Restore The Muwekma Ohlone Homeland

The Muwekma Ohlone people includes all surviving Native Americans who have continuously lived on & tended to the land of the “San Francisco Bay Region” for over 10,000 years. There is a lot of horrific violence I unfortunately have to skip over to appease your character count restriction — keep that in mind. Upon Spanish colonization, in the late 1700s, all Muwekma people were involuntarily confined to three Bay area missions (Missions San Jose, Santa Clara, & Dolores). After the secularization of the Missions in 1834, those who remained in former-Ohlone speaking territory coalesced into a distinct community living on two rancherias in Pleasanton & Niles where they were able to revive indigenous practices such as the sweat lodge & ceremonial dances. In 1905, Charles E Kelsey was appointed to conduct a special census of the needs of indigenous peoples in California. Being identified on the 1906 census & being named in 1914, 1923, & 1927 as a Tribe set to receive land by Congress gave the Muwekma people official designation as well as a promised homeland. Although they were on the list to receive land, federal agent Lafayette A. Dorrington (without a site visit or need assessment) reported the Tribe was not in need of land & removed them. Although this left the Muwekma community landless, they continued to live close, support each other, & protect their sacred sites & ancestral homeland. It is simply not enough to apologize for the generational trauma of indigenous Americans. Colonizers have built enormous wealth on stolen Muwekma lands. Native people are being further pushed off their ancestral land due to rising living costs. It is time to guarantee that the Muwekma Ohlone people can continue living in their 10,000-year-old aboriginal homeland. Give the land back now.