For Immediate Release! Indigenous women-led land trust to celebrate return of West Berkeley Shellmound Sacred Site
July 12, 2024: (So Called) Berkeley, CA – The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and the Confederated Villages of Lisjan Nation will host a celebration to honor the return of the West Berkeley ShellmoundSacred Site to Indigenous hands. This momentous occasion comes after years of Indigenous-led grassroots organizing, direct actions, and legal interventions to protect the oldest village site in the Bay Area from being desecrated and destroyed for development. The celebration will feature music, food, and cultural sharing, and will take place at 4:00 PM on Saturday, July 13, 2024.
The Confederated Villages of Lisjan Nation includes Tribal members whose ancestors were enslaved at Mission Dolores in SF and Mission San Jose in Fremont CA. The Confederation includes “Ohlone”, Bay Miwok, Plains Miwok, Delta Yokut, and Patwin people who are the survivors of multiple attempted complete genocides by the Spanish Mission period, Mexican rancho period and the current US Government. The Tribe reorganized itself under the Confederated Villages of Lisjan Nation in order to be able to legally speak on behalf of the oldest village site and Shellmound along the shores of the Bay. Although the Tribe has stood against development of their Shellmounds and Sacred Sites for decades, it was only at this moment that the elders decided this was the best possible way to protect their Sacred Site.
The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust is an urban Indigenous women-led land trust based in the San Francisco Bay Area that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people. Informed by Lisjan women’s vision and leadership, the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust is an intertribal and multicultural Indigenous organization that works to restore reciprocal relationships with Indigenous lands.
The West Berkeley Shellmound is a registered historic landmark that was named as one of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation after development plans threatened its destruction. The 2.2 acre site was used as a parking lot by the former Spenger’s restaurant for decades. Developers Blake Griggs Properties applied for permits to develop the cultural site into a luxury condo retail complex. Indian People Organizing for Change – an organization that predates the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and which was co-founded by Confederated Villages of Lisjan Tribal Chair, Corrina Gould – began mobilizing to raise awareness and protect the site, working with thousands of people, activists, interfaith
leaders, and Indigenous community members who have participated in actions, prayer gatherings, letter writing, petitions, and court support.
In 2018, West Berkeley Investors, a subsidiary of Blake Griggs Properties, attempted to fast track the desecration of the site by taking advantage of a new senate bill, SB35, that had gone into effect earlier that year. After their application for SB35 was denied by the City of Berkeley in 2021, the developers dropped out of the project and the owners of the parking lot, Ruegg & Ellsworth, sued the City of Berkeley, with the Confederated Villages of Lisjan Nation joining the lawsuit as an intervenor. While the initial decision was in favor of protecting the Shellmound, the court of appeals ruled in favor of Ruegg & Ellsworth and ordered that construction could begin immediately. The tribe continued organizing and pursuing legal remedies.
The City and the developers entered into mediation in March 2024. The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust raised 25.5 million dollars towards protecting the land through the Shuumi Land Tax, a voluntary contribution that non-Indigenous people living on traditional Lisjan territory can give to support Indigenous land work. On March 12, 2024, the Berkeley City Council unanimously approved an ordinance authorizing the purchase of the 2.2 acres for 27 million dollars and immediately turned the land over to the land trust, settling the case and freeing the land.
Corrina Gould, co-founder of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and Tribal Chair of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan Nation, commented about the West Berkeley Shellmound, “This place is not just for the Lisjan people, but a place the Bay Area in general can be proud of, as the oldest place people ever lived here. It’s a wonder of the world, a place we should preserve and honor.”
The deed was officially transferred to the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust on May 31, 2024. The vision for the site includes cleanup and restoration, the recreation of a shellmound covered in orange poppies, the daylighting of Strawberry Creek (which once ran through the land), and a cultural center where Lisjan ancestors can be returned and the original peoples of Bay Area can be honored.
Note to Press: Press are invited to attend but interviews will not be given during the event. Please send press inquiries to ines@rematriatetheland.org .
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To Support the return of the West Berkeley Shellmound donate to: Rematriate the Land Fund
To learn more about Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, please visit : Sogoreate-landtrust.org
To learn more about the history of the Shellmound please visit: Shellmound.org
![Rematriar la Tierra
Devolver la Tierra
Regresar a Tierra
Rematriate the Land
Return the Land
Return to Land
We are excited to be translating some of our materials into Spanish with the support of our team member Sharon.
As we look at some of the language we use, we are discovering not everything always translates.
What words have you seen being used for Rematriation,
Land Back and Indigenous Land Return work in other languages?
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