The Muwekma Ohlone Are Still Here

By Julia Halprin Jackson

Photo: Ian Lundie

Makkin Mak Muwekma Wolwoolum, 'Akkoy Mak-Warep, Manne Mak Hiswi! We Are Muwekma Ohlone, Welcome To Our Land, Where We Are Born!

在阿方索·萨拉查沿着圣何塞的瓜达卢佩河建立他的绘画之前的几年，几十年 before artist and entrepreneur Jennifer Ahn, ’00 Photography, founded Empire Seven Juan Carlos Araujo的工作室，早在圣何塞州立大学定居之前 a mile from the river, the Muwekma Ohlone tribe thrived along the waterway, which the tribal leadership renamed Thámien Rúmmey.   

The river has been a major Muwekma ancestral heritage site for approximately 2,000 years in downtown San José along San Carlos Street and Almaden Boulevard, which the tribal leadership has had oversight on since 2012. As part of the tribe’s reclamation process, the Muwekma Language Committee renamed the site Thámien Rúmmeytak, which translates as “Place of the Thámien River Site” (Leventhal et al 2015, DiGiuseppe et al 2021).

退休的圣何塞州立人类学讲师艾伦说:“奥隆的土地还没有被割让。 Leventhal, who has served as the tribe’s ethnohistorian for more than 40 years. “They never lost the title to it; it was stolen. This history and heritage continues to 被占统治地位的社会所迷惑，这是一种试图根除黑人的殖民制度 existence of Indigenous populations in their presence.”

Art as advocacy

Salazar’s 2021 mural, “We Are Muwekma Ohlone,” portrays the face of Muwekma Ohlone 主席Charlene Nijmeh戴着一顶篮编战鹰头饰 图案和一个蜂鸟战士面具，向部落的创造故事致敬. 画在她上方的云伴随着部落长老的图像，而根 extend below her, connecting her to the next generation.

“这幅壁画是为了纪念Muwekma Ohlone部落，这是曾经生活在这里的土著居民 along the Guadalupe River that flows through downtown San José,” wrote Salazar in his artist statement. “我最初的草稿灵感来自他们部落分享的一个创造故事 over many lifetimes, featuring the coyote, the eagle and the hummingbird.”  

This is the third mural commissioned as part of POW! WOW! San José’s artist-in-residence program. POW! WOW! San José, established in 2017, is led locally by the Empire Seven Studios collective. The team, which consists of Ahn, Araujo and Stacey Kellogg, partnered with the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy 因为新冠疫情，从为期一周的庆典转为艺术家驻场活动 pandemic. 

They invited Salazar, a retired United States postal worker who painted his first 35年前，圣何塞日本城附近的墨西哥餐厅El Tarasco的壁画， to create a piece of artwork along the river. The mural was later lost amidst new development in the neighborhood.

“阿方索想确保这是一个当代的描绘，而不是描绘 the tribe in the past tense,” said Ahn.

“即使在我们的现代社会，也缺乏关于土著的知识和信息 culture. The Guadalupe River, also known as the Thámien Rúmmey, is an underappreciated lifeline for the entire city. Adding public art to the trail is only part of the solution — there is environmental, social and spiritual healing that we felt was needed.” 

她补充说，让Muwekma Ohlone部落理事会参与进来尤其重要 因为，作为这片土地上的第一批居民，他们可以提供急需的历史资料， environmental and cultural insight. According to Leventhal, the Muwekma Ohlone have 根据考古学家的年代测定，他们在这个地区居住了大约一万年 site located along Highway 101 and Metcalf Road. The POW! WOW! San José team connected Salazar to Chairwoman Nijmeh and tribal elders to gather their feedback and ideas.

从左至右:Gabriel Nijmeh, Lucas Arellano, Virginia Arellano, Muwekma Ohlone Vice 主席Monica Arellano, Stacey Kellogg(戴帽子)，Muwekma Ohlone主席Charlene Nijmeh, artist Alfonso Salazar, and Empire Seven Studios co-founders Juan Carlos Araujo and Jennifer Ahn. Photo: Jennifer Gonzalez-Arias.

