Land Acknowledgment

Berkwood Hedge School sits on the territory of xučyun (Huichin), the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo speaking Ohlone people, the successors of the sovereign Verona Band of Alameda County. This land was and continues to be of great importance to the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and other familial descendants of the Verona Band. 

The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area is a landless, previously federally recognized tribe, historically identified by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) as the Verona Band of Alameda County. The enrolled lineages are directly descended from aboriginal tribes surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area whose ancestors were missionized into Missions San Francisco, Santa Clara, and San Jose; and had resided on several rancherias from the 19th through the early mid-20th century.

We recognize that every member of the Berkwood Hedge School learning community has, and continues to benefit from, the use and occupation of this land. Consistent with our values of community, inclusion and diversity, and social and environmental justice, we have a responsibility to acknowledge and make visible our school’s relationship to Native peoples. As members of the Berkeley community, it is vitally important that we not only recognize the history of the land on which we stand, but also, we recognize that the Muwekma Ohlone people are alive and flourishing members of the Berkeley and broader Bay Area communities today.

We would like to thank the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area for the language and resources used in the drafting of this land acknowledgment. This acknowledgment is a living document.

For more information about the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, including information about their efforts to be federally recognized and how you can help, please visit www.muwekma.org