[photo credit: Pasadena Public Library]
On Saturday, the Rumsen Ohlone tribal leader will present “California Culture: Before and After Colonization” at Lamanda Park Branch Library. The free event, part of the library’s Native American Heritage Month programming, promises to illuminate both the devastation wrought by Spanish colonization and resilient efforts to preserve Indigenous knowledge today.
Quiroga, a direct descendant of both the Rumsen and Kitz peoples, serves as Cultural Director of Rumsen Ohlone Indigenous Embrace, a nonprofit he co-founded with Elisa Nieblas in 2017. From the Bear Clan of the Ohlone people, Quiroga performs traditional bear songs with his hand drum in the Rumsen Ohlone language.
The Rumsen once thrived across California’s central coast. At Spanish contact, approximately 400 to 500 Rumsen lived in five affiliated ancestral villages. They were the first Costanoan people documented by Spanish explorers when Sebastian Vizcaíno reached Monterey in 1602. Between 1846 and 1873, settlers killed an estimated 9,492 to 16,094 California Natives.
In 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom officially described these events as “genocide,” apologizing for “the violence, discrimination and exploitation sanctioned by state government throughout its history.”
“California Culture: Before and After Colonization” will run on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 11 a.m. Lamanda Park Branch Library, 140 S. Altadena Drive, Pasadena. For more information, call (626) 744-7266 or visit https://www.cityofpasadena.net/library/?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D191000462. Ticket prices: Free.
