A land acknowledgement is a critical step towards working with native communities to secure meaningful partnership and inclusion in the stewardship and protection of their cultural resources and homelands. We are grateful for the guidance of the American Indian Cultural District in San Francisco, who are leading efforts to preserve and share American Indian cultural heritage in the city, and we join with them to honor these ancestral grounds that we are gathered upon and to support the resilience and strength of all indigenous people.
San Francisco Heritage (Heritage) acknowledges that the Ramaytush Ohlone are the original peoples of the San Francisco Peninsula; and that the area comprising the City and County of San Francisco was originally inhabited by the Yelamu, an independent tribe of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples.
Heritage acknowledges that the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone has actively worked to research, expand public awareness of, and preserve Ohlone history and culture and that the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples have survived the brutalities of colonialism, enslavement, genocide, discrimination, racism, gender-based violence, theft, forced assimilation, and other atrocities driven by local, federal, and state government; and
Heritage acknowledges that the gaps in history of the community is caused by colonization, and that Ramaytush Ohlone peoples as original caretakers and storytellers of Yelamu have maintained balance with nature for millennia; and that it is impossible to fully understand the history of San Francisco without acknowledging, recording and understanding the traditional history and knowledge and practices of the Ramaytush Ohlone people; and
Heritage acknowledges that Ramaytush Ohlone peoples are not a population only existing in the past, but an integral and active community in the present San Francisco Bay Area region, and beyond, whose ongoing exclusion and invisibility denied the greater Native American community’s inclusion and respect in San Francisco; and
We acknowledge that San Francisco Heritage was founded on unceded territory, and that the existence of Heritage on this land continues to contribute to the erasure and exclusion of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples, the American Indian community, and their history; and now therefore be it
RESOLVED, That to acknowledge the truth of the lands and peoples history is a human right and a demonstration of honor and respect for the contributions and sacrifices of the Ramaytush Ohlone ancestors that inhabit and care for this land before us Heritage will state the following land acknowledgement at the beginning of each meeting:
“We acknowledge that San Francisco Heritage stands on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone, the original inhabitants of the San Francisco peninsula and an integral and active community in the Bay Area and beyond. Heritage affirms their sovereign rights as First Peoples and pays our respects to the ancestors, elders and relatives of the Ramaytush Community. We are grateful to work with the American Indian Cultural District, who are leading efforts to preserve and share American Indian cultural heritage here in San Francisco, and we join with them to honor these ancestral grounds that we are gathered upon and to support the resilience and strength of all indigenous people.”
On June 22, 2021, the Heritage board reviewed and passed a resolution formally adopting the above Ramaytush Ohlone land acknowledgement.
Acknowledgments:
Gregg Castro (t’rowt’raahl Salinan, Rumsien-Ramaytush Ohlone), External Policy and Relations Chair, American Indian Cultural District, and Principal Cultural Consultant for the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone; Sharaya Souza (Taos Pueblo, Ute, Kiowa), Executive Director, American Indian Cultural District; and the full board and staff at the American Indian Cultural District.