Tag: shellmounds
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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…
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Sogorea Te Land Trust is Not an Ohlone Organization
When you read articles like: “Controversial Berkeley shellmound burial site to be returned to Ohlone“ “Berkeley buys Ohlone shellmound, returns it to Indigenous people“ “City aims to ‘right a historic wrong,’ to return shellmound site to Ohlone people“ You are being misled. Here’s a breakdown of how these articles are misleading, and what the truth…
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Scarcity Mindset As A Hurdle to Museum Accountability
By now there should be no doubt that most museums, which display or hold Native American artifacts, directly benefit from grave robbing, or the often racist, prejudiced language and ignorant beliefs regarding Native Americans first uttered by now dead anthropologists [like Alfred Kroeber], and perpetuated by the ailing volunteers and aging septuagenarians responsible for interpreting…
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99% of Alameda Museum’s Ohlone Artifacts Were Stolen from Native American Graves
We’ve found a pattern of reckless and careless treatment of 100% of those stolen artifacts. The Alameda Museum has roughly 186 Native American Artifacts. All of those artifacts were found in connection with Native American Graves, except for 2. So, we can’t say ALL of the artifacts are grave goods. But we can say: 99.93%…
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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…
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SF Bay Area Shellmounds Are Some of the Most Endangered Cultural Resources in the World
The San Francisco Bay Area had well over 425 shellmounds. Gabriel Duncan, from the Alameda Native History Project, estimates the true number of shellmounds around the S.F. Bay Area’s shoreline is closer to seven or eight-hundred shellmounds, which existed before European invasion and colonization. Shellmounds are ancient burial grounds used by the First People of…
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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…
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Help Restore the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe’s Federal Recognition
In this year’s California legislative session, a joint resolution between the California Senate, and California House has been introduced to restore recognition to the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is Senate Joint Resolution #13. If you didn’t know, the present day Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area…
