SJ nonprofit mobilizes students to help Muwekma Ohlone gain federal recognition

WHAT STARTED AS A RESEARCH project for one San Jose high school student has recently transformed into a nonprofit organization with hundreds of members and chapters throughout the nation, all advocating for a shared cause: to address systemic inequities facing Indigenous communities.

In San Jose, where it all started in 2023, that advocacy involves lobbying for the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe to gain the federal recognition the tribe says it lost due to a clerical omission in 1927, which some elected officials and the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs have disputed.