Remove the Statues!

Remove Statues of the Colonizers

Facts and Links to Petitions

The Association of Ramaytush Ohlone supports the removal of statues that honor the colonizers of Native peoples. These statues represent the fantasy heritage of California premised on the unacknowledged destruction of Native peoples and culture. Working with other community leaders and activists, the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone requests the removal of two statues in our territory, and we need your help. Please sign the two petitions below to support the end of the glorification of colonizers and the corresponding unacknowledged destruction of California's Indigenous peoples symbolized in statuary.

Junipero Serra Statue on Interstate 280 at the Rest Stop near Lakeview

Sign the Petition to Remove the Serra Statue

Demand for the removal of the Father Junipero Serra statue located at the rest stop vista
in San Mateo, California

This statue of Junipero Serra is located at a rest stop off Interstate 280 and is situated on State property managed by the Department of Transportation (Caltrans). The State recognizes Serra as the founder of the California missions who "laid out the route of the Camino Real."

While Serra certainly was an evangelizer, he was also a colonizer. The Franciscan missionaries and Spanish military removed Native peoples from their lands, forced them to attend religious services, forced them to labor without fair compensation, sexually abused Native women, and used corporal punishment as a means of discipline, which was experienced as abusive by Native peoples. Further, the Franciscan's effort to convert California's indigenous population to Catholicism was a failure. Out of every 100 Natives incorporated into the California missions, less than 5% likely converted, while over 75% died prematurely. The California mission system is not worthy of memorializing, let alone its founder.

Read our letter to Caltrans

Portola Statue on Highway 1 in Pacifica near the Community Center

Sign the Petition to Remove the Portola Statue

Be on the Right Side of Pacifica's History:
Remove the Statue of Gaspar de Portola

Conventional historical accounts portray Gaspar de Portola as an explorer, as a benign political figure in California history; however, the Portola Expedition marked the beginning of the end for native peoples along the California coast and inland from Sonoma to San Diego. The Portola Expedition was the initial stage in the process of colonization and of the inevitable genocide of nearly 63,000 (out of approximately 80,000) California Indians incorporated into the Spanish missions between 1769 and 1834.

Plaque below the statue

The Portola Expedition

did not establish a new route from San Diego to San Francisco--they used already existing Native trails.

did not discover the San Francisco Bay--it was known to Native peoples for thousands of years. The language of discovery, which reflects a Eurocentric bias, has been revised by public officials in recent years. The Portola Expedition is now credited with the "first recorded European sighting" of the San Francisco Bay.

remained in the ancestral homeland of the Aramai (what is now Pacifica) for only four days--Native peoples lived in Aramai territory for thousand of years.

was the initial stage in the process of colonization that destroyed Native peoples and cultures in California, including the Ramaytush Ohlone.