BERKELEY -- The city of Berkeley has unveiled the first of more than 30 signs at its borders that recognize the Ohlone tribe's often overlooked presence in the region.
At the corner of College and Alcatraz Avenues, officials joined by indigenous people, unveiled the first sign, which reads "Welcome to Berkeley — Ohlone Territory."
During the ceremony, sage was burned and an Ohlone native sang a traditional song.
"This is not only a statement of historical fact, but also is an important recognition of our indigenous culture,” said Mayor Jesse Arreguin, noting that native culture has undergone something of a renaissance amid growing calls for preservation of archaeological sites and a long threatened cultural heritage.
Ohlone Confederation leader Corrina Gould said there are as many as 4,000 Ohlones still living in the East Bay, where her people have been for 12,000 years and were the Bay Area’s first human settlers.
The Ohlone tribes once spanned along the Northern Californian coast, down to lower Monterey Bay and the Salinas Valley, speaking a variety of related languages. They were nearly driven to extinction after the arrival of Europeans by disease, social upheaval and a later series of massacres perpetuated by the United States after California’s entry into the Union. The last fluent Ohlone speaker died in 1939.
Berkeley’s signs are the first in the Bay Area to allude to that harrowing history. The new references to the Native American culture will replace signs that proclaimed Berkeley as a "nuclear free zone."