San Francisco American Indian Multiple Property Document

Founded in 2020, the American Indian Cultural District is the first organization of its kind in the nation. Its purpose is to recognize, honor, and celebrate the contributions of American Indians and Alaska Natives to San Francisco (Ohlone name, Yelamu). AICD puts on cultural events, raises awareness of the city’s Indigenous heritage, and engages in placemaking, including sponsoring public murals, banners, and historical documentation projects.

In 2024, AICD hired VerPlanck Historic Preservation Consulting to assist with applying for grants to fund a project called the San Francisco American Indian Multiple Property Document (SFAIMPD). The grant was successful, and in 2025 VerPlanck started researching and writing the SFAIMPD, which documents the Indigenous history of San Francisco, beginning with the Ohlone. The document covers the Spanish and Mexican colonization of the region, as well as the American era – a period in which the Indigenous population of San Francisco collapsed due to disease, starvation, and state-sanctioned genocide.

The SFAIMPD documents the gradual recovery of San Francisco’s Indigenous community during the early twentieth century, as well as the rapid growth that occurred during the 1950s and 1960s. The SFAIMPD highlights the occupation of Alcatraz and the Red Power movement of the 1970s and 1980s, as well as more recent history. The SFAIMPD will be used to commemorate and preserve individual properties and other locations significant to San Francisco’s Indigenous community.