Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco sit in the territory of Huichin, part of the stolen land of the Chochenyo Muwekma Ohlone, the successors of the historic and sovereign Verona Band of Alameda County. Ohlone people are not federally recognized as indigenous nations in the San Francisco Bay Area by the federal colonial government. California Native Americans suffered a brutal history of colonization, diseases and heinous violence and servitude during the Gold Rush and California Missions era. In 1854 alone, the government spent $1.4 million – $5 a head, 50 cents a scalp for people who turned their professional careers into killing Native Californians.

We acknowledge the land, labor and continued fight of the Ohlone people. We recognize their continued fight to reclaim their ancestral lands and culture, to assert their sovereignty, and to be recognized. We honor the Ohlone’s original connection to this land and whose presence—past, present, and future—we respect. As the Village in Oakland fights for the rights of unhoused people to exist – including safe, adequate and dignified housing on this stolen land, we acknowledge that the land we are working on today is the original homeland of Ohlone people. We acknowledge all Bay Area Indigenous peoples, and we understand that for the United States to exist, the settler colonizers created homelessness by stealing the lands of aboriginal peoples of Turtle Island.

Check out this short video here about the Muwekma Ohlone tribes current fight for federal recognition and sovereignty.

SUPPORTING BEYOND THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

One very direct and material way to support beyond land acknowledgements is to contribute financially to any of these efforts working towards re-matriating the land and water to their rightful Indigenous stewards of what is known now as the Bay Area, and protecting Native American culture, which is intrinsically connected to the land.

1. Help restore sovereignty to The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe.

2.A prayerful journey to restore salmon runs, protect waters, and indigenous life ways of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe.

3.Indian Canyon is the only land continuously held by the Ohlone people, and currently the only federally recognized “Indian Country” along coastal Northern California From Santa Barbara to Sonoma.

4. The NEST Community Arts Center is the only indigenous led community arts space in California. It is a space for healing, good vibes, and creation of arts located in Pomo territory, in the Makamo Mahilikawna watershed at Ashokawna, East River or Eesi Bidapte, or Big River also know as the Russian River in Sonoma County.

5.The Intertribal Friendship House of Oakland is one of the oldest Native American-focused urban resource and community organizations in the United States. Founded in 1955, IFH was created by local residents. Oakland, California has the largest number of native American’s from across the United States due to relocation acts from the 1940s and 50s that forced Indigenous people’s East of the Mississippi to relocate to East Oakland; and due to the Great Migration of the 1930s, when many “Black” presenting Natives including Choctaw, Seminole, Cherokee, Yamasee, and Chickasaw were mislabeled “Black” or “Negro”.

6. The Indigenous People Power Project (IP3) was founded in 2004 in Oakland, California to answer the urgent need for Nonviolent Direct Action strategies as a response to the challenges many Indigenous communities on turtle island and worldwide experience and a tactic to protect Indigenous land, water, air, and their inherent right to self-determination.

The Village in Oakland created this Land Acknowledgement to not only pay respect to the rightful stewards, but also in the hopes of inspiring others to take action to support Indigenous communities, and to actively learn about the Indigenous people on whose land you currently live on, the history of this land, and for you to make a mindful commitment to be an ally to Native Americans in their fight for preserving culture, life and sovereignty.

About Ethnic Studies Research & Grant Consulting LLC

(A Virgo-led, Scorpio-born enterprise)

Ethnic Studies Research & Grant Consulting LLC was founded under the sign of Scorpio — a symbol of transformation, depth, and strategic power. Guided by a Virgo mind that thrives on precision, structure, and ethical rigor, this firm lives at the intersection of intuition and analysis — where data meets destiny and equity becomes design.

We are not a “grant shop.” We are a research organism — a living system of inquiry, reflection, and restoration. Our work is surgical and soulful: cutting through surface narratives to expose the core of an organization’s purpose, then building the framework that turns that purpose into sustainable funding and measurable impact.

Scorpio gives us fearless curiosity — the willingness to dive into complexity, uncover what’s hidden, and rewrite old systems of power. Virgo gives us discipline and discernment — ensuring that every line, citation, and strategy is intentional. Together, these forces make our approach both metaphysical and methodical: we listen deeply, edit precisely, and write with the full weight of history, culture, and evidence.

We exist for those who work in the margins — community builders, educators, artists, and advocates who turn struggle into structure. Our mission is to translate their truth into funding, their vision into form, and their resilience into research that sustains generations.

Ethnic Studies Research & Grant Consulting LLC:
Where intuition meets infrastructure. Where impact is written in the stars.

Founded by Telisa Nyoka King, M.A., Ethnic Studies Research & Grant Consulting combines the depth of academic inquiry with the pragmatism of nonprofit practice. Since 2016, her experiences in higher education, research, and grant development, integrates Ethnic Studies and social impact evaluation to redefine how institutions conceptualize and measure success.

Her approach is rooted in the belief that evaluation is not surveillance—it’s liberation. By connecting data ethics, community-based research, and participatory design, her consulting practice helps organizations translate values into measurable, sustainable change.

Ms. King has spent nearly a decade refining her craft — archiving lessons from the field, shaping her approach to research, and evolving her philosophy of grant strategy.

Here is Nine Years, Nine Lessons — reflections from the work.

1. Good funding follows good listening.

2. Data must be accountable to the people it describes.

3. Equity frameworks mean nothing without equity practice.

4. Simplicity is radical clarity.

5. The most radical strategy is care — not urgency.

6. Evaluation should not extract. It should return something to the people who made the data possible.

7. Justice work is slow work. Every grant, every partnership, is another way of learning patience.

8. Expertise means nothing without humility — especially in rooms where the truth has long been ignored.

9. Equity doesn’t live in spreadsheets; it lives in stories, and stories require time.