Fact Brief: Were the Ohlone declared ‘extinct’?

Yes.

The Ohlone were declared “extinct” in 1925. Alfred Kroeber, the director of UC Berkeley’s Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the time, said the Ohlone people were “extinct for all practical purposes.”

But in the 1920s, roughly 100 Ohlone people survived colonization and today members of the tribe still live in the Bay Area. Before the Spanish landed in California, the Ohlone tribe were estimated to have a population of 30,000.

This false declaration of “extinction” led to the Ohlone people losing recognition by the Federal Government and the rights that go with it. This fight to be recognized still persists for the Ohlone people and modern DNA testing backs up their claims of ancestry. 

This Fact Brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

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Sources

• Science.org Ancient DNA could help California tribe get federal recognition
• SF Gate Once declared 'extinct,' the San Francisco Bay Area's Ohlone Tribe now seeks federal recognition through DNA link
• New York Times Indigenous Founders of a Museum Cafe Put Repatriations on the Menu