Muwekma Ohlone tribe journeys from Bay Area to DC on horseback in fight for recognition

For many, Monday was Columbus Day, marking the arrival of Europeans to the North American continent.  But an increasing number of people are instead choosing to recognize it as Indigenous People's day, in honor of those who were already here.

One of those tribes lived in the South Bay and, on Monday, they arrived in the Nation's Capital to demand that their existence be recognized.

Members of the Muwekma Ohlone arrived at the Arlington Bridge in Washington D.C. on Monday after a two-month journey by horseback that started at the Golden Gate Bridge.  The tribe called it the Trail of Truth as they crossed the country, demanding to be included by the federal government.

"Muwekma Ohlone has been in a 45-year struggle to get, really, our existence acknowleged," said Tribal Chairwoman Charlene Nijmeh.

Once numbering nearly 30,000, the tribe said it has about 600 living members.

Nijmeh said Muwekma was once recognized, but decades ago the Bureau of Indian Affairs ruled that they, in fact, didn't qualify to be on the list of government-sanctioned tribes.

"We should have never been through the federal acknowledgement process," said Nijmeh, "because that process is only for tribes who were never acknowledged by the government or who were terminated. Our tribe was never terminated and we were acknowledged."

As a result, Muwekma has no sovereign-nation status.

In August, the San Jose City Council was considering a resolution supporting the tribe's recognition when they began getting letters from local members of Congress.

Rep. Anna Eshoo sent one saying, "The relevant question before Congress is not whether the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe are among the Indigenous people of the Bay Area. I certainly do not dispute this claim and neither does the BIA. Instead, the key question is whether the Tribe constitutes a distinct and long-lasting sovereign nation entitled to a government-to-government relationship with the United States."

Meanwhile, Rep. Zoe Lofgren's message to the council was more blunt.

"The Council may wish to consider whether its intervention in this federal matter is appropriate at all," she said.

In September, the council was supposed to consider the support resolution. But at that meeting, the proposal was dropped without further action.

"And I've heard from every single councilman and woman, saying, 'Yeah, she's pressuring us to stop taking action on the resolution,'" said Nijmeh. "She wants to kill it and I'm saying, why?"

In January of last year, the tribe got a letter from five local Congressmembers--Eshoo, Lofgren, Ro Khanna, Jimmy Panetta and Eric Swallwell--that said, "We've discussed the issues relating to the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and we agree unanimously on a crucial point: None of us want casinos in our Congressional Districts because we're concerned that gambling will negatively impact the communities we represent."

With sovereign nation status, tribes have the right under California law to offer gaming on their land.  Instead, the Congressional delegation asked if the tribe would be satisfied with federal recognition if it exlcluded the right to open a casino.

"What Congress is asking of Muwekma is to give away rights of ours. Specifically what they're saying is we don't want you to do gaming in the Bay Area," said Nijmeh. "You've taken enough from us. You've taken our land, our culture, our language. You are not taking anything more from future generations."

That's why they came to Washington. They're hoping to get a more sympathetic audience with President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris, because they already know how Congress feels about it.