Native American (Indian) Burial Sites
Dates of Existence: unknown.
Locations: various.
Number interred: unknown.
Notes: see also burial sites at Mission Dolores and Yerba Buena Island.
“EXHUMATION OF BONES.—Yesterday afternoon, as the steam paddy was at work pursuing its usual excavation in the rear of the Oriental Hotel, at [the sw corner of Bush and Battery sts, which was along the original waterline], the shovel scraped out two skulls, and a number of bones. They were just lying in a black soil, partially calcareous, about seven feet below the surface. There was no remnant of a coffin, and the bones appeared to be very old. From the shape of the skulls they were supposed to be those of Indians, which have been probably lying in the earth a long time.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 28 June 1851.
“…The Mission Dolores cemetery … approximately 5,000 unmarked Native Americans graves were in the part of the cemetery that is no longer extant (the area located to the west that is now under pavement or buildings.) A stone monument depicting. 'Kateri Tekawitha Our Lady of the Mohawks' (the first Native American who was beatified), located in the southwest portion of the cemetery, is dedicated to the Native Americans who were buried in the cemetery. A wooden headstone was added in 2009 to honor two Ohlone neophytes, JOCBOCME and his wife POLYLEMJA who were buried in unmarked graves in 1807 and 1804, respectively. This headstone is located in the southeast portion of the cemetery just east of a traditional Ohlone tule reed house, also added in 2009 as part of the commemoration of the role of Native Californians in the construction and operation of the mission.”
Source: Mission San Francisco De Asis, Historic American Landscapes Survey, National Park Service, Washington, D.C., HALS NO. CA-83. Date unknown.
“The oldest evidence of human occupation in San Francisco includes two isolated human skeletons discovered 45 years apart deep below city streets in marine deposits. In October 1969, fragmentary human bones were encountered during construction of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Civic Center Station in downtown San Francisco. Those remains belonged to a female individual aged 24–26 years. Radiocarbon dating of associated organic material indicated the remains were nearly 5,000 years old. The skeleton was discovered 75 feet (22.9 meters) bgs within a 40-foot-(12.2-meter-)thick clayey silt stratum (bay deposits), approximately 26 feet (7.9 meters) below mean sea level (CA-SFR-28).44 More recently, an intact human skeleton was found during construction of the Transbay Transit Center in February 2014. The human remains were encountered at a depth of 58 feet (17.7 meters) bgs with Bay mud deposits, and are estimated to be between 5,000 to 7,000 years old.”
Source: Draft Environmental Impact Report, 1500 Mission Street Project. San Francisco Planning Department. 2016.
“Another South of Market site, CA-SFR-2, is located on the south side of Harrison Street, west of Third Street. This prehistoric deposit (Nelson's Shellmound #439) was encountered during construction work in 1929; it was investigated by E.W. Gifford of U.C. Berkeley … Within 10 days of Gifford's visit to this site, D. J. and T. Sullivan of Folsom Street donated the skeletal remains of at least two adult individuals, a chert biface and a complete flat-bottomed stone mortar with a beveled edge to U. C. Berkeley (Rudo 1982). … Archaeological investigations at the 560 Mission Street project on Mission Street between First and Second streets revealed prehistoric site CA-SFR-135 at a depth of 15 to 20 feet below street level. Three human bones were discovered, as well as several obsidian and chert flakes, fire-cracked rock, a wide variety of faunal bone, and an abundance of shell (WSA 2001).”
Source: Final Archaeological Resources Report, 300 Spear Street Project,William Self Associates, Inc., April 2007, pages 21-23.
“One of the most important and frequently cited archeology discoveries in San Francisco was the 1970 identification of a Native American skeleton, dated at 5,630 years BP [before present], during excavation of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) tunnel near the present location of San Francisco’s Civic Center (Moratto, 1984). In 2014, the discovery of a well-preserved Native American burial 17m (55 ft) below ground surface, during excavation for the Transbay Transit Center in downtown San Francisco, yielded a radiocarbon date of 7,570 years BP (Meyer, 2014).”
Source: Association Engineering Geologists, Geology of Cities of the World Series, Geology of San Francisco, California, United States of America, 2018, page 6.
“At the site of the Yerba Buena Gardens - between Howard and Mission, 3rd and 4th Streets - and near Jesse Street in the same vicinity - pre-contact burial sites have been discovered.”
Source: SFgenealogy correspondence with Andrew Galvan, Curator, Old Mission Dolores, San Francisco, November 2009.
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