lisjan 1

The Lisjan people... 

have lived in the territory of Huchiun since the beginning of time.

For thousands of years, hundreds of generations...

the Lisjan Ohlone people have lived on the land that is now known as the East Bay in the San Francisco Bay Area. We did not own the land, we belonged to it. 

Generation after generation, we cultivated reciprocal relationships with the plants and animals we shared this place with, and developed beautiful and powerful cultural practices, that kept us in balance.

The Confederated Villages of Lisjan is one of many Ohlone tribes...

each with its own geography and history. 

Our tribes, cultures and languages are as diverse as the ecosystems we live within. 

When the Spanish invaded in the late 1700s, in their ignorance they called us Costanoan, people of the coast. In the 1960s and 70s, inspired by the Black Power and American Indian Movements, we organized and renamed ourselves Ohlone. But there are 8 different bands of Ohlone people, with connected but different territories and languages. The Lisjan speak the language Chochenyo.

The Lisjan are made up of the seven Tribes... 

that were directly enslaved at Mission San Jose in Fremont, CA and Mission Dolores in San Francisco, CA: Lisjan (Ohlone), Karkin (Ohlone), Bay Miwok, Plains Miwok, Wappo, Delta Yokut and Napian (Patwin). 

Our territory includes 5 Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano, Napa and San Joaquin, and we are directly tied to the “Indian Town” census of the 1920’s and the Verona Band.

Sogorea Te’ Land Trust is based in Huchiun, in unceded [niet afgestaan] Lisjan territory, what is now known as Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Piedmont, Emeryville and Albany, California.

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