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mak-'amham/Cafe Ohlone

@makamham

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We are an Ohlone cultural institution empowering our community with tradition—and we teach the public, through Ohlone cuisine, of our unbroken roots.

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Pop, pop, pop! 🌰

Paired with Dungeness crab, Olympia oysters, California strawberries, and so much more, the acorn has long been a staple in Ohlone homes.

Processing acorns is a complex process that involves gathering, drying, shelling, winnowing, grinding, sifting, leaching, and cooking. Each step reflects knowledge and science, blending engineering, chemistry, and ingenuity to transform acorns into a rich, sustainable dietary foundation for the Ohlone people.

‘Elle mak tappenin himmetka
(Let us learn, let us teach together)

Want to dive deeper into Ohlone science? Visit us to experience yuutka, an interactive exhibit that teaches how to harvest acorns respectfully while caring for the land and all living things.

This exhibit was developed in partnership with Ohlone youth as part of the Tappenekšekma Ohlone Science Ambassadors program. taken in Lawrence Hall of Science by @makamham

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6 days ago

Who has the right to land, to food, to knowledge?

For TERRITORY, we look at what it means to reclaim those rights not as a concept, but as ongoing, daily work.

Presentation by Vincent Medina & Louis Trevino (mak-warép Ohlone Land Conservancy.)

FOOD: A Convening
September 25, 2026
at the Philosophical Research Society

Tickets at the link in bio!

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FOOD: A Convening is supported in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency, with the generous support of Sarah and Joel McHale, Kim and Keith Allen-Niesen, Betsy Greenberg and Steve NyBlom, and Joaquín Vargas M. In-kind support is provided by the Kimpton Everly Hotel, RG|MX, and William Grant & Sons. taken in The Philosophical Research Society by @makamham

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a month ago

'elle-mak tappenin himmetka
Let us learn, let us teach together.

Ohlone people in the East Bay have always looked up to the night sky and observed a living universe that communicates with us here on Earth.

Want to learn more about Ohlone Sky Science? Join ‘ottoy Initiative leaders Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino at our Perseid Meteor Shower Star Party! Enjoy hot cocoa under the night sky, dress warmly and listen to Vincent and Louis as they share a glimpse of Ohlone knowledge of ‘oššekma—the stars above us.

Celebrate the Stars: Perseid Meteor Shower Star Party
🗓️ Wednesday 08/12/2026
⏰ 8:00 p.m.–11:00 p.m.
🎟️ Admission: $27

Learn more and buy tickets today! Link in our bio 🔗 by @makamham

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2 months ago

To our friends and allies:

In 2024, we established the mak-warép Ohlone Land Conservancy to reacquire, restore, and steward East Bay Ohlone ancestral lands through Indigenous-led ecological restoration, hyper-localized land management, and the practice and transmission of traditional culture.

Our work has grown exponentially since 2024, and we are now stewarding 400+ acres of ancestral land here in the East Bay. Our mission has been supported by many allies and partners, including the Waverley Street Foundation, and individuals who recognize the importance of Ohlone-led land restoration.

Now, we share some more great news:

mak-warép Ohlone Land Conservancy has been awarded $498,806 from the California Natural Resources Agency’s Environmental Enhancement and Mitigation Program — one of eight projects funded statewide this cycle.

This funding will establish four Ohlone cultural garden plots at UC Berkeley’s Russell Research Station, a private research forest in Lafayette within our East Bay homeland. Basket sedge, willow, redbud, and other culturally significant plants will return to this land. Elders will teach youth traditional harvesting, food preparation, medicine making, and basketry. A gathering space, bilingual signage in Chochenyo and English, and a TEK-informed school curriculum will carry this knowledge further.

“This land has memory,” said co-founder Vincent Medina (East Bay Ohlone). “When we tend these plants the way our ancestors did, we are not restoring something lost. We are continuing something that was never meant to stop.”

