Indigenous Peoples

For over 12,000 years, long before European contact, Native Peoples thrived in the fertile Santa Clara Valley. Settling among creeks, wetlands, and vast oak woodlands near Morgan Hill, Indigenous communities carefully cultivated the landscape for thousands of years. Using controlled cultural burning and seasonal harvesting, they managed oak forests and supported one of the largest non-agricultural populations in North America, creating a flourishing, thoughtfully shaped landscape rather than an untouched wilderness.

Eras of Transformation & Catastrophe

• Spanish Colonization (1769–1821): Spanish soldiers and missionaries brought livestock and invasive plants, destroying native ecology and acorn harvests. Local groups were brought into missions like Santa Clara and San Juan Bautista, suffering forced labor, social control, and introduced diseases that wiped out over 90% of California's Native population.

  
  

• Mexican Rule & Rancho Era (1821–1848): Although the Secularization Act aimed to return mission lands to Indigenous families, most land went to wealthy Californios as private ranchos (such as Rancho Ojo de Agua de la Coche in Morgan Hill). The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo later stripped most Native and Mexican landholders of their property.

  
  

• Early American Period & Gold Rush (1848–1900): The 1848 Gold Rush triggered rapid settlement, land destruction, and state-funded militia violence that decimated the population from 150,000 to under 30,000, a period historians recognize as state-sponsored genocide. Federal treaties establishing reservations were kept secret and never ratified.

Resilience and the Modern Message

Despite centuries of displacement, family separation, unratified treaties, and political erasure, California's First Peoples endured. Leaders like Ascención Solórsano de Cervantes preserved native languages and traditions, while communities formed rancherías like the historic Verona Band (ancestors of today's Muwekma Ohlone Tribe).

Today, groups such as the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, and neighboring Central Coast tribes actively work to restore native habitats, reintroduce cultural burning, and revive their languages and heritage.

Their primary message to us is simple, powerful, and enduring:  "We are still here."

It is a call to view the land not as owners, but as its respectful caretakers, ensuring a living story of resilience, renewal, and hope continues for generations to come.

Find the full story with references here.

Mural Honoring the History and Heritage of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe Along the Guadalupe River