AV狼

We would like to recognize that while we gather at Cal State  University East Bay located in Hayward, CA, we are gathered on  the ethno-historic tribal territory of the intermarried Jalquin (hal-keen) / Yrgin (eer-gen) Chochenyo-Ohlone-speaking tribal group, who were the  direct ancestors of some of the lineages enrolled in the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the  San Francisco Bay Area, and who were missionized into Missions San Francisco, Santa  Clara and San Jose. 

The present-day Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, with an enrolled Bureau of Indian Affairs  documented membership of over 600 members, is comprised of all of the known  surviving Indian lineages aboriginal to the San Francisco Bay region who trace their ancestry through the Missions San Jose, Santa Clara, and San Francisco, during the  advent of the Hispano-European empire into Alta California beginning in AD 1769. They  are the successors and living members of the sovereign, historic, previously Federally  Recognized Verona Band of Alameda County now formally known as the Muwekma  Ohlone Tribe of San Francisco Bay Area. Muwekma means La Gente – The People in their traditional Chochenyo-Ohlone language. 

The land on which CSUEB in Hayward has been established, was and continues to be  of great importance and significance for the Muwekma Ohlone Tribal people. This region extends to surrounding areas that held several Túupentaks (too-pen-tahks) (aka  Temescals), traditional semi-subterranean spiritual roundhouses. Túupentaks were  places of celebrations, healing, rituals, dances, intertribal feasts, and religious  ceremonies. Nearby ancestral heritage “shellmound sites,” such as those located at  Máyyan Šáatošikma ~ Coyote Hills, Berkeley, and Emeryville, served as the  Muwekma Ohlone Tribe’s territorial monuments and traditional cemetery sites for high  lineage families, craft specialists, and fallen warriors.  

The region surrounding the City of Hayward, and Cal State University East Bay, is where  many of their ancestral heritage cemetery and village sites are located. These localities  are viewed as special and sacred places, and we respectfully acknowledge that they had  been previously settled and owned by the ancestral Muwekma Tribal groups for many  thousands of years. The location of the nearby Fairmont County Hospital was the place  of one of the Tribe’s major rancherias called “The Springs,” during the middle-late 1800s  where their families planted various crops and raised cattle. Today, the Muwekma 

Ohlone work as stewards for many of their 10,000-year-old ancestral heritage village  and cemetery sites.  

As mentioned before, the City of Hayward is established within their ancestral  Jalquin/Yrgin Ohlone Tribal ethnohistoric territory, which based upon the unratified  federal treaties of 1851-1852, includes the unceded ancestral lands of the Muwekma  Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area. Missions San Francisco and San Jose  records document that many of the enrolled Muwekma lineages are directly descended  from the Jalquin/Yrgin Chochenyo Ohlone-speaking tribal groups, as well as from  neighboring Ohlone tribes. 

It is important that we not only recognize the history of the land of the Jalquin/Yrgin on  which we gather to learn and participate, but also recognize that the First People of this  region – the Muwekma Ohlone People, are alive and thriving members of the Hayward and broader Bay Area communities today.  

Even though their tribe was denied a land base when it was first federally recognized, it  is because of the tenacity and strength of their ancestors and elders, that their People  have been able to maintain their traditions, and keep their culture and language alive.  Furthermore, the Muwekma Ohlone families have never left their indigenous ancestral  lands. Today they repair the sustained damages of over 251 years of colonization. They  are focused on keeping their traditional culture strong, while they work for a bright and  favorable future for their children, as they follow in the footsteps of their ancestors. 

We respectfully request, that the good citizens of the City of Hayward and surrounding  Towns strive to be faithful stewards on behalf of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe by  maintaining the bay, freshwater ways, native plants, animal habitats, and the air we all  breathe. Furthermore, we request that the City of Hayward and surrounding Towns  honor the military service of the Muwekma men and women who have honorably served  overseas during World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraq and who  are still serving in the United States Armed Forces today; and honor the tribal veterans and service members from California, North and South America. 

In closing, it is of great importance to acknowledge the significance of this Holše Warep (hol-sheh wah-rehp) ~ Beautiful Land to the indigenous Muwekma Ohlone People of  this region. We ask everyone who attends or visits Cal State University East Bay in  Hayward, to be respectful of the aboriginal lands of the Muwekma Ohlone People, and  consistent with their principles of community and diversity strive to be good stewards on  behalf of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, on whose land you are their guests. Aho!