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The Sogorea Te Land Trust

The Sogorea Te Land Trust

An urban Indigenous women-led land trust that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people

  • About
    • Purpose and Vision
    • Our History
    • Staff & Board
    • Partnerships & Alliances
    • Contact Us
  • Lisjan (Ohlone)
    • Lisjan History & Territory
    • Mak Noono Tiirinikma
  • Initiatives
    • Cultural Revitalization
    • Himmetka: In One Place, Together
    • Mitiini Numma Youth Program
  • Rematriation
    • Land in Rematriation
      • Lisjan
      • ‘Ookwe
      • Rinihmu Pulte’irekne (Sequoia Point)
      • Rammay
      • ‘Ištune
    • Return Land / Land Return
    • Rematriate the Land Fund
  • Media
    • Updates
    • Resource Library
    • Creative Collaborations
      • Hella Feminist
      • On Indigenous Land Field
      • Rematriate the Land Billboard
      • RETURNS: Participatory Rematriation
      • STLT x Jackie Fawn
      • Tule in the Sky
  • Engage
    • Make a Request
    • Donate
    • Get E-mail Updates
    • Other Ways to Engage
      • Land Acknowledgements
  • Pay Shuumi
    • Shuumi Land Tax
    • Institutional Shuumi Land Tax
    • Shuumi Land Tax FAQs
    • Testimonials

Lisjan (Ohlone) History & Territory

The Lisjan people have lived in the territory of Huchiun since the beginning of time.

For thousands of years, hundreds of generations, the Lisjan Ohlone people have lived on the land that is now known as the East Bay in the San Francisco Bay Area. We did not own the land, we belonged to it. Generation after generation, we have cultivated reciprocal relationships with the plants and animals we share this place with, and developed beautiful and powerful cultural practices that keep us in balance.

The Confederated Villages of Lisjan Nation are one of many Ohlone nations, each with its own geography and history. Our tribes, cultures and languages are as diverse as the ecosystems we live within. When the Spanish invaded in the late 1700s, in their ignorance they called us Costanoan, people of the coast. In the 1960s and 70s, inspired by the Black Power and American Indian Movements, we organized and renamed ourselves Ohlone. The different nations of Ohlone people are connected but have different territories and languages. The Confederated Villages of Lisjan speak the language Chochenyo.

The Lisjan are made up of the six nations that were directly enslaved at Mission San Jose in Fremont, CA and Mission Dolores in San Francisco, CA: Lisjan (Ohlone), Karkin (Ohlone), Bay Miwok, Plains Miwok, Delta Yokut and Napian (Patwin). Our territory includes 5 Bay Area counties; Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano, Napa and San Joaquin, and we are directly tied to the “Indian Town” census of the 1920’s and the Verona Band.

Sogorea Te’ Land Trust is based in Huchiun, in unceded Lisjan territory, what is now known as Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Piedmont, Emeryville and Albany, California.

We have survived over two centuries of genocide and colonization during the Spanish, Mexican and American eras. Today, we continue to inhabit our ancestral homeland, fight for our sacred sites and revitalize our cultural practices.

“All of these things that the United States tries to do to squash us have not worked. It’s failed. We still know who we are. We still know how to pray in our own way. We still know where our sacred sites are. And we know how to bring back our language.”—Corrina Gould, Spokesperson of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan Nation

Ann Marie Sayers, Ruth Orta, Corrina Gould and Caleen Sisk at Living On Ohlone Land, Photo by Christopher McLeod

The colonization of this land began with the reign of terror inflicted by Spanish soldiers and missionaries who sought to convert all Indigenous people into Catholic subjects of Spain and steal their land. The Missions were plantations, built by slave labor and sustained through brutal physical violence and extractive land practices. The Spanish brought deadly diseases, invasive species, and Christian ideology, based on human dominion of the natural world, causing devastating consequences for the Lisjan people and all living beings we have shared the land with.

After a brief but harrowing Mexican rancho period, Lisjan survivors faced extermination policies by the United States that aimed to eliminate California Indians entirely. In a climate of virulent racial discrimination and state-sponsored vigilante killings, most Lisjan families survived by isolating themselves and concealing their identities. Cultural and spiritual traditions were forced into dormancy or secrecy, and much knowledge perished with the passing of generations.

Despite these concerted efforts to erase our history and identity, the Lisjan community forms a diverse and vibrant constellation of tribes and families. Utilizing a wide array of survival strategies to navigate a profoundly altered 21st century world, we continue to revitalize our cultural practices and uphold our responsibilities to protect and care for our ancestral homeland. This profound process, simultaneously rooting back and reaching forward, is embodied in Sogorea Te’ Land Trust’s Chochenyo language program: Mak Noono Tiirinikma, our language awakens.

The lack of access to traditional ceremonial grounds and to land appropriate for multi-day ceremonies is a serious challenge faced by Ohlone people today, since the tribe is not federally recognized and remains landless. A cornerstone of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust’s vision is the construction of a traditional roundhouse in the East Bay. The Round House will bring the Confederated Villages of Lisjan, other Ohlone families, and the intertribal Indigenous community together in a space for healing and spiritual renewal.

