Gathering of the Ohlone Peoples Returns to Coyote Hills

The East Bay Regional Park District invites the public to the 20th Anniversary Gathering of Ohlone Peoples, Sunday, October 6, 2013, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Coyote Hills Regional Park in Fremont.

The area encompassed by the East Bay Regional Park District – Alameda and Contra Costa Counties – falls within the homelands of about 25 tribes of Native peoples, who spoke variants of two Ohlone languages (East Bay Costanoan and Karkin), and the Bay Miwok and Delta Yokuts languages. Over 2,000 years ago, the Ohlone and their ancestors established several villages in the area that is now Coyote Hills Regional Park. European settlement brought severe disruption, dislocation, and suffering to the Tuibun tribe (located in today’s Fremont Plain) and to other Ohlone peoples. Despite this tragic history, many Ohlone continue to keep their history and elements of their traditional cultures alive.

At the Gathering of Ohlone Peoples, Ohlones of varied tribal backgrounds will share family and tribal history, music, song, dance, and stories. They’ll discuss contemporary cultural involvements and concerns, and demonstrate basket, jewelry, soaproot brush, and dogbane string making. Visitors may walk to a more than 2,000-year-old Tuibun village site, play an Ohlone game, try making fire without matches, or make a miniature tule boat. Activities include tasting native plant teas, manzanita cider, and, in the afternoon, acorn soup cooked with heated stones in a basket.

Coyote Hills Regional Park is comprised of nearly 978 acres of marshland and rolling grassland-covered hills, along the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay, northwest of the cities of Fremont and Newark. Popular visitor activities are bicycling, walking, bird watching, jogging, nature exploration, and picnicking. Coyote Hills Regional Park also features a Visitor Center, with exhibits on Ohlone and other Central California Indian ways of life, as well as exhibits on area wetlands habitats and wildlife.

Admission is free, parking is $5. Coyote Hills Regional Park is located at 8000 Patterson Ranch Road (Paseo Padre exit off Highway 84), Fremont, CA 94555. Information: 1-888-EBPARKS (1-888-327-2757).

Please note that photography at this event is by permission of the presenters.

Isa Polt-Jones
(510) 544-2207
ipjones@ebparks.org