At Muwekma Archaeological Services, previously known as Ohlone Family Consulting Services (OFCS), we are the spiritual guardians of our ancestral heritage sites of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe—a sovereign, previously federally recognized, Native American community rooted in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 10,000 years.

Founded in 1984 in the face of complete disenfranchisement of access to our ancestral heritage sites by elements of the dominant society and amid a fierce drive for our cultural revitalization, OFCS emerged as a trailblazing force in Native-led cultural resource management. Born from the Tribe's unyielding commitment to reclaim what colonial forces sought to erase, we empower our people to steward ancestral lands, artifacts, and stories with dignity and authority. No longer passive stewards, we are active guardians, bridging ancient knowledge with modern collaboration to ensure that our past, present, and future heritage endures.

Our work is both sacred and scientific, blending traditional knowledge with rigorous archaeology. Since our inception, we've overseen hundreds of excavations across our ancestral territory of the San Francisco Bay Area, from the fog-shrouded shores of the Peninsula to the windswept hills of the East and South Bay.

As archaeological monitors, our experts work vigilantly at construction sites, halting blades to unearth fragile beads, shell middens, subsurface features, and our ancestral human remains—reminders of lives of our ancestors who resided in our homeland over these past ten millennium. In our labs, tribal bio-archaeologists like Marni McManus, M.A., RPA, meticulously analyze skeletal elements through osteological studies, and in collaboration with scholars from Stanford, San Jose State University, Santa Clara University, Cal State Chico, U.C. Davis, University of Illinois, and University of Oklahoma, have conducted DNA sequencing, and radiocarbon dating, stable isotope, and related studies, piecing together diets, migrations, and kinships that affirm our unbroken lineage.

Repatriation is our moral compass. Under laws like NAGPRA, we reclaim hundreds of ancestral burials from museums and universities, including poignant return of 550 ancestral remains in 1989 from Stanford. Led by Tribal Chairwoman and Board President Charlene Nijmeh, we conduct respectful recoveries—hand-excavating, documenting in situ, and inventorying with cultural reverence. These remains find peace through traditional reinterments at our sacred sites like Coyote Hills and within original cemeteries where ceremonies restore harmony and sovereignty.

Guided by Tribal leaders such as Executive Director Bernadette Quiroz, who champions Chochenyo language revival, and Tribal Ethnohistorian Alan Leventhal, Ph.D., with over 40 years illuminating Ohlone history, our team of 20+ tribal members fuses passion with expertise. We educate the public through many museum and university exhibits, school programs, and partnerships, fostering alliances with developers, agencies, scholars, and communities to balance progress with preservation.

Muwekma Archaeological Services is more than a firm; we are a renaissance. In every artifact reclaimed and story retold, we honor our ancestors, nurture our youth, and weave the history and heritageof the Muwekma Ohlone into the Bay Area's rich Indigenous historic past and vibrant future. Join us in this vital work—