Mákkin Mak Muwékma Wolwóolum, ’Akkoyt Mak-Warep, Manne Mak Hiswi!
We Are Muwekma Ohlone, Welcome To Our Ancestral Homeland!
Muwekma Ohlone Tribal Land Acknowledgment

For

Cal State University East Bay located in Hayward, CA
Jalquin/Yrgin Ancestral Muwekma Ohlone Territory

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!

Link to downloadable text of Muwekma Ohlone Tribal Land Acknowledgement for Cal State East Bay