Sacred Shellmounds Around the Bay

Shellmounds are sacred burial sites of the Ohlone and Coast Miwok peoples. They are considered by Ohlone people to be living cemeteries, places of prayer, veneration and connection with the ancestors. “Shellmounds are places where we laid our ancestors to rest,” Corrina Gould explains. “We actually buried them in the soil and then covered them with shell and then more soil. As the years and centuries went by, these mounds grew larger and larger. They became monuments to the people that lived here in the Bay Area.”

As settlers flooded into the San Francisco area during the Gold Rush, the leveling and desecration of shellmounds began, clearing the way for development. Noticing the rate at which the mounds were vanishing, an archeologist from UC Berkeley named Nels Nelson worked to create a map in 1909 of those which remained. His map identified 425 distinct shellmound sites ringing the San Francisco Bay. Today, only a handful of those remain in a natural state. Most lie buried beneath parking lots and buildings.

“Every single time I go to a shellmound, it eats a little bit away from who I am just because I see that there’s absolutely no respect for who we are as Ohlone people, or who our ancestors were, or anything that happened on this land prior to America being created.”—Corrina Gould, Spokesperson of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan

No Federal Recognition

Officially “unrecognized” by the U.S. federal government as a tribe, the Confederated Villages of Lisjan have no reservations or protected land bases and receive none of the rights, benefits, compensations or protections afforded to Indian tribes under U.S. laws. The Lisjan have no access to federal scholarships or housing grants, and grossly inadequate protections of cultural, burial, and sacred sites.

Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) policy requires unrecognized tribes to undergo an exhaustive and costly “Federal Acknowledgment Process” by submitting thousands of pages of evidence to prove who they are, at the expense of the tribe. The BIA criteria for recognition requires tribes to demonstrate an unbroken continuity of leadership, tribal culture and organization— woefully ironic, since historically, U.S. policy deliberately sought to dismantle that very continuity. The requirements of this process are so onerous that achieving recognition is virtually impossible, especially for tribes whose ancestors were enslaved in the California Missions. Of the eight petitions submitted by Ohlone tribes since 1988, not one has led to approval.

“For me, it does not matter whether or not this government recognizes us. My ancestors recognize who I am, and who we are supposed to be right now. And so, this work is for them.”—Corrina Gould, Spokesperson of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan

The Emeryville Shellmound and the Bay Street Mall

In 1997, corporate developers were unearthing hundreds of Lisjan ancestoral remains at the Emeryville Shellmound to begin the construction of a giant new shopping mall. Located on the edge of the Bay at the mouth of Temescal Creek, this ancient shellmound was once the largest of all, standing 60 feet high at over 350 feet in diameter.

Although the Emeryville site had previously been bulldozed and desecrated, countless ancestors remained interred in the soil— some intact and others gravely disturbed. The site had been occupied for 70 years by industrial facilities including a paint factory, a cannery and an insecticide plant, which leached toxic wastes into the soil. In the midst of a redevelopment boom, the City of Emeryville received funding to clean up the property, which was deemed a contaminated brownfield. In the gruesome scene that unfolded, untold numbers of ancestors’ remains, saturated with industrial toxins, were disposed of via incineration at hazardous waste facilities, and many more were collected and piled in a mass grave on site.

“Emeryville broke my heart,” Corrina Gould recalls. Ohlone people, concerned archeologists and other community advocates vehemently campaigned for the preservation and restoration of the site in a manner that would honor its immense cultural significance and recognize the ancestors buried there. Siding with developers and the promise of increased tax revenues, the Emeryville City Council voted to pave over the entire 19-acre site to construct the Bay Street Mall. Every “Black Friday,” the busiest shopping day of the year, the local Indigenous community holds a protest at the mall, educating shoppers and asking them to take their business elsewhere.

Black Friday Protest at the Emeryville Shellmound 2014

Although the Emeryville fight was a traumatic and painful period for Ohlone people, it was also a galvanizing experience in which many new relationships were formed between local activists and tribal members, strengthening the overall movement to protect Lisjan sacred places.

The Shellmound Peace Walks

Outraged by the ongoing desecration of shellmounds by developers and the striking lack of public awareness about Ohlone people and their sacred sites, Indigenous activists Johnella LaRose and Corrina Gould were inspired to start the Shellmound Peace Walks. With the aid of Nels Nelson’s 1909 map, they set out to pinpoint the locations of the shellmounds and create a route by which they could walk as a group to each site, to pray with their ancestors in an act of spiritual pilgrimage.

2005 Shellmound Peace Walk

In 2005, the first Shellmound Peace Walk threaded its way through the Bay Area, starting in Vallejo at Sogorea Te’, proceeding south to San Jose, and then up the western shore of the Bay to San Francisco— a 280-mile journey that took three weeks to accomplish. The walkers were joined by Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist monks from Japan and supporters from the local community and as far away as Australia, Nova Scotia and the Cape Verde Islands.