“It was an honor to be a part of this mural,” said Chairwoman Nijmeh. “I was a little shy about having my face at the forefront, but I see it as serving my people, and that’s my job as the Chairperson: To make sure that we are represented. These images 在壁画中，我们的祖先，提醒我们，因为他们的韧性，因为 of their strength, to persevere through trauma, we are still here today. We are still here. That’s the main point. And the images of our children in the mural remind us that we are teaching children to become the next leaders who will carry on.”

The Chairwoman added that she was moved by Salazar’s passion and advocacy. She appreciated his efforts to include the tribe’s past, present and future in the mural. 

“I like the fact that he painted us as we are,” she said. “People want us to look like the past, and we don’t. This is who we are. We are bringing our culture forward through our language and songs, and through revitalizing our dances. This is who we are today.”

Revising history

这条河的故事和Muwekma Ohlone的故事没有什么不同:经过修改，重新命名 and sometimes rewritten by anthropologists and government officials.

Despite maintaining an active presence in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Muwekma Ohlone, previously called “Costanoan” by anthropologists, were deemed “culturally extinct” in 1925 [pdf] by then-celebrated UC Berkeley anthropologist Alfred Kroeber (Monica V. Arellano, Alan Leventhal, Rosemary Cambra, Sheila Guzman Schmidt, and Gloria Arellano Gomez, 2014). As Leventhal et al. argued, they weren’t simply denied rights. In the eyes 但是，他们已经被人类学家和该局的官员抹去了 of Indian Affairs (BIA). 

And yet, the tribe hadn’t gone anywhere. Between 1996-2002, the Muwekma Ohlone rallied to petition the BIA and federal courts to reevaluate their status. They demonstrated 三个事实:首先，他们都有来自三次湾区任务的土著血统 back to their villages during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Second, they 证明他们被联邦政府承认为阿拉米达的维罗纳部落 County, and third, they were never legally terminated by any act of Congress.

“Kroeber was considered the quintessential authority on California Indians and the tribe,” said Leventhal. “He interviewed tribal elders and determined that the individuals who had survived were once attached to Mission San José, Mission San Juan Bautista 和圣卡洛斯传教会，但他们生活在其他印第安人和“默默无闻的墨西哥人”中间.’ So while this history is known and published, it is not easily accessible and not widely taught.”

实际上，人类学家宣布Muwekma Ohlone灭绝，尽管 他的证据恰恰相反，为土著和土著社区制造了障碍 across the state. Since the government insisted that their tribes did not exist, that 这使得部落成员想要争取公民权利和准入权变得尤为困难 ancestral lands and economic resources. 

尽管在1914年获得了联邦的承认，但穆韦克马奥隆人被剥夺了他们的权利 rights in 1927, when Sacramento Superintendent L.A. Dorrington unilaterally removed 135 bands and tribes 从有资格获得联邦土地的部落名单中没有需求评估或访问. Dorrinigton was later investigated for dereliction of duty.

Meanwhile, six Muwekma men enlisted in the Army, Navy and Marine Corps to serve in Leventhal补充说，在第一次世界大战期间的法国，他们仍然没有被考虑 American citizens. Four of them are buried in the Golden Gate National cemetery. During 二战中，几乎所有这些人都在太平洋和欧洲战场服役， including in the 101st and 82 Airborne Divisions. 

自从Muwekma Ohlone失去了获得土地基地的资格 Congressional Appropriation Acts of 1906 and later years, generations of community members have dedicated time, energy and resources to pursuing recognition in court. Leventhal added that the Muwekma families and children enrolled with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1928-32, 1948-55 and 1968-71 were sent to Indian boarding schools in the 1930s and ’40s.

A vision for the future

近年来，部落领导人与城市和县政府合作 and San José State faculty in archeological and anthropological research. Salazar’s mural represents just one way in which the Muwekma have never left their ancestral home.

