The Ramaytush Ohlone
Original Peoples of the San Francisco Peninsula

​The Ramaytush (pronounced rah-my-toosh) are the original peoples of the San Francisco Peninsula. Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, the Ramaytush Ohlone numbered approximately 1500 to 2,000 persons, but by the end the Mission Period only a few families had survived. Today, only one lineage is know to have produced living descendants in the present. Today, those descendants comprise the membership of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples and the staff of the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone. ​

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The staff of the ARO are on hiatus from November 18 to January 3

During the next month or so we will be conducting research, building our infrastructure, developing protocols, etc. We will not take on any new projects, hold any meetings, offer any presentations, etc. until January 3, 2023 (other than a few already planned for December). 

ARO Response to CA SJR 13: The so-called "Muwekma Bill"

While we support federal recognition for tribes who want it, we cannot support SJR 13 because it contains misleading, false, and irrelevant claims. Most importantly, the primary resolution of SJR 13 is based on the false assertion that the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe (MOT) was previously federally recognized. The rest of the information in the Bill is rendered superfluous by the false assertion of the resolution's main argument. Below is a small sample of the misleading and false statements in SJR 13--there are many more misleading and false claims, and lots of irrelevant information. Notice especially the slight-of-hand used by the authors to conflate "federal recognition" with "recognition."

"The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe
Is Not
A Previously Federally Recognized Tribe"

Also, there are serious negative consequences for Native peoples to the State or federal governments' validation the MOT's numerous false claims to identity and territory.​

SJR 13 (original text)

Response

False Statement

​​be it Resolved by the Senate and the Assembly of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature does hereby urge the United States Congress and the Department of the Interior and its Bureau of Indian Affairs to reaffirm and restore the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe as a federally recognized tribe and include the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe in the Federal Register as a recognized tribe;
Contrary to the MOT and the Senators' claims, the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe was never federally recognized by the Department of the Interior. Congress and the Department of the Interior cannot "reaffirm and restore" federal recognition to a tribe that never had it in the first place. Honesty and integrity should guide our political and legal decisions in the State of California, yet SJR 13 begins and ends with this false assertion. 

Misleading Statement

​WHEREAS, The United States Federal District Court of the District of Columbia recognized in Muwekma Tribe v. Babbitt (2000) 133 F.Supp.2d 30, 30 that “The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe is a tribe of Ohlone Indians indigenous to the present-day San Francisco Bay Area." 
In Muwekma Tribe v Babbitt the United States Federal District Court of the District of Columbia recognized the MOT as being Indigenous to the San Francisco Bay Area, but this kind of generic "recognition" does not constitute "federal recognition." In this instance, the authors of the Bill attempt to mislead the reader into conflating recognition with federal recognition. 

False Statement

In the early part of the Twentieth Century, the Department of the Interior recognized the Muwekma Tribe as an Indian tribe under the jurisdiction of the United States.
Between 1914 and 1927 the Department of the Interior recognized the Verona Band, not the MOT, "as an Indian tribe under the jurisdiction of the United States." According to a letter from the Department of the Interior, the "essential requirement" for federal recognition is a "tribe's continuity of tribal existence." Because the MOT could not prove continuity with the Verona Band, the MOT was denied federal recognition, which means that the MOT is not the same tribal entity as the Verona Band. As a result, the MOT cannot claim previous federal recognition as the Verona Band.

New

​Update on the Removal of Statues

October 2022
Unfortunately, CalTrans has made no progress regarding the removal of the Serra statue on I-280 nor the Portola statue in Pacifica. ARO Executive Director Jonathan Cordero has written a letter to the Director at CalTrans and to the Indigenous Liaison for the State of California demanding official acknowledgement of funding for removal and a timeline for removal. 

On behalf of the ARO Gregg Castro presented a gift to Nancy Pelosi at the opening ceremony for the Tunnel Tops
​at the Presidio in San Francisco

Recent News and Events

December

10
ARO Board member Sara Moncada and Jonathan Cordero will conduct a workshop for the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco
5
Attorney Alma Soongi-Beck and Jonathan Cordero will present on the topic of land back to the Peninsula Estate Planning Council
1
Gregg Castro will open for a panel discussion on genocide in San Francisco

November

During the month of November, the ARO gave a number of openings, presentation, and workshops for the following organizations:
Lucas Films
California Academy of Sciences
United Way
SF Department of Public Works
Redwood City Mural 
First Congregational Church of Palo Alto
San Francisco Airport
Haas-Lilienthal House of San Francisco
Ohlone People: Survivance to Thrivance (film)
Town Destroyer (film)