Most of the tribes continue to preserve and revitalize their cultural history through education, restoration of their native languages, and the practice of cultural storytelling. Today, there are small segments of the Ohlone people that still live in the Bay Area and continue to fight to keep their culture alive. And it wasn’t until 1996 that the group was somewhat recognized in a ‘previous unambiguous federal recognition’ which granted them some rights as an American tribe. A prime example occurred in the 1950s when the Ohlone tribal council supposedly received $150 dollars for the value of 8.5 million acres of land from the federal government. The federal government continued to disenfranchise and demoralize the tribe with acts intended to culturally and physically destroy them.
In the 20th century the tribes finally rallied against the federal government and struggled for years to gain basic recognition. Tragically, the Ohlone people were nearly wiped out from disease, warfare and colonization from European immigrants.
