Muwekma Ohlone, a Tribe Fighting for Recognition in Silicon Valley: with Chairwoman Charlene Nijmeh

Back to the People

Charlene Nijmeh is the Chairwoman of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe. She is from the Marine-Sanchez lineage that descends from the first peoples of the San Francisco Bay Area. Her ancestors are direct descendants of those who were taken into the mission system at Santa Clara, Mission San Jose, and Mission Dolores in San Francisco. Charlene began her engagement in Tribal affairs at an early age of 8 when she was exposed to her Tribe’s efforts to repatriate ancestral remains during the early 80’s. As she became a young adult she worked as a Native American Monitor and Field Crew for the Muwekma Ohlone Tribal Cultural Resources Management firm providing Tribal consultation to commercial developers and construction companies, municipalities, county, state, and federal agencies on ancestral Muwekma Ohlone heritage village and cemetery sites that included monitoring, mitigation, excavation, removal, and relocation of ancestral remains. In 2018, Charlene was elected as Tribal Chairwoman to help lead her people after the retirement of the previous chair. As Chair of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, she represents over 600 tribal members who comprise the 10 lineages of the previously recognized, never terminated Verona Band of Alameda County.