speak of like they went extinct in the 1800’s; those people are my great-grandparents.

    The first step in justice for Indigenous Californians is recognizing us.

    This is why it’s important to update the aesthetic of Historical Curation, and Exhibition Design, to utilize the tools we have in the 21st Century to reach learners everywhere, using the interactive multimedia methods they use and engage everyday.


    Alameda Shellmounds Map

    San Francisco Bay Area Shellmounds Map

  • Bay Area Shellmound Map

    Alameda Native History Project’s map of the Shellmounds of the San Francisco Bay Area is available now.

    This map is based on N.C. Nelson’s “Map of the San Francisco Bay Region Showing Distribution of Shellheaps”, which was published in 1909. This map, represents the first-hand observations of shellmounds during N.C. Nelson’s survey of the San Francisco Bay Area. taken between 1907-1908.

    Excerpt of map, emphasis on map legend, showing “Present”, “Partial”, and “Destroyed” shellmounds. These symbols are more prevalent in the North Bay.

    Each marker on the SF Bay Area Shellmound Map represents a shellmound which Nelson marked as “present”. These mounds appear as solid dots in his map. Nelson also noted mounds which were partially present, as well as shellmounds he was told used to exist in the past.

    It’s important to note that–in Nelson’s paper, “Shellmounds of the San Francisco Bay Region”, and similarly in many other publications of the time–archaeologists were engaged in what they considered “Salvage Archaeology“.

    During the time that these scientists were ignoring the California Genocide, and Indian Wars, archaeologist, anthropologists, linguists, and ethnologists all decided that Native Americans were extinct; and that graves and other Native American Cultural Resources should effectively be raided, before they were destroyed by the encroaching colonizers, or gluttony of their civilization.

    Notable shellmounds, like the Emeryville Shellmounds, Alameda Shellmounds (near Mound Street), and the Drake’s Bay Shellmounds were being studied during their destruction.

    Schenck wrote the “final” report on the Emeryville Shellmound. These are two pictures from that paper.

    The Bay Area had over 425 shellmounds. Though many of them were already gone by the time Nelson conducted his survey of the SF Bay Area.

    The Alameda Native History Project’s “Map of the Shellmounds of the San Francisco Bay Region” features 315 shellmounds, and unparalleled specificity within 100 feet.

    This map is offered to the public in an effort to:

    • Educate the public about the prevalence of shellmounds in the San Francisco Bay Area;
    • Present “Native Land”, and “Indigenous Land” as something tangible, and literally all around us;
    • Help illustrate colonization’s impact on Indigenous Landscapes, and Native American Cultural Resources, such as Sacred Sites, and Shellmounds–which are actually cemeteries;

    Most of all, this map is made available to provide actionable information which the public can use to help “Save the Shellmounds”, and advocate for Sacred Lands which have been shrouded in secrecy since the passage of NAGPRA.

    The Native American Graves Protection Repatriation Act was supposed to help protect land, by providing a Notification and Consultation process to Tribal Nations.

    But the law effectively prevents the public from being told about the true scope, nature, and importance of Tribal Cultural Resources.

    NAGPRA also allows development to continue under any circumstances, as long as a mitigation plan is presented and approved, according to the CEQA process.

    However, when one actually reads the CEQA filings related to projects on Sacred Lands, you can’t help but notice the majority of these projects are approved without any input from Tribal Nations, at all.

    Because there is no legal avenue for protecting land if you are not the Most Likely Descendant, as determined by the California Native American Heritage Commission….

    And, because the public is barred from learning about the Nature, Scope, Location, Use, or any other information regarding Tribal Cultural Sites, Items, Graves, etc. it is virtually impossible for the public to advocate for the conservation, and preservation of Sacred Lands. Much less learn why these sacred sites are important, and should be preserved.

    The blackout on this information also affects the ability of cities to participate in goodwill building, like re-zoning areas for open space to be returned to Tribes; or educating their citizens about the first inhabitants of this area, and the importance of preserving these heritage sites.

    The Map of the Shellmounds of the San Francisco Bay Region is just one tool in the Land Back Toolbox.

    [mapsmarker map=”47″]

    Full-screen Map of the SHellmounds of the San Francisco Bay Region