This work is a direct response to ecological and cultural harm caused by highway construction through the East Bay hills. It is Ohlone-led, community-rooted, and built to last.

Deep gratitude to our partners who make this possible: the Contra Costa Resource Conservation District, which will lead on-the-ground restoration and implementation, and Berkeley Forests at UC Berkeley, whose collaboration and stewardship of Russell Research Station have been essential from the start.

To learn more, follow our land conservancy @makwarep and visit us at ohloneland.com

Our culture is beautiful, and we’ve always been here. by @makamham

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6 months ago

Today we celebrate the traditional Ohlone New Year; the day hišmen—Sun—is lowest in the sky here on our land. The longest night of the year appears to us, envelops us.

Yet, from here, ‘ewwe—Light—will return to us fuller and brighter each morning.

In Chochenyo language, the oldest language of the East Bay, we say ‘eṭweekne makiš warép—the year, the Earth, has turned on us.

The longest night we experience here on Ohlone land leads us toward brighter days, full of increasing light and steady regeneration.

‘elle-mak kiiy ‘etwe ne warép—Let us speak of change this year:

100 years ago, in 1925, from this year we are in, the University of California, Berkeley erroneously declared our Ohlone people extinct in an effort to seize our great-grandparents’ land on the Sunol Rancheria, recognized federally as the Verona Band of Alameda County. Yet, because of our forebears’ strength, here we stand in the East Bay today, unbroken.

And today, in 2025, the ‘ottoy Initiative that we lead works towards repair and a new way forward; based at the Lawrence Hall of Science, we work together to uplift the oldest traditions of the East Bay. At the Lawrence, we’ve infused rich Ohlone knowledge there in partnership and friendship—and in January, ‘ammatka Cafe will open there, as the second iteration of Cafe Ohlone.

In 2025, the mak-warép Ohlone Land Conservancy, our nonprofit, has grown with exponential momentum, as we now manage 400+ acres of land here in the East Bay at the Russell Research Station in saklan—Lafayette and Cal State East Bay in čupkan—Concord. In these spaces, and in partnership, we restore the oldest land stewardship practices of home, including the first cultural burns in generations here in the East Bay. Now, we are working for land return to us in title (link in bio).

To add to this change this year, our founder Vincent Medina, was inaugurated in a peaceful transition as President of the Ohlone Indian Tribe.

While the night is long this evening, light has its way of returning. Despite hardships we have collectively experienced this year, we ask you, our allies, to always remember this: ‘ewwe ṭuuxi huyyuwiš numma—Truthfully, brighter days are ahead. by @makamham

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10 months ago

horše ṭuuxi,

At Russell Research Station and CSU East Bay, our friend hiyyiš—Fire—sweeps through oak woodlands that haven’t felt cultural burning in over a century. We plant yerba buena, manzanita, hummingbird sage—speaking their Chochenyo names as we tend them. We teach our language on the land where it has always belonged.

But we’re working toward something bigger.

We envision land where you can walk among native gardens, share meals under a grand thatched tule house, hear Chochenyo spoken freely. Land where our elders teach, our children learn, our people gather to tend cultural fires and celebrate traditions—something we haven’t had since 1927, when the federal government took our land at Sunol Rancheria.

Land and culture are inseparable. Our elders’ teachings use the earth to take root. Our young people feel nurtured in places where they belong.

We’re in the final weeks of 2025. We invite your offering—an act of relationship and reciprocity that helps us return what was taken and nurture what’s growing.

Every offering—at any level—moves us toward land reacquisition.

holše roket ne ṭuuxi—It is so beautiful.

Link in bio 🌿

moššimu—With warmth, Vincent & Louis

#EndOfYearGiving #IndigenousLed #LandReturn #Restoration #GiveWithPurpose by @makamham

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10 months ago

mak-suyyakma ‘at mak-‘aččokma—To our Ohlone family, our friends, our allies: in the spirit of ‘oṭṭoy—repair—we send warmth on this darkest night of the year as we know for certain that light always finds a way of returning back to us.

