47 years in the past, an injustice was dedicated: a Native American nation from the San Francisco Bay space was disregarded of the listing of federally acknowledged tribes maintained by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).
There was no listening to, no act of Congress, or government order.
Beforehand acknowledged by the federal authorities because the Verona Band of Alameda County, the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe was left unrecognized and landless. All members of right this moment’s Muwekma Ohlone descend from that Verona Band.
After a long time of battle, the Muwekma Ohlone tribe’s motion turned entwined with the 2024 US Presidential election, as they set out on a ‘Path of Reality’ journey throughout America that finally culminated in an almost-deadly October standoff with Joe Biden’s feds and native legislation enforcement in DC.
Charlene Nijmeh, the tribal chairwoman of the Muwekma Ohlone, spoke solely with The Gateway Pundit about these troubled occasions, how the Native American vote swung to Donald J. Trump, and the way the Muwekma Ohlone tribal nation counts on his ‘commonsense administration’ to repair this injustice.
Nijmeh instructed us how it began with a sure Frisco Bay space politician: Kamala Harris, who constructed her political profession in Muwekma Ohlone’s homelands because the Lawyer Common and U.S. Senator.
“She constructed her profession right here,” mentioned the Chairwoman, “the earlier tribe chair reached out to her many occasions to get her assist on laws, however she instructed him that Indian points had been ‘not her enterprise’. The tribes usually are not her enterprise. So, she wasn’t going to get entangled.”
In 2023, Chairwoman Nijmeh met with Democrat Rep. Zoe Lofgren who instructed her: Signal away a few of your tribal proper to function a on line casino, in trade for the introduction of laws for federal recognition. However Nijmeh declined to give up sovereign rights that each different federally acknowledged tribe had.
Muwekma had lengthy backed the ‘social justice’ Democrats, however when it was time to appropriate a half-a-century-old bureaucratic error, Dems led the opposition to them.
In 2024, once they noticed presidential candidate Kamala in Indian nation speaking about ‘self-governing, defending tribal rights, self-sovereignty points’, they knew it was all faux guarantees. So, in August, they launched a journey that they known as the ‘Path of Reality’.
“And we campaigned throughout the Indian nation about this: Kamala isn’t any good for us. She’s going to choose and select who she needs to work with. And it simply occurs to be the massive company gaming tribes. They offer her cash. She was not going to signify all of Indian nation. This journey was about talking our truths, to be seen and to be heard throughout Indian nation, and particularly in DC, as a result of they’ve been ignoring us for 45 years. They’ve been giving us lip service – telling us what we wish to hear, however doing nothing or doing the alternative.”
However whereas Harris had no historical past or dedication to Indian nation, another person had!
“However Trump does. Trump has spoken out. And for instance, has spoken out about restoring the federal recognition of the Lumbee tribe in North Carolina. You recognize, and that tribe has additionally been in the identical struggle as us to get their standing restored. So, there’s hope there.”
As a result of the Muwekma Ohlone bashed Kamala and supported Trump, they bought some backlash as their Path of Reality traveled south to LA, Malibu, after which minimize throughout over to Arizona – in Pee Posh Territory – from there to New Mexico, to the Pueblos.
Once they bought to Pine Ridge, South Dakota, within the Oglala Territory, the Horse Nation Society gathered horses for his or her journey.
Ultimately, members of different tribal nations started to hitch their protest caravan.
“We went over to Minnesota, we went to Crimson Lake, to Chicago, then to Menominee reservation in Wisconsin, the United Nation of Wisconsin, after which up via Michigan to Bay Mills. We met with the Tuscarora and Onondaga tribes; they had been in full assist.”
Whereas many of those names could sound overseas and unknown, it suffices to say that 25 totally different nations ended up becoming a member of Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of their American Journey to the District of Columbia.
“However what modified issues,” Nijmeh instructed the TGP, “is once we bought to DC with all these tribal nations, and the way we had been met by Kamala’s and Biden’s administration – that simply turned every thing round.”
On October 1, 2024, they walked over the Arlington Bridge and thru Capitol Mall all the best way to the Capitol, the place they camped out.
A gathering had already been organized with BIA’s Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, Brian Newland, and Capitol Police supplied an escort to the assembly.
“I mentioned, most undoubtedly – if they will escort us to our assembly, we’d drastically recognize that. They knew we had the horses there and we’d be using in ceremony to this assembly with our horses.
Once we confirmed up with the horses, all of the streets had been blocked off – there was over 100 cops there from all companies. As we went to the again of the horse trailer to get the horses out, they swarmed us and mentioned: ‘you can not take these horses out’. We had been shocked. ‘You’re going to escort us’. They usually mentioned, ‘no, you don’t have a allow’.”
As quickly because the tribal members opened the trailer door, the Park police went on full assault and all hell broke unfastened.
“They attacked us, saying they had been going to confiscate our horses, euthanize them. They had been saying this to the ladies, youngsters who had been there to seize their horses.
We went on full safety mode. We surrounded that trailer. We had been standing our floor. They attacked us, had been making an attempt to yank us off. They threw my daughter to the curb. She harm herself. They usually pushed an elder lady, her face up towards the again of the trailer. 9 individuals had been arrested in all this chaos.”
A nightmarish three-and-a-half-hour standoff ensued, as a result of the Muwekma Ohlone weren’t going to allow them to take away and euthanize the horses.
Democrat Deb Haaland, Biden’s Secretary of Inside, ‘didn’t consider she was addressing sovereign nations’.
“Her response to me and our tribe was disgrace on us for assaulting her police and that she was not going to fulfill with me,” the Chairwoman recounts, “she says, ‘go to Congress. We’re refusing to fulfill with you due to the time and useful resource we needed to spend to comprise you’. I used to be shocked. I despatched that letter out to everyone in Indian nation to allow them to see what Deb Haaland is all about.”
Now, with the Trump administration, the landless tribe is making one other try at recognition, as sovereignty will permit them to remain of their 10,000-year homeland.
“We predict that the Trump administration is frequent sense, affordable individuals and so they need and they’ll appropriate an injustice like they’re going to do with the Lumbee. [Trump] handed an government order in order that Burgum can discover a path for recognition for the Lumbee. He can do the identical factor with Muwekma.”
