“hidden but not forgotten”

This week we marked Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The day is behind us, and the work keeps going.

I live and work on Muwekma Ohlone land in San Jose. In 2020, while I was at Green Foothills, I worked on a piece on allyship with local Native Americans with the support of representatives of the Muwekma, Diné (Navajo), Lenca, Maya and Amah Mutsun nations.

While creating it, I learned that the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe numbered around 30,000 people in the 1700s. By the early 1900s there were 62. Today the Tribe has more than 600 enrolled members. As Tribal Chairwoman Charlene Nijmeh put it, “We are here bringing back our culture which was hidden but not forgotten.”

This is part of my work, though I rarely put it front and center. Clients often tell me they want to build real relationships with the tribes whose land they’re on. When that happens, I don’t think I should be the one leading it. Indigenous practitioners should be doing that work and getting paid for it. My part is to make the introduction and keep the question alive in board and strategy conversations.

Maybe you already know whose land you live on, or you’re showing up for land back efforts. If you’re looking for a next step that lasts past one day in October, I encourage you to become a monthly donor to one of the organizations below. Even $10 or $20 a month gives them something steady to count on. If you lead an organization, an organizational gift to Indigenous-led work goes even further.

Amah Mutsun Land Trust

The land trust now owns its first land: 50 acres within the greater Juristac landscape. It’s the first land the Amah Mutsun have held since they were forced off it more than 225 years ago. They’re working with POST on how the rest of Juristac will be cared for and who will own it long term, and they have a grant to acquire Chitactac, another sacred site. Their stewards do cultural burning and native plant restoration, and they train young tribal members to care for the land.

Muwekma Ohlone Preservation Foundation

The Muwekma were federally recognized in the early 1900s as the Verona Band of Alameda County. They were dropped from the federal list in 1927, along with 134 other California tribes, and have been fighting to get that status back ever since. In 2024, tribal members rode horseback from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. on what they called the Trail of Truth to push for it.

The Preservation Foundation is a new nonprofit created to carry the Tribe’s cultural and land work forward. It teaches the Chochenyo language, songs, dance, and regalia-making to tribal members. It’s also building a digital archive of Muwekma cultural practices and working to secure access to and stewardship of ancestral lands. I was a founding board member and served as its first interim executive director in 2023 and 2024, so I’ve seen up close what steady support makes possible.

If your organization wants to go further

Reach out to Noxtli, an Indigenous-led consulting practice with more than 30 years of experience in Indigenous community work. They help institutions build accountable relationships with tribes that go well past the land acknowledgement. Their work includes equity audits, retreats, Indigenous hiring strategy, and partnership building. I spent time with them at 1440 this summer and can’t recommend them enough.

If you’d like an introduction or have questions about possible next steps, reach out to me here.