This post is another in my ongoing blog series that acknowledges the ancestral lands on which the National Archives’ buildings are situated across the country. This series of acknowledgements is a simple way to offer our recognition and respect to the people who once lived on these lands.
The National Archives at San Francisco and the San Francisco Federal Records Center is located in San Bruno, California, which is situated on the ancestral lands of the Ramaytush Ohlone people.
“The Ramaytush (pronounced rah-my-toosh) are the only original people of the San Francisco Peninsula. In the baptismal records of Mission Dolores, Aramay referred specifically to the area containing the villages of Timigtac and Pruristac. The term Ramaytush became a linguistic designation for a dialect of the Costanoan language that was spoken by the original peoples of the San Francisco Peninsula. Most descendants of the indigenous groups of the San Francisco Bay Area, however, refer to themselves as Ohlone while a few others use Costanoan.
The title Ramaytush Ohlone recognizes the Ramaytush as a part of a larger group of the Ohlone/Costanoan peoples who lived in the area of the San Francisco Bay south to Monterey. Prior to the arrival of the Spanish in 1769, the Ramaytush Ohlone numbered approximately 1400 persons and lived in eleven tribelets.” From the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone website.
My thanks to Stephanie Bayless, Director of Archival Operations, National Archives at San Francisco, John Seamans, Archives Technician, National Archives at San Francisco for the research, images and information they provided for this post.
For Additional Information:
Margolin, Malcolm. The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area. Heyday; Second edition. (August 1, 1978) https://heydaybooks.com/catalog/the-ohlone-way-indian-life-in-the-san-francisco-monterey-bay-area/
Alan Leventhal, Dolores Sanchez et al. “A Contemporary Ohlone Tribal Revitalization Movement: A Perspective from the Muwekma Costanoan/Ohlone Indians of the San Francisco Bay Area.” http://www.muwekma.org/publications/tribalpublications.html
Map of California Reservations and Rancherias, 1954 – 1954. National Archives Identifier 57316280