Arts and Culture
Recent and Ongoing Projects

Mission Bay Project

July 2021
The ARO is consulting with Kat Covell on a series of interpretive bay panels that focus on the history of Mission Bay and biotechnology. Several panels of the first two bays include information about the history of the Ramaytush Ohlone in San Francisco.

​

Mapping Los Angeles Landscape History:
​A Multi-Dimensional Collaboration

January 2021
By focusing on six ancient centers of human settlement and landscape management ​this project will synthesize multiple components of evidence into a first-ever “model” of the Los Angeles Basin prior to urbanization. The project is funded by the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation.

National Park Service Grant: Re-envisioning the Anza trail from a Native Perspective

March 2021
​The ARO is working with the National Park Service and San Francisco State University to revise the history of the Anza Expedition in California by including the perspectives, stories, and histories of the Native peoples of California. The project is funded by a grant from the National Park Service.​

Salmon Release with the
​San Mateo Resource Conservation District

November 2020
Gregg Castro said a blessing for the release of salmon in Pescadero Creek in Ramaytush Ohlone territory. The habitat restoration project was managed by the San Mateo Resource Conservation District who "partnered with NOAA Fisheries, the Monterey Bay Salmon & Trout Project, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to release ten thousand juveniles of critically endangered Central Coast Coho salmon throughout the watershed, rewarding many years of habitat restoration to help ensure their survival."

Land Acknowledgement Statement
​

November 2020
In November the Human Rights Commission of San Francisco passed a resolution to read a land acknowledgement statement at the beginning of every meeting. Crafted by the ARO and stewarded through the approval process by Gregg Castro, the resolution passed unanimously. A few weeks later, the Board of Supervisors resolved to read the statement at the beginning of all its meetings as well.

East Palo Alto Mural Project

Dec 2020-2021
The ARO is consulting with The Scape Martinez Projects Team on one panel of a multi-panel mural, part of which will feature the Ramaytush Ohlone across history. The mural will be located in East Palo Alto. Samples of Scape Martinez' work can be easily found online.

​

Remove the Statues of the Colonizers!

June 2020-2021
​The Association of Ramaytush Ohlone (ARO), along with community activists, educators, and supporters from around the Bay Area and beyond are taking leadership to remove two statues located in San Mateo County: the Junipero Serra statue on I 280 near Lakeview and the Gaspar de Portola statue in Pacifica. ARO leaders Jonathan Cordero and Gregg Castro sent the attached letter to the Mayor and City Council of Pacifica on 24 June 2020. A similar letter will be sent to the State Department of Transportation (Caltrans). ​

California Indian Environmental Alliance Grant

2019-2021
​The leadership of the ARO are participating in a $6.5 million Bay Area environmental grant. The CIEA provides technical assistance for Tribal leadership and Tribal staff to advocate on their own behalf for the benefit of their own people. To that end, Jonathan Cordero is the Project Chair and Gregg Castro is a Project Lead. The ARO is working with Kanyon Konsulting, LLC. on the project.

San Francisco's Buried History
​

​2019-2021
The ARO is working with the Exploratorium to develop and online walking tour of the "buried history" of San Francisco. Ramaytush Ohlone history and culture will be the subject of at least three different locations along the route located along the waterfront mostly south of the Exploratorium. ​

​