Stanford History

8180 acres of land make up Stanford University. That’s about 400,000 football fields. When
coming to this school, I constantly thought about how large Stanford was and this led me to
explore the history.

In 1876, Leland Stanford purchased Rancho San Francisquito - which today forms the
northern part of campus - to build a country home and begin the development of the Palo
Alto Stock Farm to train racing horses. Later, Jane and Leland Stanford bought up other
neighboring ranchos and local properties to create the massive 8,180 acre property that was
then used to found Stanford University. The only reason why the Stanfords were able to
acquire sufficient property and found the university was because of the massive wealth that
Leland Stanford had amassed as the president of Central Pacific Railroad. In today’s dollars,
the Stanford family had a wealth of $1.3 billion. A large part of this wealth was created by
federal land grants of indigenous land to the railroad companies in order to build out their
railroad system. In doing so, massive tracts of land were carved out of indigenous territories
in order to connect the railroads together, with the excess lands sold off to settlers at a
profit. At the top of this at Central Pacific was Leland Stanford who accumulated massive
amounts of wealth. It was with this wealth, created through the exploitation of indigenous
land granted by the US government, that Stanford bought up the lands that make up
Stanford University today.

This land was originally and continues to be inhabited by the Muwekma Ohlone, the people
indigenous to the San Francisco Bay region. Whether we acknowledge it, we are always in
relationship with Indigenous peoples by living in, organizing, and producing events on their
ancestral homelands. There are hundreds of Native Nations working to reaffirm their
sovereignty and protect cultural practices, traditional lands, waters, and natural resources -
the entirety of North America (Turtle Island) is made up of distinct and overlapping
Indigenous territories. Each decision we make, each action we take, affects Indigenous
peoples. Organizations whose work is grounded in social justice or environmental protection
have a distinct obligation to integrate local Indigenous communities and issues into their
mission.

While reading a 2017 San Francisco Chronicle article titled: Indigenous women lead effort to
reclaim ancestral lands, I learned of the Sogorea Te Land Trust. It is a project a group of women
have been working on since 2014 to return indigenous land, specifically Chochenyo and
Karkin Ohlone land, to indigenous stewardship. This land trust is, at its core, intended as a
remedy. It’s a chance to undo, at least in part, centuries of colonization and erasure. There is
a general story told about Manifest Destiny, about the United States pushing its way
westward, about the relocation and killing of American Indians and the suppression of their
many cultures. I post this to explore with you all any existing and potential opportunities for
all people in Ohlone and neighboring territories to work together to re-envision the Bay Area
community and what it means to live on Ohlone land.

- Posted on behalf of Jasmin Martinez