Tribal Entities
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 were forced into the Missions Dolores, Santa Clara, or San Jose and who were part of what was once called the Verona Band of Alameda County, a Federally recognized tribe.
Today we move our priorities forward through three established entities: the Muwekma Ohlone Tribal Council, Muwekma Ohlone Tribe Inc., and the Muwekma Ohlone Preservation Foundation.
Muwekma Ohlone Tribal Council: The Tribal Council is the governing body of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area and carries out long term vision and policies through programs and projects to meet the goals set forth by the Tribe including federal recognition, tribal enrollment, cultural preservation, repatriation, construction of a tribal village, and related official tribal matters.
Muwekma Ohlone Tribe Inc.: Founded in 2017, Muwekma Ohlone Tribe Inc. is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that manages the Tribe’s ancestral heritage sites and sites of significance, discovery and dispossession of ancestral human remains and associated grave regalia, cultural resources with projects including archaeology, burial recovery, Native American monitoring, and complying with state laws and statutes as the Most Likely Descendant Tribe identified by the California State Native American Heritage Commission. They also work with the Muwekma Language Committee on reclamation projects to rename sites in their native language.
Muwekma Ohlone Preservation Foundation: Founded in 2020, the Muwekma Ohlone Preservation Foundation provides fundraising, fiscal, and administrative support to advance the Tribe's goals of cultural revitalization, community education, and land access, ownership, and stewardship.
More Information about the Muwekma Tribe
Our homeland 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 aboriginal 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.
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, the Santos-Pinos / Juarez / Colos / Armija, the Guzman / Nonessa, and the Marine-Guzman-Peralta, Marine-Alvarez / Galvan, Marine-Sanchez, Marine-Munoz, Munoz-Guzman, Marine-Arellano, and Marine-Elston / Thompson / Ruano descended families. Today, the Muwekma (which translates to ‘the People’ in our Chochenyo language) represent 600 descendant individuals. We have been seeking Federal recognition since 1989.
Letter from Muwekma Ohlone Tribal Council
Horše túuxi ’aččokma ~ Good day friends,
The Muwekma, which means ‘the people’ in our Chochenyo language, are the descendants of the resilient survivors of Missions San Jose, Santa Clara, and Dolores. Our tribal territory includes the contemporary counties that are in the East Bay, South Bay, and Peninsula and represents the villages where our people lived prior to the mission system. Our people have lived here for tens of thousands of years and had sophisticated ways of living in relation to the land. With each year, our Tribe activates this knowledge through language, dance, and stewardship practices. But like all people, we have jobs, families, and have to navigate the contemporary world as survivors of violent and traumatic histories while doing the work of being tribal leaders, council members, and tribal members. Some of our Tribe live in the Bay Area while others have had to relocate because they cannot afford to live here. Our Tribe faces many challenges and we need your help!
The Muwekma Ohlone Preservation Foundation was started in 2020 by a vote of our Tribal Council as a way to support the Tribe and to connect our friends, supporters, and our neighbors in the Bay Area with the important work of the Tribe. As a non-profit, MOPF can raise funds, work with volunteers, and tap into the community of like-minded people that support the sovereignty of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and it can help our Tribal Government connect its 600+ members to our ancestral territory. The vision of the Tribe and MOPF is audacious, but it is also necessary for all of us, Tribe and residents of the Bay Area, to not just heal but thrive.
Our Tribe has been petitioning the Federal Government for over 30 years to affirm our status as a Federally Recognized tribe. Our message to them is that we are here now, we have always been here, and we will always be here. Denying our status is a grave injustice with tragic consequences for our people. Our members often call us as tribal leaders asking about the basic necessities of survival: healthcare, childcare, education, and housing. All people are entitled to basic human rights and now is the time to begin to repair from the brutal history of colonization in the Bay Area.
Due to the actions of the Federal Government, we are a landless tribe and have created MOPF to realize the vision of connecting with the land as we have always done. Our vision is to build a Tribal Village as a center of life for our people. To get there, we hope to grow MOPF into a non-profit that excels as an organization and connects with our Tribal membership. MOPF is a tribal organization that is supported by volunteer Board members, granting foundations, and individual donors across the Bay Area and we could not do it without them. Makkiš horše mak-hinnan ~ We thank you.
’Uni ~ Respectfully, The Muwekma Ohlone Tribal Council,
Charlene Nijmeh, Chairwoman
Monica Arellano, Vice Chairwoman
Richard Massiatt, Elder and Treasurer
Joann Brose, Elder and Councilwoman
Frank Ruano, Elder and Councilman
Carol Sullivan, Elder and Councilwoman
Sheila Guzman-Schmidt, Councilwoman
