Alameda’s Chochenyo Park began as Alameda Park Homestead, a planned development for the wealthy. Alfred A. Cohen acquired property that James Foley had purchased from William Worthington Chipman and Gideon Aughinbaugh. These men purchased the land from Antonio Maria Peralta.
The Spanish had stolen countless square miles of land from the Ohlone. In 1820, Antonio’s father, Luis Maria Peralta, received Rancho San Antonio. Luis was granted some 73 square miles of land from Spain, the country that had purloined that land.
Cohen’s plan to create a haven for the well-heeled failed. He subdivided the land but left no provision for the care of the development’s centerpiece—the park. Cohen died in 1887. His death may have spurred City Attorney William Taylor to seek out the owners of the now -decrepit property. Woody Minor tells us that Taylor found some of them in China and Europe.
Chochenyo is the name for the spoken language of the Lisjan Ohlone, part of the region’s indigenous Ohlone people. The Lisjan Ohlone lived on the land now known as the San Francisco East Bay, including the City of Alameda.
“He wrote hundreds of letters and traveled to other cities to track down absentee owners,” Minor writes in his book Alameda at Play. Taylor finally persuaded all 120 owners to sign waivers, promising not to sue if it took over the property.
In June 1894, the courts allowed the City to take over the property. Improvements began immediately and the park opened to great fanfare in 1895. Minor tells us that this park remained the City’s only municipal park until 1909 with the opening of three other parks. The City chose to name the parks for presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley and Andrew Jackson.
In 2018 Alamedans began calling for removing Jackson’s name from the park. Many found the request justified, while others resisted. Those who reminded us of Jackson’s inhumane behavior as a holder of enslaved people and his role in the forced bloody transfer of indigenous people from the south won out.
In July 2020, the Recreation and Parks Commission voted to rename Jackson Park and remove the sign with Jackson’s name from the park. In January 2021, the City Council agreed and voted to rename the park “Chochenyo” to honor the Ohlone.
Chochenyo is the name for the spoken language of the Lisjan Ohlone, part of the region’s indigenous Ohlone people. The Lisjan Ohlone lived on the land now known as the San Francisco East Bay, including the City of Alameda.
In August that same year, Alameda became the first city in the country to commit to paying Shuumi, a voluntary tax that recognizes the legacy of colonization while supporting the return of land to indigenous people.
That payment and the renaming of Jackson Park to Chochenyo Park acknowledge, in a very small way, losses indigenous people have suffered.
Dennis Evanosky is the award-winning Historian of the Alameda Post. Reach him at [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Dennis-Evanosky. Karin K. Jensen contributed to this story.
