People around the Bay Area on Monday celebrated Indigenous Peoples' Day – a day that used to be known as Columbus Day before activists in Berkeley and Santa Cruz led a movement to change the focus and narrative of the day.
At Santa Clara University’s Indigenous People’s Day event, a family led by tribal representatives of the Muwekma Ohlone community offered a blessing. Santa Clara offers a weeklong series of events to address as well as reconcile the bitter but undeniable historical connection.
"We’ve heard different stories about how they were treated, illness, diseases, etcetera, but we know that the communities do trace their ancestry to the Rancherias that were here when we think about Mission Santa Clara, Mission Dolores, Mission San Jose," Santa Clara University Diversity Inclusion Senior Director Ray Plaza said.
The Muwekma Ohlone family said Santa Clara's involvement helps to keep history and the future in focus.
"We’re striving to reaffirm our tribe as a federally recognized tribe," tribal Vice President Monica V. Arellano said. "That’s a big job for us and it takes a lot of support from the community, from places like this university and other organizations."
Santa Clara, with the Muwekma Ohlone tribe, put together an augmented reality tour just for the day. One person involved was the daughter of a tribal leader and part of the group.
"My daughter Isabella is a first year freshman student here, and her representation matters," former tribal councilmember Gloria Arellano Gomez said. "Our representation matters. It’s a blessing to be able to thrive in this community on this land that our people resided on and have resided on for thousands of years.”
The students who created the augmented reality tour said they hope to expand it to include more exhibits and information to make it something people can do all year and not just on Indigenous Peoples' Day.
The Santa Clara event was one of several official Indigenous Peoples' Day events in the Bay Area, along with the tribal breakfast at Alcatraz and a dance celebration in San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens – events the younger generation members appreciate.
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"This isn’t really Columbus Day because Columbus didn't discover it," 11-year-old Georgiana K. Gomez said. "Our ancestors were already on the land."
