Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area

10/20/2026

It's time to end the wide ranging discrimination between federally recognized and non-federally recognized Tribes in State Law. Everywhere, all the time. Full stop.

On Wednesday the California Natural Resources Agency briefs the state Water Commission on its tribal consultation policy, which covers tribes without federal recognition “as appropriate.” The agenc…

10/20/2026

Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act is one of the most important tools tribes have to defend ancestral burial grounds.

Before a federal agency can approve a project that might affect historic properties, Section 106 requires it to stop and consider the impacts. That process gives tribes the opportunity to identify burial grounds, sacred landscapes, and other places of cultural and spiritual significance, explain why they matter, and push for avoidance or meaningful protection before the ground is broken.

For unrecognized tribes, this process is often one of the few formal pathways available to be heard when development threatens our ancestors’ resting places. It does not guarantee that every site will be fully protected, but it creates a required consultation step that agencies cannot simply ignore. It forces the federal government to confront the existence of Native peoples and the places that hold our history.

That is exactly why proposed rewrites to Section 106 are so dangerous. Narrowing what counts as a historic property, weakening consultation requirements, and expanding agency discretion would make it easier to overlook or destroy ancestral burial grounds. Places that lack buildings or “tangible improvements” could be written out of protection. Timelines could be shortened until meaningful tribal input becomes impossible.

Our burial grounds are not obstacles to development. They are the resting places of our people. Section 106 exists to ensure those places are considered before they are lost. Weakening it would strip tribes—especially unrecognized tribes—of one of the last legal tools we have to defend the sacred.

Tell Congress to protect Section 106. Our history and our ancestors are worth preserving, too.

10/20/2026

Proposition 45 would undermine our Tribe’s ability to protect our ancestors.

Under current California law, when a project may affect tribal cultural resources, agencies must consult with tribes on the Native American Heritage Commission’s contact list—including non-federally recognized tribes. That consultation process gives us a formal role in identifying ancestral places, burial grounds, and other sacred sites, and in seeking measures to protect them before development moves forward.
Prop 45 would change that for projects it defines as “essential.” Formal consultation would be limited to federally recognized tribes only.

Unrecognized tribes like ours would lose that required consultation right and be reduced to ordinary public commenters. Public comment is not the same as consultation. It does not carry the same weight, the same early timing, or the same opportunity to shape how our ancestors’ resting places are treated.

For a tribe that has spent decades recovering, protecting, and reburying our people across the Bay Area, this is a direct threat. It would make it easier for projects to proceed without meaningfully hearing from the people whose ancestors lie in the ground. Speed and convenience for developers would come at the expense of our ability to defend the sacred.

Our history and our ancestors are worth preserving, too.

Vote NO on Proposition 45.

10/20/2026

The assault on unrecognized Tribes is in full swing. In addition to Prop 45 and a Congressional rewrite of the National Historic Preservation Act's Section 106, unrecognized Tribes are facing a third simultaneous threat: the Native American Heritage Commission is looking to strip unrecognized tribes from having any power to protect our ancestral burials.

Muwekma is lucky that we have such an enormous evidentiary record and expert anthropologists have studied our people deeply for a very long time. We will be able to prove who we are, and we're fiercely determined to protect our ancestors.

But make no mistake: this three front assault is a deliberate, coordinated, and dastardly attack on communities like ours. Defending against these parchment attacks has been the Red Man's Burden since contact.

We need your help to fight these battles. Please donate if you can: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=NJSTHL7GYM7WE

Read the article: https://muwekmatimes.com/2026/10/19/nahc-sacred-lands-file-contact-list-regulations-muwekma-ohlone/

The Native American Heritage Commission has released draft rules for its confidential Sacred Lands File that would let only tribes on its contact list submit sites on their own, and would re-review…

10/20/2026

The powers that be are coming for our ancestors, and we need your help. It's peculiar, but at the same time, our burial grounds are under threat at the State level (with Prop 45) and at the federal level, with this Congressional rewrite of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.

Our ancestors are worth protecting, and our voices belong at the table -- most especially when the discussion is about the desecration of our most sacred sites.

We defend the land because we are the land.

We need your help to fight these battles. Please donate if you can: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=NJSTHL7GYM7WE

A bipartisan Senate permitting bill would rewrite the National Historic Preservation Act’s review process, and the Senate’s first vote is set for Nov. 9. Separately, the Advisory Council on Histori…

10/20/2026

Proposition 45 will lead to the desecration of our burial grounds. We need your help to protect our ancestors by defending our Tribe's right to be consulted. We ask all Californians to vote against Proposition 45.

We need your help to fight this battle. Please donate if you can: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=NJSTHL7GYM7WE

Proposition 45, a builder-backed rewrite of the California Environmental Quality Act, would let “essential” projects consult only with federally recognized tribes. In parts of the Ohlone homeland, …

10/19/2026

Innu Huššištak Makiš Mak-Muwekma speaks to the road ahead for the Muwekma Ohlone people. It reflects a future built on the strength of ancestral knowledge, cultural continuity, and the commitment of each generation to carry that legacy forward.

For the Muwekma, looking toward the future does not mean leaving the past behind. It means carrying the language, traditions, stories, and identity of our ancestors into the generations ahead.

The road forward begins with remembering where we come from.

10/18/2026

We fiercely defend and steward the land, but it's the land that does the real work.

In January, the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe held its first cultural burn in nearly 150 years, at Stanford’s Jasper Ridge preserve. A peer-reviewed study co-written by the Tribe’s leaders finds…

10/17/2026

Follow our new publication, The Muwekma Times, for the latest news relevant to Native American communities across California.

The National Archives plans to close its San Bruno facility, on Ramaytush Ohlone land, and ship its Bureau of Indian Affairs records to Denver. On Oct. 14 California sued to block the move. The rec…

10/16/2026

Language carries the rhythms of a people, preserving not only words but the traditions, values, and ways of life they represent.

For the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, dance has long been a way of expressing identity, honoring ancestors, celebrating community, and passing cultural knowledge from one generation to the next. Every step reflects a connection that has endured across time.

Yiiša is more than the Chochenyo word for dance. It is a reminder that culture lives through movement, ceremony, and the generations who continue to carry these traditions forward. Each Chochenyo word helps keep that living heritage alive.