I’m taking a really interesting summer class called Social Issues in Agriculture. In it, we are exploring and learning about agroecology, biocultural memory, and political ecology. I have a lot of knowledge and experience in growing things, but I’ve never really considered the history of the land and the indigenous peoples who lived here first. It’s one thing to plant a ‘three-sisters garden;’ it’s another thing entirely to look at the garden from the perspective of the present while honoring the people who gathered, grew, and ate here long ago. I’ve looked at the geology and land processes, the geography and natural hazards of my property, without acknowledging the people who were here first, and the ones that moved in by colonization.
We have had several interesting lectures in my class, and one of them was proceeded by a verbal Land Acknowledgment and moment of silence to honor those that came before. I had never seen or heard of a Land Acknowledgment before, and I found it moving and important. In this time of increased awareness of the issues Black Americans face, I am also finding that there is a need for awareness of those that Indigenous People face.
What is a Land Acknowledgment? According to Northwestern University, it is “a formal statement that recognizes and respects Indigenous Peoples as traditional stewards of this land and the enduring relationship that exists between Indigenous Peoples and their traditional territories.” Why do we recognize them? It is “an expression of gratitude and appreciation to those whose territory you reside on, and a way of honoring the indigenous people who have been living and working on the land from time immemorial. It is important to understand the long standing history that has brought you to reside on the land, and to seek to understand your place within that history.”
So, I’d like to try my best to acknowledge the people who historically lived on the land on which I live and work. It is apparently better to do this badly then not at all, so here is my attempt. I live in what is now south Walnut Creek, California, a land originally populated by the Bay Miwok tribe. The Bay Miwok tribe was split into several other tribes, whose names were recorded in 1769 when the Spanish first came to California in force (there is some confusion about whether or not the Spanish actually gave the tribes these names): The Chupcan, Julpun, Ompin, Saclan, Tatcan and Volvon tribes. The Saclan tribe lived where I live now. According to our local San Ramon Valley Museum, “the Bay Miwok tribes each had one to five semi-permanent villages and numerous temporary camping sites within a fixed territory of about 6 to 10 miles in diameter. Each tribe knew its land and boundaries intimately and owned the land communally. They probably lived within different watersheds, consumed seasonal foods such as acorns, seeds and salmon and took advantage of their proximity to waterways. The Bay Miwok tribes each ranged in numbers from 200-500 at the time of European contact.”
The Saclan were apparently leaders in several rebellions of the region, and resisted the Spanish troops who came after them in several expeditions between 1795 and 1805. The refused to go peacefully to the Missions, but were eventually “subdued” by the Spanish military. The Spanish Colonial period extended to 1821, and the Missions were in charge of various areas; the San Jose Mission was likely the one that incorporated the Saclan people into its territory. The land was used for grazing animals (which destroyed our native ecosystems). In 1821 Mexico gained control of Alta California, and this period was dominated by rancheros and traders. Four Mexican land grants divided present-day Walnut Creek, and our area belonged to Jana Sanchez de Pacheco. His grandson is apparently the first person to build a roofed house here, in 1850, according to our local history. He named the territory Rancho Arroyo de Las Nueces y Bolbones (“Walnut Creek” and “Bolbones,” another name for the local indigenous people). He owned 20,000 acres, employed Mexicans and Natives, and bought sheep and cattle from San Jose Mission which continued to graze on these lands.
Of course, the Gold Rush began in 1849, and the miners continued to decimate the land and the tribal peoples. California became a state in 1850, and according to our county history, passed laws allowing the natives to be enslaved by any white man. Women and children were taken and sold. In 1863, this law was repealed.
In 1855, the first hotel was built in our city, and in 1856, Hiram Penniman laid out the town site and called it “The Corners.” That community was largely a farming one, planting vast pear and walnut orchards. In 1862, the first Post Office was built here, and the town was renamed Walnut Creek. In 1949, our immediate neighborhood was built, along with all of the schools our children attended.
We moved here in 2004.
I found it fascinating to research all of this, most of which I knew in bits and pieces before, but having a more complete picture is really good. I want to honor those that came before. I think it’s important that we all do. I encourage you to take some time and do the same. You might already know most of it, but you may learn something new, and it’s very good for us to acknowledge the harm our ancestors did to both the land and the people that came before. I am sad that there is a whole range of local knowledge that has been lost due to colonization, slavery, and genocide. There are very few Bay Miwok people left, and the Bay Miwok tribe has never been recognized by the federal government of the United States. Some California tribes signed treaties with the United States government in 1850, which gave up quite a lot of their ancestral land; it appears the Bay Miwok was not one of these tribes (for a fabulous history of the tribes in our area, click HERE to see a school curriculum put together by East Bay Regional Parks).
There is a cultural memory that has been lost, of what to gather and grow and cook here. There is a richness of diversity that has been lost. An entire People have been lost. I am also sad that a lot of our local land was destroyed by grazing, and now is colonized by plants that didn’t belong here, which destroyed our local ecosystems. Many of the plants and insects that thrive now came here as ballast on Gold Rush boats.
Of course, while I garden with a lot of plants native to this area, I also grow an awful lot of things that don’t belong here at all, and persist in keeping European honeybees which are non-native. I continue to wrestle with these issues and vacillate back and forth between championing this kind of growing, and vilifying it. We all need to make those decisions for ourselves. We need to know all the facts and acknowledge our actions, either way.
The same can be said for knowing who lived and worked on our land before we did. It is a way to honor them, to recognize them, to look them in the eye metaphorically and say “I see you.”