Camron-Stanford House acknowledges that this land was part of a culturally vibrant indigenous community long before the arrival of European settlers. For over 10,000 years, generations of the Ohlone people have called the Bay Area and the Northern California coastal region home.

In the East Bay, the Chochenyo-speaking Ohlone people knew this area as xučyun (Huichin). Their homeland spanned across most of what we now refer to as Alameda, Berkeley, Emeryville, El Cerrito, and Oakland.

The Ohlone way of life was devastated by the arrival of Mexican and Spanish explorers and colonists who claimed lands as their own. The Ohlone, like most other North American Indigenous tribes, were subjected to forced assimilation, exposure to illness, expulsion from their lands, and genocide. 

By 1820, nearly all of the East Bay was known as Rancho San Antonio – land granted to Don Luis Maria Peralta by the Spanish king. The Peralta family and other Spanish and Mexican landowners were, in many cases, forced to forfeit their land as United States territories expanded west and laid claim to what would eventually become California. 

The Camron-Stanford House recognizes that we are on the unceded territory of the Ohlone people, and we seek to uplift indigenous experiences through our interpretation of 19th-century Oakland and California history. The Camron-Stanford House encourages actively learning about the diverse cultures that shape our Oakland community. 

Learn more about the Ohlone experience and their work in the Bay Area community today by visiting www.muwekma.org.