The history of the Ramaytush Ohlone, the Bay Area's Indigenous peoples

The land that comprises the Bay Area belongs to the Ramaytush Ohlone , who totaled around 1,500 people across 10 tribal groups prior to Spanish invasion.

Zoom in: One such tribe was the Yelamu, who were the original people of what is now San Francisco County. They have no living descendants.

The big picture: In 1769, the Spanish embarked on their quest to conquer what is now California. The diseases they brought over led to high death rates among Indigenous people.

• The Ramaytush Ohlone lost the vast majority of their population as well as their land.
• Spanish missionaries set up missions across California, including Mission Dolores in what is now San Francisco, as part of an effort to convert Indigenous people.
• This included forcing them to assimilate to European culture, eradicating their traditions and subjecting them to forced labor and beatings. Many were imprisoned for decades .

State of play: While only one lineage of the Ramaytush Ohlone people is known to have produced descendants who are alive today, their descendants continue to work to preserve their cultural knowledge and revitalize their language.

• Many of the Ramaytush Ohlone people's current projects involve ecological restoration and art exhibitions . They also partnered with the National Park Service to create an online elementary curriculum called Living with the Land .

What to watch: They're working with San Francisco to create a citywide waterfront trail with historical and current information on the Ramaytush Ohlone.

• The American Indian Cultural District is also documenting and preserving cultural sites important to the Ramaytush Ohlone.