Lofgren warns San Jose City Council against supporting recognition for Muwekma Ohlone tribe

As the Muwekma Ohlone tribe pushes for federal recognition with a cross-country horseback trek, its grassroots campaign appears to have gained the sympathy of the San Jose City Council, with several members proposing a resolution of support.

But Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who represents San Jose and initially supported the tribe’s petition decades ago, cautioned the council on Wednesday about intervening in a federal matter and the precedent that overturning the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ decision on the matter could set.

“Doing so for one tribe would create significant issues of fairness for other tribes who have also received negative determinations under the BIA process,” Lofgren wrote in a letter to the city. “I encourage the Council to more carefully consider this and other complicated issues that would arise from Congress overturning BIA’s independent, fact-based determination.”

The Muwekma Ohlone, which at last count had 614 members, has cited the need for federal recognition to hold land, receive federal assistance and aid in repatriating artifacts held by government agencies and public museums. Without the designation establishing its legitimacy, the tribe is not entitled to any of those benefits.

The tribe’s ancestral lands are said to include portions of Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Mateo and Solano counties.

The BIA, which last granted federal recognition to a tribe five years ago, denied the Muwekma Ohlone’s petition for recognition in 2002, citing its failure to meet three of the seven required criteria. After a D.C. Circuit Court ruled in favor of the BIA in 2011, an appeals court affirmed the decision two years later, leaving congressional action as the only other method for recognition.

The tribe is on a three-month-long, cross-country “Trail of Truth” protest that began on Sunday in San Francisco and is set to end in Washington, D.C.

Charlene Nijmeh, the chairperson of the tribe, said Wednesday that a local resolution was important to show lawmakers in D.C. that it had the community’s support.

“This is what the Trail of Truth is about — to stand up for justice not just for Muwekma but all unrecognized, unheard tribes who feel unseen,” Nijmeh said.

The tribe, however, faces an uphill battle in getting congressional support.

While Lofgren supported the tribe’s initial petition, she noted that it was unprecedented for Congress to overturn a denial by BIA that had also exhausted all appeals.

“While I supported the Tribe’s application to BIA more than two decades ago, I also believe it is important to respect fact-based decisions so that all tribes have a fair and equal opportunity to seek recognition,” Lofgren wrote.

In only one instance has Congress overturned a BIA decision, when it granted recognition to the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana. In that case, Montana legislators had attached a rider, an amendment that is not germane to a bill, to the National Defense Authorization Act that was signed in December 2019. Before passage, the Little Shell Tribe was appealing the BIA’s denial, and its other congressional attempts were thwarted.

Lofgren and other local members of Congress, who did not respond to requests for comment, also have a contentious history with Nijmeh, who unsuccessfully challenged Lofgren’s House seat in this year’s primary, and the Muwekma Ohlone.

Last year, lawmakers clashed with the tribe and accused its surrogates of spreading disinformation and writing fake news stories about their positions.

Nijmeh also has previously accused Lofgren of obstructing the tribe’s federal recognition efforts and referred to her as a “colonist.”

Lofgren’s letter struck a note with some councilmembers who asked during a rules committee hearing Wednesday that the resolution of support be pushed back two weeks from the Aug. 13 City Council agenda to Aug. 27 to gather more information, further rankling Nijmeh.

“It’s very disheartening that you are playing politics here with Zoe Lofgren,” Nijmeh told the San Jose rules committee while continuing her accusations that Lofgren was being “bought” by gaming tribes.

District 5 Councilmember Peter Ortiz, who attended the tribe’s protest in San Francisco last weekend and has championed the resolution of support, noted that it was important for the City Council to have full context when making its decision.

“Unfortunately, historically, there are tribes that have been recognized (that) are against others,” Ortiz said. “Even the BIA has weaponized against unrecognized tribes. So all that stuff I hope can be brought up in the conversation, because it’s very important to have that context.”