Winter Solstice, in our Ohlone culture, is the start of the traditional new year, as the darkest night of the year leads us to brighter days, full of increasing light and regeneration. In our Chochenyo language, the oldest language of the inner East Bay, we say ‘eṭweekne makiš warép — the year, the Earth, has turned on us — in an expression that emphasizes we are a part of this process of the changing season and a land that is living. We celebrate our dignified Ohlone culture, our gorgeous East Bay homeland, and our resilient Ohlone people as we look forward to the new year ahead of us.

During this slow Winter lull, may we all take solemn comfort in the undeniable fact that ‘ewwe ṭuuxi huyyuwiš makkinmu—brighter days are ahead of us, even on days when light is dim.

A very happy, and restful, Ohlone New Year full of brilliant light, enduring joy, and boundless love!
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📸: East Bay Ohlone feathered basket woven late-1700s and abalone finery; photos taken by Chabot Space and Science Center for mur taaraxtak co-produced by mak-‘amham/Cafe Ohlone by @makamham

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2 years ago

‘oṭṭonin roote nommo holše mak-warép—Repair is happening right here on our beautiful land.

Today is a powerful day. Our Ohlone people led the very first East Bay Ohlone cultural burn in generations at the base of our most holy mountain—ṭuuštak—Mt. Diablo.

We are in absolute awe at the weight, the gravity of this day, in all the best possible ways. We haven’t had a burn like this for such a long time, but the deep knowledge and reverence for these specific burns have been preserved in family testimony, even when those burns were banned by the State of California; today is yet another reminder that restoration is always possible—now we have the burns again here at home in the East Bay.

Our matriarch, Auntie Dottie, joined us and we saw how happy she was, sharing detailed memories from a time before that she was told of from her mother and our Uncle Dario, both born in the 1800s, of the old-time burns in Sunol and Niles. It’s a way of giving back to the land that provides for us, she reminds us. Auntie Dottie was there every step of the way, offering fine black oak acorn flour to our beautiful land.

After private ceremony with family, we worked with our wonderful community partners from Cal State East Bay, Cal Fire and Contra Costa Fire to see this burn done in a good way.

Quickly, the low-intensity fire took and the overgrowth was removed; the soil became black and birds flocked into the oak trees, the sun speckled through the smoke and the air was filled with solemnity—paired with joy and deep hope.

This historic cultural burn is good for our land, good for our people, good for the life that this place sustains—and we truly believe Creator and the ancestors allow the conditions to be ripe for this to happen; a brilliant fall day with no rough winds allowed our friend hiyyiš—Fire—to sweep through the hillside and see the oldest traditions of this place renewed, practiced a second time. This is a moment of change, restoration, continuity—and a tangible action of love for culture, land and family.

From here, the burns will keep going, allowing regeneration and new growth from the oldest roots of this place. 🔥🌱

holše roket ne ṭuuxi—Today is so beautiful. by @makamham

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2 years ago

In a fragrant garden of yerba buena, manzanita resins, hummingbird sage, and artemisia, ‘oṭṭoytak—the place of repair—our iteration of Cafe Ohlone at the University of California, Berkeley continues to accomplish our mission to provide representation of East Bay Ohlone culture, led by Ohlone people, in an honest and unparalleled manner.

This historic work to uplift the truth of our beautiful, dignified culture is now part of a campus-wide initiative—the ‘oṭṭoy Initiative—that we lead with our wonderful partners at the Lawrence Hall of Science continues to manifest good change that spreads through the gates of our patio culinary and educational hub, into the Berkeley campus, and throughout the East Bay—and beyond.

We celebrate our enduring culture, our Chochenyo language, our powerful heroes, and our gorgeous homeland with every meal and every educational offering—creating change that affects minds, builds greater respect for our Ohlone people that is centered on the oldest traditions of the East Bay, yet points to a new way forward—one which everyone can benefit together. Positive change continues to happen in front of our eyes.

