From the editor
October was the month land came home. The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe says Bella Madeira, about 150 acres in the East San José foothills, has returned to the Tribe, bought with help from a California climate-and-farmland program that does not require federal recognition. Santa Clara became the latest city to urge Washington to restore the Tribe’s recognition, and a peer-reviewed study co-written by the Tribe’s leaders found that its first cultural burn in nearly 150 years, at Stanford’s Jasper Ridge preserve, spared the soil life that keeps acorn pests in check.
It was also a month of fine print. From Proposition 45 to a Senate permitting bill, from new state contracting rules to draft regulations for California’s Sacred Lands File, policy after policy draws its line at the federal list, and tribes like the Muwekma Ohlone keep landing on the wrong side of it. Several of those decisions come due in the weeks ahead, and the dates are below. Thank you for reading, and for sharing our work with the people around you.
Harry McMillan, Editor in Chief
Ohlone & Muwekma
- In 1927, Washington declined to buy the Muwekma Ohlone land. A century later, California helped them get about 150 acres back. Bella Madeira, once marketed for estate homes, has come home, funded by a state program that does not require federal recognition, even as Interior still refuses to acknowledge the Tribe.
- Santa Clara goes on record: Recognize the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe The City Council voted 6-0, with one abstention, to urge Congress, the White House and Interior to restore the Tribe’s recognition, joining Union City and Livermore.
- Trump’s new Presidio board has a plan for housing and a power grid. The Ohlone aren’t in it. The new board’s priorities are 196 apartments and a modernized grid, while the Tribe’s 2025 request to return the Presidio to Indigenous care has gone unanswered.
- Pelosi’s seat is up for grabs. Neither Wiener nor Chan has said a word about the Ohlone. San Francisco elects its first new member of Congress since 1987 on Nov. 3, and neither candidate has taken a public position on Muwekma recognition.
- “Sixteen years to fight for this land”: An Ohlone nation gets 84 acres back near Monterey The Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen Nation now owns 84 acres off Highway 68, returned by Big Sur Land Trust with state money after a 16-year campaign.
- Vallejo casino stays dark as a judge backs Interior, and the record points to Ohlone shores A federal judge refused to let the Scotts Valley Band resume gaming, and the 39-page decision is a reminder that the Carquinez shoreline sits in Ohlone country.
Federal Recognition
- Amah Mutsun Tribal Band files petition for federal recognition Interior is taking public comment on a petition that turns on the same 1927 federal decisions that cut off the Muwekma Ohlone’s Verona Band. Comments must be postmarked by Dec. 21.
- Explainer: Interior now lets denied tribes try again. A 2025 rule ended the era of permanent “no” answers. Tribes denied before 2025, the Muwekma Ohlone among them, have until Feb. 14, 2030 to ask for a second chance.
- The courts are closed. Can Congress recognize a tribe? The Chinook, the Lumbee and a stalled California bill show what the congressional path to recognition looks like.
- A California mission tribe clears Phase I at Interior. The Fernandeño Tataviam Band won a positive Phase I proposed finding, real progress that also shows how hard it is to prove “previous recognition.”
- 47 years after it first asked, the United Houma Nation carries a new recognition case to Interior Principal Chief Lora Ann Chaisson hand-delivered a petition supplement on Oct. 15, testing what the 2015 rules can do for a tribe that was never finally denied.
- The federal paper trail of California’s Indian people is being boxed up for Colorado. The National Archives plans to ship its San Bruno BIA records, including enrollment files central to the Muwekma recognition case, to Denver. California sued on Oct. 14 to stop it.
Breaking News
- Prop. 45 would write tribes like the Muwekma Ohlone out of California’s environmental review. The builder-backed CEQA rewrite would let “essential” projects consult only with federally recognized tribes. Voters decide Nov. 3.
- Washington is rewriting Section 106. A Senate permitting bill and a draft federal rule could cost tribes without recognition even the invitation-only consultation they have now.
- Padilla and Schiff objected when regulators moved to weaken tribal consultation. California’s senators haven’t said how they’ll vote on S. 5653, which would narrow consultation by law. The Senate’s first vote is Nov. 9.
- California’s Native heritage commission is rewriting the rules for sacred sites. Draft rules would let only tribes on the commission’s contact list submit sites on their own, and a separate draft would reset the list itself.
- California says tribes without federal recognition are sovereign too. Its stewardship tools still sort them by status. The Natural Resources Agency’s own documents reserve co-management and cultural-burn agreements for federally recognized tribes.
- California’s new tribal contracting law opens a door for tribes. It stops at the federal list. AB 2187 lets state agencies hire tribes directly without competitive bidding, but its core exemptions name only federally recognized tribes.
- Newsom signs an apology to California Indians, then vetoes three bills they fought for The governor signed ten tribal bills, including a formal apology, then vetoed bills on sacred sites, tribal water rights and missing and murdered Indigenous people.
- Shutdown clock resets to Dec. 11. What the stopgap means for Indian health, the BIA, and tribes Washington won’t recognize.
Around the Region
- The Bidwell Mansion burned. Now the Mechoopda are asking for the land beneath it back. The Mechoopda Indian Tribe has a plan to take back the Chico state park, rename it and raise a Maidu village where the mansion stood. The Legislature will decide.
- Shasta elders want a say in Salmon River restoration. California’s fast track for restoration projects has no tribal consultation requirement, a gap that reaches all the way to Ohlone country.
- Region briefs: Clear Lake tribes win a co-management pact, the cardroom war heads to appeal Seven Pomo and Lake Miwok tribes signed California’s first watershed co-management agreement under a 2024 law, and the fine print leaves unrecognized tribes out.
Culture
- The Muwekma Ohlone brought fire back to an oak woodland. A new study says the soil came through. The Tribe’s January burn at Jasper Ridge, its first in nearly 150 years, spared the soil life that keeps acorn pests in check.
- In Los Gatos, the Muwekma tell their own story, from the Trail of Truth to the return of cultural fire Two exhibitions at New Museum Los Gatos, built with the Tribe, follow its horseback Trail of Truth and its work to bring back burning, native plants and the Chochenyo language.
- Thousands rise before dawn on Alcatraz, on Ohlone land, as a new prison threat looms More than 2,000 people crossed the Bay in the dark for the 47th Indigenous Peoples Day Sunrise Gathering.
Dates to watch
- Nov. 3: California votes on Proposition 45, and San Francisco elects a new member of Congress in the 11th District.
- Nov. 4: Native American Heritage Commission virtual listening session on the sacred sites draft rules, 9 to 11 a.m. Passwords are available from tribal.consultation@nahc.ca.gov.
- Nov. 9: The Senate returns and is scheduled to vote on cloture on S. 5653 at about 5:30 p.m. Eastern.
- Nov. 13: Heritage commission in-person roundtable in Riverside, 1 to 4 p.m.
- Nov. 29: The Trail of Truth exhibition at New Museum Los Gatos closes.
- Dec. 7: Requests for one-on-one tribal consultation with the heritage commission are due.
- Dec. 11: The federal stopgap funding runs out.
- Dec. 21: Comments on the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band’s petition must be postmarked, and written comments on the heritage commission’s draft rules are due.
- Jan. 3, 2027: The land and sea exhibition at New Museum Los Gatos closes.
- Jan. 15, 2027: Comments to the California Natural Resources Agency on its tribal proposals close at 5 p.m.
- Feb. 14, 2030: The deadline for previously denied tribes, the Muwekma Ohlone among them, to ask Interior for a second look.
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