The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe traveled to Washington, D.C. from San Francisco, CA in a 70-day journey they called the “Trail of Truth” to demand recognition of their existence and to bring attention to the “contemporary struggles of Indigenous communities.” A few dozen participants journeyed on foot, while about 10-15 from San Francisco and Pine Ridge rode horseback. Randle Braveheart, also known as Aŋpétu Wí Ób Máni (Walks With the Sun) in Lakota, was one of the Oglala riders from South Dakota and they expressed how the Trail of Truth is “very sacred” to them.

“That name could mean a lot of things, the Trail of Truth, since we’ve started the ride there’s been a lot of truth being told from different nations, from different people of all sides, so I think it brings us closer together.”

Randle Braveheart (Aŋpétu Wí Ób Máni)

The Trail of Truth passed through Minneapolis, MN, on September 15, 2024, traveling around the East Phillips neighborhood and passing by homeless encampments with their horses to “spread good medicine” to the people.

The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe was met with 9 arrests on October 15, 2024, when trying to march on horseback to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) office in D.C. to meet Assistant Secretary Bryan Newland to discuss their federal recognition. Activists say there was excessive violence toward women and children by park police being “weaponized” against them by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and National Park Service Director Charles Sams. Congress members had proposed a resolution supporting their federal recognition, but dropped it due to opposition from five local Congress members which included Rep. Anna Eshoo, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Rep. Ro Khanna, Rep. Eric Swalwell and Rep. Jimmy Panetta who wanted to exclude gaming rights. The tribe hopes President Biden or Vice President Harris will be more sympathetic.

Eshoo expressed her concerns in a Aug. 22 letter to city leaders that said, “While I recognize that gaming has provided meaningful economic benefits for some tribes, I have concerns about the potentially harmful impacts of gaming on the broader community.”

On October 16, 2024, the Trail of Truth set up a camp in front of the U.S. Capitol Building and it was surrounded by law enforcement vehicles and police on bicycles. Additional arrests were made, and activists say police were again “unnecessarily brutal” and tried to take down the camp. Eventually, the camp came down the same day, and Muwekma Ohlone is still calling for justice.

Unicorn Riot heard from Chairwoman Christine Nijme of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe who said the State of California tried to erase her people, in particular when the first governor of California declared a “war of extermination” on Native Americans in 1850 and paid bounties of “5 dollars a scalp.” She also said that the Trail of Truth is about “sharing Muwekma Ohlone’s story across Turtle Island with all our relatives, and at the same time sharing our struggles that we face today with the federal government.”

One demand of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe is fixing the BIA federal acknowledgment process — taking it out of the BIA’s hands and assigning a committee to carry it out. They say the “process is broken,” citing how recognized tribes don’t want to take away a piece of the pie. “We should not be fighting over a piece of the pie; we should be united together to make the pie bigger so that we all benefit.”

Another demand according to the tribe is to recognize Muwekma Ohlone: “We were recognized before by the government but today what they’ve said about my people is that we withered away, which is incorrect because we are here today standing before them demanding to be seen and heard.”

On October 22, 2024, the tribe went to Capitol Hill to “walk the halls of Congress” and perform a smudging ceremony outside the doors of the Longworth House Office building right under Nancy Pelosi’s balcony to cleanse her office “of its corrupt influences.” Bike police arrived shortly after their ceremony, and the tribe entered the office building to gift Pelosi a bundle of sage and speak with her. Officers with the Department of Homeland Security immediately followed them, but the tribe members still knocked on Pelosi’s door. She did not answer the door, and their emails and phone calls were also unanswered. When the tribe met with Pelosi once before, she stated that it was “time to recognize the Muwekma Ohlone people” and that she would take care of it, but according to the tribe, there has only been silence since then.

A tribal member said that they’re “tired of being treated like second class citizens” from the constant surveillance in D.C. Chairwoman Nijme says that the government is failing to acknowledge the tribe’s existence, and in turn, this will not allow them to repatriate their “over 20,000 ancestors.”

Another politician the tribe’s hoping to gain more support from is U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA18). Chairwoman Nijme recalled Lofgren supporting the tribe when she was a young child. Lofgren was a county supervisor in Santa Clara and helped the previous Muwekma Ohlone tribe chair with their repatriation of a massive grave site in downtown San Jose. When she decided to run for Congress, Muwekma Ohlone helped her with the campaign via door-knocking and fundraising, since she promised to help them become federally recognized. Lofgren’s advocacy for the tribe hit a lull for some time, but when legislation was recently introduced to grant sovereignty to the tribe, she said she would support them with the condition that gaming or casinos be excluded. The tribe says that opening a casino isn’t “the path that they’re taking today.”

On July 25, 2002, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren expressed support for the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe’s restoration of federal recognition on the floor of the House of Representatives. She highlighted the tribe’s enduring presence in the San Francisco Bay Area and noted their recognition as the Verona Band by Congress and the U.S. Court of Claims in Indians of California v. United States (1942). Lofgren criticized the federal government’s history of neglect, which left the Muwekma landless and without benefits, despite their unwavering tribal identity. She referenced a Congressional report from the late 1990s that recommended reaffirming the tribe’s federal status, urging the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of Interior to end delays and grant the Muwekma Ohlone their rightful recognition, emphasizing that justice demands swift action. More on their recognition process can be viewed here.

After a series of actions, including a march to the White House intended to pressure Vice President Kamala Harris to acknowledge their issue, Muwekma Ohlone traveled back to California on November 7, 2024. The tribe said that they will “most certainly ride again” to raise awareness of the ongoing fight for their federal recognition.

“In D.C., Muwekma Ohlone Tribe members were met with harassment and brutality for challenging the administration’s record on justice for marginalized tribes. Nine delegation members were arrested, our encampment was raided, and our permit at the Washington Monument was revoked,” they added, noting that Muwekma Ohlone intends to keep challenging leaders in California and nationwide to support Indigenous struggles across the country.

---

Please consider a tax-deductible donation to help sustain our horizontally-organized, non-profit media organization:

Follow us on X (aka Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, BlueSky and Patreon.