Dr. Lee Panich: From Land Grants to Land Grab: The Dispossession of Ohlone Lands in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

Dr. Lee Panich, Department of Anthropology, Santa Clara University

From Land Grants to Land Grab: The Dispossession of Ohlone Lands in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

This talk examines the processes by which European and American colonists acquired ancestral Ohlone homelands in the southern San Francisco Bay region. A pivotal turning point occurred during the closing of the Franciscan missions in the 1830s and 1840s, when newcomers carved massive ranchos from mission lands that were ostensibly held in trust for Native people. While several Ohlone men from Mission Santa Clara and Mission San José did receive land grants from Mexican officials, none of the parcels survived the first decade of American rule intact. These distributions to former mission residents, moreover, were part of a broader pattern of expropriation across North America in which millions of acres of tribal lands passed into private ownership during the nineteenth century. Understanding the history of land dispossession in the Bay Area and its relationship to similar events elsewhere is a critical step toward the reawakening of traditional ecological knowledge and the rebuilding of a land base for the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe.

Wednesday, March 11, 2026

3:30 - 4 PM Reception

4 - 5 PM Lecture & Q&A

All events in the JRBP ('O'O) Lecture Series are free and open to the public.

A recording of this event is available.