The city that took its name from Mission Santa Clara de Asís has formally asked the federal government to recognize the people whose ancestors were brought into that mission.
The Santa Clara City Council adopted Resolution No. 26-9569 on June 9. It urges “the United States Congress, the Department of the Interior, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to formally acknowledge the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area as a federally recognized, sovereign tribe” and “to take all necessary steps to reinstate the Tribe on the list of federally recognized tribes.” The title of the resolution also names the White House.
The certified copy records the vote. Councilmembers Raj Chahal, Kelly Cox, Albert Gonzalez, Suds Jain and Kevin Park voted yes, along with Mayor Lisa Gillmor. Councilmember Karen Hardy abstained. No one voted no. According to the city’s legislative record, Cox made the motion and Vice Mayor Gonzalez seconded it.
The resolution directs the city manager to send copies to the Bay Area congressional delegation and the Secretary of the Interior.
“Reinstate,” not “create”
The wording matters. Santa Clara did not just ask Washington to look kindly on a petition. It used the word reinstate, which reflects the history the federal government itself has documented.
The resolution states that “federal records identified a Native community known as the Verona Band of Alameda County,” that today’s Muwekma members “have documented descent from individuals listed in these federal records,” and that the Verona Band “appeared in federal Indian censuses and was included in federal actions concerning landless California Indians.” The staff presentation went further. It told the council that the Verona Band “was previously recognized by the federal government” and that its status “changed in the early 20th century through administrative actions by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), including actions taken by the Sacramento Indian Agency.”
Interior’s own 2002 decision agreed on the first point. The BIA found the Tribe had “unambiguous previous Federal acknowledgement until 1927,” then denied the petition anyway. The Muwekma position has always been simple. A tribe the United States recognized was never lawfully terminated by Congress, so it should not have to prove itself all over again.
How it got on the agenda
The item did not come from City Hall. At the council’s March 24 meeting, several Muwekma members used public comment to ask the council to take up the Tribe’s request. Gonzalez moved on the spot to put it on a future agenda. As the Silicon Valley Voice reported, Park and Chahal objected on procedural grounds because the request came outside the usual slot for new-item requests. The city attorney said the Brown Act and council policy allowed it, and the referral went forward. Eleven weeks later, both Park and Chahal voted for the resolution.
The staff report, presented by Assistant City Manager Paulina Morales, put the Tribe’s history in front of the council, including its 1989 petition under the federal acknowledgment rules at 25 CFR Part 83. The agenda packet also included Union City’s Resolution No. 2025-107, a support letter from Livermore Mayor John Marchand, the Tribe’s letter to the President about the Presidio of San Francisco, and a March 30, 2026 Congressional Research Service FAQ on tribal recognition.
Readers should know the packet also contained 2024 letters from Rep. Zoe Lofgren and then-Rep. Anna Eshoo to the San José City Council, which considered a similar resolution that year. Lofgren called San José’s draft “at best, misleading” because it did not say the BIA and federal courts had ruled against the Tribe. She wrote that Congress “has never granted federal recognition to a tribe that was denied by BIA and exhausted all appeals.”
That is a description of past practice, not a legal limit. Congress has plenary authority over Indian affairs and has recognized tribes by statute many times. Santa Clara’s council had Lofgren’s argument in front of it and voted for recognition anyway.
Union City, Livermore, Santa Clara: who’s next?
Santa Clara joins Union City, which adopted its resolution on July 22, 2025 and sent it to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and BIA Director Bryan Mercier. It also joins Livermore, whose mayor wrote to Burgum on Aug. 4, 2025, urging the BIA “to thoroughly review an application for federal recognition” from the Tribe and noting that its members “have honorably served in the United States Armed Forces.”
Young people are pushing for more. The Los Altos Town Crier reported in September on a youth-led initiative in the South Bay pushing for the Tribe’s recognition, including through city resolutions. “The main goal for legislative affairs is to get more cities involved from the larger Bay Area, so we can show the federal government that we are standing behind (the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe),” co-president Sudhanva Belur told the paper.
City resolutions carry no legal force in Washington. They do carry weight. Each one adds a local government, elected by the people who now live on Muwekma land, to the public record saying the Tribe’s 1927 erasure was wrong. The Bay Area’s congressional delegation, which received Santa Clara’s resolution directly, now has fewer reasons to say local communities are divided.
The Muwekma Times thanks the Santa Clara City Council. Is your city next? Watch these pages.
1 Trackback / Pingback