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Finding the Alameda Shellmounds: Part One
The Plaque at Lincoln Park It’s hard to say exactly what this plaque meant to me, growing up, adopted, in Alameda. This was a tangible symbol of my Native American heritage; something connected to my identity. Proof that my people actually existed somewhere. Even though I couldn’t see them, or be with them. It was […]
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Forms of Recognition: Alameda’s Anti-Asian History
Recognition and Acknowledgment can only do so much; we know. But it’s the start of a larger truth and reconciliation process that America needs to engage in. This may be a project that focuses on Native American “stuff”, but… Native American History isn’t the only American History that has been ignored by Alameda’s Colonial Historians. […]
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Indigenous-Led Research Project Creates Restoration of Historical Landmarks (Shellmounds) in the San Francisco Bay Area
The Alameda Native History Project project presents a map of the three Alameda Shellmounds, as seen by N.C. Nelson in 1907, restored and presented in the present-day landscape. For the first time ever, the Shellmounds of Alameda are being visualized, and presented as a physical, tangible land feature. The purpose of this map is to: […]
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The Alameda Shellmound Maps
Created using derivatives of open-source data, including (but not limited to) USGS, NOAA, USCG, NASA, Google Earth. Analyzed, processed, and produced by the Alameda Native History Project, using open-source software available to anyone with a smart phone, and the most basic computer. Why did the Alameda Native History Project create these maps? Necessity The first […]
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Lecturing in a Museum Which Doesn’t Represent You
An Open Letter to Reverend Michael Yoshii, and Serena Chen, two of the lecturers set to speak in the Alameda Museum’s “Virtual Speakers Series”, for AAPI Heritage Month Lecture Series tomorrow, Monday, May 23, 2022. Here’s the flyer: Background: I tried to call Lillian Galedo, but I wasn’t able to reach her for comment. I […]
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Alameda Museum: 74 Years of White History?
The Alameda Museum was founded in 1948; seventy-four years ago. It is a public institution, which is dedicated to fostering public interest in the history of Alameda. The mission of the Alameda Museum is three-fold: To accumulate, catalog, conserve, and display appropriate documents, photographs, objects, and artifacts relating to the city and its residents; To […]
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Ohlone: The First Alamedans, “Were Not a ‘Branch of Miwok Indians’”
When “The Spanish” came to the San Francisco Bay Area, they called all of the people who lived here “Costanoans”; and promptly killed, and corralled them into the California Missions; then began to colonize the land by bringing cows, catfish, eucalyptus, and other foreign plants and animals. The primary language for the Mission San Jose […]
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Alameda’s Racist History: If You Won’t Share Ours, Give Back Our Artifacts
Alameda is a model colonial city. Their Victorian houses, and expansive gardens have been written about for hundreds of years. Regular Alameda Garden Tours, and Alameda Legacy Home Tours extoll the virtues of Alameda’s First Colonizers. These historical celebrations routinely leave out facts, such as, “This garden was fertilized by using human remains found in […]