Special Feature
Back from “ Extinction ”
The Prehistory , History , Heritage , and Genealogy of the
Muwekma Ohlone Tribes of the San Francisco Bay Area
Editor ’ s Note : This article and associated images are provided courtesy of our upcoming guest speaker , Alan Leventhal , on behalf of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area .
The present-day Muwekma Ohlone Tribe is comprised of all of the known surviving American Indian lineages aboriginal to the San Francisco Bay region who trace their ancestry through the Missions San Francisco , Santa Clara , and San Jose ; and who were also members of the historic Federally Recognized Verona Band of Alameda County .
The aboriginal homeland of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe includes the following counties : San Francisco , San Mateo , most of Santa Clara , Alameda , Contra Costa , and portions of Napa , Santa Cruz , Solano and San Joaquin . This large contiguous geographical area , which historically crosscuts several major linguistic and tribal boundaries , fell under the sphere of influence of the aforementioned three missions between 1776 and 1836 . The missionization policies deployed by the Catholic Church and militarily supported by the Hispanic Empire , brought many distantly related , and in some cases , already inter-married tribal groups together at the missions . Prior to , and after the American Conquest the surviving Bay Area Ohlone found safe havens on their rancherias established on old Californio land grants in the East Bay near San Leandro , Pleasanton , Sunol , Niles , and Livermore .
Comprehensive genealogical analysis of the Mission Baptism , Death , and Marriage Records from the three Bay Area Missions traces the surviving Muwekma lineages of the late 19th century through today back to their aboriginal villages . The present-day tribally enrolled Muwekma lineages are represented by the : Armija / Thompson , Santos-Pinos / Juarez / Colos / Armija , Guzman / Nonessa , and Marine-Guzman-Peralta , Marine-Alvarez / Galvan , Marine-Sanchez , Marine-Munoz , Munoz-Guzman , Marine- Arellano , and Marine-Elston / Thompson / Ruano descended families . The Tribe became federally recognized as the Verona Band of Alameda County shortly after the discovery in 1905 of the 18 unratified California Indian Treaties of 1851-1852 . As a landless tribe the Muwekma became eligible for the purchase of homesites under the Congressional Acts .
While waiting for land purchase for their home sites in the greater Pleasanton / Niles area Muwekma Ohlone men enlisted prior to , and served overseas during WWI before they became citizens of the United States . Almost all of the men served in the Pacific and European theaters during WWII , and tribal members continued to serve during the Korean War , Vietnam , Desert Storm , in Iraq and are still serving today .
In the meantime , Alfred L . Kroeber , one of the founding anthropologists from the University of California in Berkeley , who interviewed the Elders of the tribe during the early 20th century for the Indian languages spoken at the Alisal ( Pleasanton ) and El Molino ( Niles ) Rancherias , would later publish his monumental tome titled Handbook of the California Indians published in 1925 through the Smithsonian ’ s Bureau of American Ethnology wrote that :
The Costanoan group is extinct so far as all practical purposes are concerned . A few scattered individuals survive , whose ancestors were once attached to the missions San Jose , San Juan Bautista , and San Carlos , but they are of mixed-tribal ancestry and live lost among other Indians or obscure Mexicans .
Even though the Muwekma were federally recognized as the Verona Band of Alameda County , and later enrolled with the Bureau of Indian Affairs under the 1928 California Indian Jurisdictional Act 1928-32 , 1948-55 , and 1968-71 , and attended Indian Boarding schools in the 1930s and 40s , Kroeber ’ s declaration of extinction , as a legacy , would adversely impact the tribe ’ s legal standing up to present day . The presentation on November 6 covers the History and Heritage of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and their struggle to regain their federally recognized status with the United States Government .
Learn more ! Visit the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe ’ s website at : www . muwekma . org
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