📷: Our cherished cousin, the talented @cometwest, who volunteers her time to help with meal service at ‘oṭṭoytak, ‘alšipum—With gratitude ❤️ by @makamham

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2 years ago

horše ṭuuxi ‘aččokma—Hello friends and allies, join us on Sunday June 9th for the premiere of mur taaraxtak—Ohlone Skies—the very first Ohlone planetarium show in history, at the Chabot Space and Science Center.

Together with our family and wonderful partners at the Chabot, we have worked to showcase the rooted Ohlone cosmology from the East Bay into a permanent star show that will provide representation for our Ohlone people and teach the public of our deep knowledge of ‘oššekma riinihmu—the stars above.

On June 9th we will have two of the first showings of the show, as well as a multi-generational panel on the importance of telling our own stories, the singing of a Chochenyo lullaby by suyya Tina, Cafe Ohlone locally gathered tea tastings, a miniature tule boat workshop, and tables from those in the community.

In the show we developed, we speak to our rich culture and Chochenyo language—along with Ohlone understandings of sun, moon, the pleiades, eclipse, solstice—and much more. It’s all specific to here, the East Bay, our one and only home.

This is change happening in front of our eyes; when we were children it would be hard to imagine a full planetarium show entirely focused on our beautiful Ohlone culture — but here we are today, and now we have it! Let’s celebrate together.

We are proud of the work we are doing to uplift our culture, and we are grateful to the enduring love from our elders and forebears that allow us to be, allow us to know, allow us to do good in the world. 💫 taken in Chabot Space & Science Center by @makamham

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2 years ago

The ‘ottoy Initiative aims to strengthen UC Berkeley’s relationship with East Bay Ohlone people by recognizing the continuous Indigenous culture of xučyun.

Donate to our crowdfunding campaign before April 30 to support ‘ottoy. Visit the post link in our bio to learn more and donate 🔗 taken in UC Berkeley by @makamham

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2 years ago

“Acorn bread is the food of life,” the matriarch of our people, Auntie Dottie, 92, tells us; she righteously declares that “acorn is the food of kings and queens.”

When our elders eat fine black oak acorn soup and valley oak acorn bread, happy memories of the older days of their childhood are spoken of with vivid beauty; stories of togetherness, of the aunties bringing acorn to every family gathering — memories of how the family got through hard times imposed on our people by caring for each other, feeding one another, keeping the culture close. Acorn has always sustained us.

Acorn is our staple food in Ohlone culture here in the East Bay. Acorn’s flavor, when made at home, is naturally sweet, refined and elegant; it is paired with everything else on the plate: chanterelle mushrooms, king salmon, Olympia oysters, California strawberries, watercress and venison backstrap — to name a few Ohlone flavors.

The truth is, as the elders remind us, acorn is a luxury food. It is a six month process starting with gathering acorn during the second drop, intentionally leaving the first drop for animal life to eat, tangibly reinforcing Ohlone values of interconnection.

We let the acorns cure for months followed by utilizing one-hundred year old family baskets to winnow and sift the acorn before and after pounding the nuts with a family mortar and pestle. The pestle has a dark patina from literally being oiled by the hands of our people for thousands of years, a type of communion with our ancestors when us Ohlones of today use that same tool.

After the acorn is winnowed, ground, and sifted into a flour as fine as sand, we leach the acorn for over 20 hours, until all bitterness from tannins is removed — then it is ready to be cooked. It’s all so complex, so rich.

Acorn processing is an art; it represents the dignity and intention of traditional Ohlone gastronomy, specific to right here.

We processed acorn together recently in Sunol, where our great-grandma Mary was born on the Rancheria. Our dear relative, suyya Stacie, expertly prepared the acorn flour the old way, as it has always been done here, sustaining tradition and celebrating our beautiful Ohlone culture. ❤️ by @makamham

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3 years ago