Photo: Ian Lundie

“这幅壁画向在我们之前来到这里的人致敬，他们经常被排除在外 17届英语与lol菠菜网正规平台专业的电影摄影师詹妮弗·冈萨雷斯-阿里亚斯(Jennifer Gonzalez-Arias)说 who captured Salazar’s artistic process along the Guadalupe River. “San José State, 作为一所大学在他们的土地上，可以推动部落，给他们一个平台，并告诉 their story to help them get federal recognition again.” 

“There is a history way before the history of San José State, and that is with the Muwekma Ohlone tribe. The university has a moral obligation to recognize the people, the stories and the culture of the tribe.” 

Mary Papazian, the university president, agrees. Before leading public meetings or presentations, she and other campus leaders now read 菠菜网lol正规平台’s land acknowledgement to honor the land that the university inhabits. 

持久的改变只有在深刻而真实地了解根源的情况下才能发生 problems,” Papazian said. “To that end, San José State University has made a concerted 努力倾听可能感到被边缘化或被忽视的人群和声音 in the past. We know that the path to becoming an anti-racist, multicultural campus 必须包括来自我们校园社区的广泛和多样化的意见，特别是那些 受系统性种族主义影响最严重的群体和个人，如 well as those who were here long before us. This includes the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe.”

“We recognize the importance of this land to the Indigenous Muwekma Ohlone people of this region, and consistent with our principles of community and diversity, we strive to be good stewards on behalf of the tribe, whose land we occupy.” 

今年秋天，帕帕齐安还承诺开设一个土著和美洲原住民的商店 student success center on campus.

“圣何塞州立大学是一个超越华盛顿四个角落的社区的一部分 Square,” she said. “As we think about our impact on surrounding communities, we must become a resource for how to think differently. This is long overdue.”

Reclaiming Indigenous places of spiritual and historic significance 

瓜达卢佩河公园大道从墨西哥最南端的阿尔维索绵延11英里 旧金山湾，北至洛斯加托斯，历史上一直是交通要道 for San José wildlife. Three miles of the parkway between the Mineta International Airport and Diridon Station make up the Guadalupe River Park.

“在瓜达卢佩河三英里长的河段内，我们拥有最大的机会 and challenges of our entire region represented here,” said Guadalupe River Park Conservancy (GPRC) Executive Director Jason Su, ’13 MUP, who also lectures in 菠菜网lol正规平台’s Urban Planning department. “We have more value for parks, more value for beautiful streets, more value for public art and murals. That, to me, is just another iteration of opportunity — opportunity for us to reimagine what it means to live in San José.”

Su and fellow 菠菜网lol正规平台 Urban Planning Lecturer Rick Kos worked with a cohort of urban 计划2020年秋季的研究生调查使用河流步道的居民. The resulting findings, published in partnership with CommUniverCity, the GRPC and the San Francisco Bay 区域规划和城市研究协会(SPUR)，包括连接的建议 人们通过艺术来公园，比如“通过组织雇佣当地艺术家” like POW! WOW! San José to create public art works to bolster the park’s identity.”

“我们对瓜达卢佩河公园的愿景不是关于具体的设计， but more so about what people can do, and what they can feel, when they are in this space,” added Su.

Ahn, who has lived in San José since 1987, admitted that she’d never traversed the parkway until she and her team began exploring ways to enhance the existing public art collection within the Conservancy by adding dozens of art installations along the trail.

“驻场艺术家项目成为了艺术节的解构模型，” said Ahn. “Our long-term goal is to help create San José’s longest public art corridor to encourage trail park usage and activities to promote health and wellness, both physically and mentally.”

这一愿景在造成严重影响的全球卫生大流行期间是恰当的 communities of color, with many Indigenous and Native communities concerned about underreported data. By making the Muwekma Ohlone front and center of POW! WOW! San José’s latest mural 并与当地部落接触，萨拉查正在分享一个重要的信息:Muwekma Ohlone are still here.

“Take a walk, ride your bike, or go for a run along this trail,” Salazar wrote. “When you get to the underpass of W. San Fernando Street, look along the wall. There you will see a mural about the people whose ancestors were once living here along the river. Learn about their story. Learn about what happened to them. Learn about our history here before the place was called San José, California.”  

Learn more about the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe.