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City of Pleasanton, Draft General Plan Page 7 October 9, 2008 On July 25, 2002, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren issued her "Extension, of Remarks" on the floor of the House of Representatives stating: The Muwekma Ohlone Indian Tribe is a sovereign Indian Nation located within several counties in the San Francisco Bay Area since time immemorial. In 1906, the Tribe was formally identified by the Special Indian Census conducted by Indian Agent C. E. Kelsey, as a result of the Congressional Appropriation Act mandate to identify and to purchase land for homeless California Indian tribes. At this time, the Department of Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs federally acknowledged the Verona Band as coming under the jurisdiction of the Reno and Sacramento Agencies between 1906 and 1927. The Congress of the United States also recognized the Verona Band pursuant to Chapter 14 of Title 25 of the United States Code, which was affirmed by the United States Court of Claims in the Case of Indians of California v. United States (1942) 98 Ct. C1.583. The Court of Claims case judgment instructed the identification of the Indians of California with the creation of Indian rolls. The direct ancestors of the present -day Muwekma Ohlone Tribe participated in and enrolled under the 1928 California Indian Jurisdictional Act and the ensuing Claims Settlement of 1944 with the Secretary of the Interior approving all of their enrollment applications. Meanwhile, as a result of inconsistent federal policies of neglect toward the California Indians, the government breached the trust responsibility relationship with the Muwekma tribe and left the Tribe landless and without either services or benefits. As a result, the Tribe has suffered losses and displacement. Despite these hardships the Tribe has never relinquished their Indian tribal status and their status was never terminated. In 1984, in an attempt to have the federal government acknowledge the status of the Tribe, the Muwekma Ohlone people formally organized a tribal council in conformance with the guidelines under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. In 1989, the Muwekma Ohlone Tribal leadership submitted a resolution to the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Branch of Acknowledgment and Research with the intent to petition for Federal acknowledgment. This application is known as Petition #111. This federal process is known to take many years to complete. Simultaneously, in the 1980's and 1990's, the United States Congress recognized the federal government's neglect of the California Indians and directed a Commission to study the history and current status of the California Indians and to deliver a report with recommendations. In the late 1990's the Congressional mandated report the California Advisory Report, recommended that the Muwekma Ohlone tribe be reaffirmed to its status as a federally recognized tribe along with five other Tribes, the Dunlap Band of Mono Indians, the Lower Lake Koi Tribe, the Tsnungwe Council, the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation, and the Tolowa Nation.