Horše túuxi! (Hor-sheh troo-hee)
We would like to recognize that Christmas in the Park is located on the ethnohistoric territory of the ancestral and unceded land of the Thámien (thah-me-in) Ohlone (oh-loh-knee) -speaking tribal groups of the greater Santa Clara Valley, which includes the lands of the Alsons, Matalans, and the Paleños – whose tribal region was named after their powerful chief Capitan Pala, and the two Mexican land grants located in the East Hills above San Jose – and who were intermarried with the direct ancestors of some of the lineages enrolled in the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area, whom were missionized into Missions Santa Clara, San Jose, and San Francisco. The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area is the legal successor of all of the surviving Native American lineages, including the Thámien Ohlone-speaking tribes, who comprised the historic sovereign and previously federally recognized Verona Band of Alameda County. This land was and continues to be of great spiritual and historic importance to the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and other familial descendants of the Verona Band.
We recognize that every member of the greater San Jose community has, and continues to benefit from, the use and occupation of this land since The City of San Jose’s establishment in 1777. Consistent with our values of community, inclusion, and diversity, we have a responsibility to acknowledge and make known through various enterprises our relationship to Native Peoples. As members of the San Jose community, it is vitally important that we not only acknowledge and commemorate the history of the land on which we live, work, and learn, but also, we recognize that the Muwekma Ohlone People are alive and flourishing members of the San Jose and broader Bay Area communities today. Aho!