AICC Community Updates:

American Indian Cultural Center 2019 Community Feedback survey

Please take a few minutes to fill out the 2019 annual American Indian Cultural Center Evaluation survey. This survey is anonymous and it helps us gather constructive community feedback.

This feedback is used to improve and grow our programming, events, and assess the way we engage and get information out to the community. This survey is being used to evaluate the 2019 programs and events including Carnival, American Indian Heritage Night Celebration, and End of Year Community Celebration.

Please email your survey to AICCSanFrancisco@gmail.com.

American Indian Cultural District

The American Indian Cultural Center (AICC) is gathering support to persuade the SF Board of Supervisors to recognize and legislate the 16th Street Corridor (from Folsom Street to Sanchez Street, up to Market Street) as the American Indian Cultural District.

A Cultural District in San Francisco (SF) is defined as a geographical area/location within SF that embodies a unique cultural heritage. A Cultural District is important to AICC because a City recognized cultural area will honor, acknowledge, and bring a pride to the American Indian community. An official Cultural District would also establish annual funding to support a space and a team dedicated to helping the District flourish.

While this District would honor all Nations, it is important to recognize that the SF Bay Area is the original homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples. The area now known as Mission Dolores, was a thriving Ohlone village site. Community see the Mission as a site where the Ohlone and several other California Native American peoples suffered enslavement, forced religious practices, were exposed to new diseases, and died. 

Following these horrific acts of displacement and genocide, was the Relocation Act of 1956. The federal government paid for one-way tickets to cities in an attempt to get AI peoples to disconnect from their homelands/culture and assimilate into “modern society” as part of government efforts to “kill the Indian, and save the man.” These acts lead to a large influx of American Indian people from all over the US to the Bay Area. As people arrived, they banned together creating AI programing, education, meeting spaces, movements, and an AI Cultural Center in the Mission District. There are roughly 48,500 people in the San Francisco Bay Area that have identified as American Indian, that is less than 1% of the population.

This District will honor American Indians of all Nations and recognize that our services, gatherings, and people still thrive in this area. Currently American Indians make up roughly 12% of the population in California, and 0.5% of the population in San Francisco. The legacy of American Indians in the Bay Area is in jeopardy due to the increased cost of living, the lack of affordable housing, and lack of safe community space for cultural gatherings and events. Please help us secure this Cultural District for future generations to ensure that our history and contributions are not forgotten or overwritten.

Please help persuade the SF Board of Supervisors to recognize the 16th Street Corridor as the American Indian Cultural District by collaboratively emailing (aiccSanFrancisco@gmail.com, Hillary.Ronen@sfgov.org, and MandelmanStaff@sfgov.org) a letter of support.

American Indian youth & Tech

We acknowledge that tech has a large presence in the San Francisco Bay Area. We want to help our urban Native Youth explore many career paths, this includes the extensive opportunities in tech.

In 2020 to kick off our youth programing AICC will be partnering with local tech companies to plan a Native Youth Tech Camp. This three day Tech Camp will give youth the opportunity to explore the opportunities available in tech by other AI and Indigenous community members in the industry. If you are interested in partnering please email sysouza@ucdavis.edu.

ongoing initiatives

• Health & Wellness: funding for health services; affordable housing; targeted services for elders & Two-Spirit; mental health; culturally relevant health education & services

• Education/Youth/Families:  Culturally appropriate K-12 curricula and afterschool programming; youth suicide prevention; education opportunities; banning Native mascots

• Cultural/Political/Social Issues:  Increasing visibility of American Indians locally and nationally through establishing Indigenous People’s Day, removing community statues/symbols of conquest & genocide, changing street names.  

• Government: More hiring of Native peoples in government leadership positions / Boards /Commissions, federal and local gov’t acknowledgment of historical misrepresentation and oppression of Natives and changing to supportive actions and language.