Muwekma Ohlone Land Acknowledgement
Makkin Mak Muwekma Wolwoolum, ‘Akkoy Mak-Warep, Manne Mak Hiswi!
We are the Muwekma Ohlone, Welcome to Our Land, Where We Are Born!
This Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we went on a journey to discover more about the people aboriginal to the land we occupy and who continue to honor their culture and traditions today.
Although we do not own the land that our shop is on in Hayward, Ca; we nevertheless benefit from the land and therefore are beholden to acknowledge those who belong to this land and who lived here for thousands of years before our arrival.
Many different diverse tribes lived on the land in the Bay Area before European settlement of the area. After the Spanish came to the land and set up missions, many indigenous people were removed from their lands and relocated to the missions to be used as slave laborer and to be converted into Catholic subjects of Spain. The Spanish misnamed the people who occupied the land as ‘Costanoan’; people of the coast. In the 1960s, inspired by other cultural movements, the Ohlone tribes were organized, comprised of all the known surviving lineages aboriginal to the San Francisco Bay area who trace their ancestry through the Missions Dolores, Santa Clara, and San Jose; and who were also members of the historic Federally Recognized Verona Band of Alameda County.
Albany, CA - Also located in the East Bay, Albany acknowledges it’s location within Ohlone Territory both on it’s welcome sign and by flying the flag of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan at city hall.
Although the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe is the officially recognized organization of aboriginal tribes in Hayward, where our shop is located, another organization; the Confederated Villages of Lisjan also recognizes the decedents of the aboriginals of the present day Hayward area.
Both organizations trace lineage to the historical Federally Recognized Verona Band of Alameda County, a designation that dates back to the early 1900s when Special Indian Agent Charles E. Kelsey identified the combined Niles/Sunol/Pleasanton/Livermore/Mission San Jose ancestral Muwekma communities as the Verona Band.
Kelsey was charged is conducting a census of landless Indians in California. The census was established to find how many Indians were not living on reservation who would be eligible for homesite land purchases per the 1906 Congressional Appropriation Act for Landless California Indians. The acquisition of said land was embroiled in red tape and political bureaucracy that ultimately ended in woefully inadequate settlement checks being sent in the 1950s to surviving head-of-household who enrolled in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Today, the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe continues to uphold their culture and traditions, educate tribal members and non-members on Ohlone history, art and language, work to protect important Muwekma sites, and share land stewardship practices.
Shellmound.org - Ohlone Heritage Site and Sacred Grounds