On Aug. 21, the Bureau of Indian Affairs published a notice in the Federal Register that the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band of the Mission San Juan Bautista has filed a documented petition for federal acknowledgment under 25 CFR Part 83. The Department “seeks comments and evidence from the public on the petition,” according to the notice, which is signed by Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs William Henry Kirkland III. Comments and evidence must be postmarked by Dec. 21, 2026.
The BIA’s Office of Federal Acknowledgment (OFA) has posted the petition narrative on its website and lists the group as Petitioner #412.
Which Amah Mutsun?
The name will confuse many readers, so it is worth being precise. This petition does not come from the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band that led the long fight to protect Juristac, the sacred landscape at Sargent Ranch near Gilroy. When that campaign won permanent protection in January, its chair, Ed Ketchum, spoke for that band. “The protection of Juristac is a culmination of more than a decade of work by our Tribe and many dedicated partners,” Ketchum said, according to BenitoLink.
Petition #412 was filed by a separate government chaired by Irenne Zwierlein. The contact named in the Federal Register is tribal trustee Wayne F. Pierce of La Jolla. In its petition narrative, the Zwierlein group says the older Amah Mutsun petition, #120, has split into two “Governing Bodies.” It names one as its own and the other as a band chaired by Valentin Lopez. The narrative asks Interior to treat #412 as “a new standalone separate petition … not associated in any way with Petitioner #120.” According to its council certification, the group’s filings from Nov. 19, 2024 and March 24, 2026 together make up its official petition.
The narrative also lists the tribes it says it is not part of. The “Ohlone/Costanoan Muwekma Tribe” is on that list, along with several other Ohlone, Costanoan and Esselen groups.
The same 1927 decisions that cut off the Verona Band
For Muwekma readers, the history in this petition will sound familiar.
The Amah Mutsun narrative argues that the federal relationship with the San Juan Bautista band ended through an administrative decision, not an act of Congress. It quotes a June 23, 1927 letter from L.A. Dorrington, then superintendent of the Sacramento Indian agency, to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Dorrington wrote that the San Juan Bautista Band had been “well cared for by the Catholic priests and no land is required.” The petition calls that a decision with “deeply destructive results: they received no land, no recognition and their relationship with the federal government was thus terminated.”
The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe has made the same argument about the same period for decades. In the Tribe’s 2013 appeal, the federal court of appeals in Washington wrote that both sides agreed the Verona Band, the Tribe’s direct ancestors, was “previously recognized by the federal government between 1914 and 1927.” The court added: “There is no dispute that Muwekma was recognized in 1927 (as the Verona Band).” Student advocates with the Indigenous Justice Coalition told the Los Altos Town Crier in September that the Tribe lost its status when Dorrington removed it.
That shared history did not save the Verona Band’s descendants. In 2002 the BIA accepted that Muwekma had “unambiguous previous Federal acknowledgement until 1927” and evaluated it under the relaxed rules for previously recognized tribes. It still denied the petition on three criteria. The D.C. Circuit upheld the denial, holding that Interior “did not terminate Muwekma’s recognition” and that “a once-recognized tribe can fade away.” Muwekma has never accepted that reasoning, and neither should anyone who knows this history. The Bay Area’s original people did not fade away. Washington stopped looking.
What this means for Ohlone recognition
Petition #412 matters beyond the Amah Mutsun because of what OFA will have to decide on the record. Reviewers will need to rule on how much weight the 1906 and 1908 appropriations for landless California Indians, the 1927 Dorrington reports, and the 1928 California Indian enrollments carry for an Ohlone community. Those are the same documents at the center of Muwekma’s case. A careful, published federal analysis of that record will be read closely by every Ohlone people still fighting for recognition.
OFA’s recent work suggests the office is moving California cases. In June it issued a positive Phase I proposed finding for the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians of the San Fernando Valley. That finding said the petitioner had not established unambiguous previous federal acknowledgment “at this time,” and that the question will carry into the next phase of review.
How to comment
Anyone may submit comments or evidence supporting or opposing the petition. Under the Federal Register notice, submissions go to the Department of the Interior, Office of the Assistant Secretary–Indian Affairs, Attention: Office of Federal Acknowledgement, Mail Stop 4071 MIB, 1849 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20240, or by email to Ofa_Info@bia.gov. They must be postmarked by Dec. 21. The petition narrative is posted on OFA’s website.
The Muwekma Times will update this story if the Muwekma Ohlone Tribal Council, the petitioner or OFA comment on the petition.
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