“It was an incredible journey,” Corrina Gould recounts, “trying to figure out where my ancestors were, trying to figure out how we were supposed to protect them, and trying to figure out: how do we educate the Bay Area about what’s right here underneath them?” Each day, in addition to the act of walking and praying at each site, the walk would bring many people together over food and conversation. “We talked about our inherent responsibility to do what is right on behalf of the ancestors and those to come,” Gould explains, “really feeling like we are that bridge between the past and the future.”

The Shellmound Peace Walk continued for a total of four consecutive years, each time covering new territory and visiting additional monument sites. The collective act of walking and praying with the ancestors at each location was both healing and transformative, and each year it created a larger and larger network of people who were ready to advocate and fight on behalf of the Ohlone and their ancestral places. In this way, it laid a groundwork for protective actions to come.

Direct Action at the Village of Sogorea Te’

Spiritual re-occupation of the Karkin Ohlone village of Sogorea Te’ (Glen Cove), 2011

Denied their Indigenous rights, silenced by the law, and dismissed by developers and governing authorities, Ohlone people have often been forced to take matters into their own hands through outspoken community organizing and, at times, direct action. Read about the Reawakening of Sogorea Te’ to learn how this activism was a seed that grew into the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust.

West Berkeley Shellmound: An Ongoing Struggle

The West Berkeley Shellmound, at least 5,800 years old, is the oldest Shellmound in the Bay Area. Located along Strawberry Creek, which now runs through a culvert underground, the Shellmound remains a place of prayer for Lisjan people, despite being covered by buildings, asphalt, and a railroad. In 2016, while trenching for a new retail development, the remains of ancestors were unearthed. Despite the call of Lisjan leaders and community members to halt all development, the owners of the land are pushing forward. Currently, the City of Berkeley and the Confederated Villages of Lisjan are in a protracted court battle to protect the Shellmound.

“Protect Ohlone Lisjan Sacred Sites” mural, at the site of the West Berkeley Shellmound— painted by community as an act of resistance. (Photo: Scott Braley)

“We’re saying, enough. Stop. This is not just cement, this is a place that was intended by our ancestors’ ancestors to be here for us for all eternity, to put down those prayers.” Corrina Gould, Spokesperson of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan

Learn more about the ongoing campaign to Save the West Berkeley Shellmound.

Poster by Micah Bizant
Indigenous Sovereignty in the 21st Century

We are in an ongoing process of recovery from the impacts of Spanish, Mexican and American policies of slavery, extermination and forced assimilation. The violent and profound disruptions brought by colonization have destroyed our balance in the world with devastating impacts on the health and wellbeing of everyone who lives here. Faced with social, ecological and spiritual crises everywhere we look, we are envisioning what work to do, what path to take to bring us back into balance.

Although there are many valuable ways to support our struggle for sovereignty, one issue stands out as paramount: the need for rematriation, returning Indigenous land to Indigenous people. There is an urgent and profound need for today’s Indigenous communities to regain land bases within their traditional territories—land that can form a foundation for continued healing. The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust was created as a means to establish a land base in the unceded Lisjan territory.

Sogorea Te’ Land Trust envisions life in the Bay Area in which the Chochenyo language and Ohlone ceremonies are an active, thriving part of the cultural landscape, where Chochenyo names and Ohlone history is known and recognized, and where intertribal Indigenous communities can gather, pray and practice their spiritual and cultural traditions. We seek to heal and transform the violent legacies of genocide, colonization, and systemic racism that continue to impact our urban Indigenous communities. We are doing the work our ancestors and future generations are calling us to do.

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The Shuumi Land Tax is a voluntary annual contribution that non-Indigenous people living on traditional Lisjan Ohlone territory make to support the critical work of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust.

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Sogorea Te Land Trust
“It’s going to take a lot to heal but I think “It’s going to take a lot to heal but I think we’re at the beginning. people want to do something different, were finding the power to move in different ways...”

— Sogorea Te Land Trust cofounder Corrina Gould

From @culturalconservancy’s Native Seed Pod interview with Melissa Nelson.

Art from our geomorphic visualization of rematraited land with Maise Richards. 

Both available in our resource library. link in bio. 

Images are 1. Rematriated landscape with a stream passing through  green trees, native plants, and grasses with long roots extending into a sandy base. There is a fading freeway in the background. one slide has the above quote in sandy colored letters and the second has the words Rematraite the Land. 

#rematriatetheland #resourcelibrary #listenup #sogoreatelandtrust #urbanindigenous #womenled #rematraition #landback #landreturn #returntoland
❤️Himmetka ❤️ Throwback to the shipping ❤️Himmetka ❤️ 

Throwback to the shipping container for our first Himmetka arriving on a pink tractor trailer truck, January 2019, Lisjan. 

Named with the Chochenyo word for “in one place, together,” our Lisjan Himmetka includes a ceremonial space, food and medicine gardens, water catchment, filtration, and storage, first-aid supplies, tools, and a seed saving library.

Images are 1. A red shipping container being unloaded from a pink tractor trailer truck with logs in the foreground and a blue sky in the background. 2. Front view of the container covered in art with a sign that reads Himmetka, everything together in one place. 

#tbt #himmetka #sogoreatelandtrust #iniatives #urbanindivenous #womenled #lrematriation
The land formerly known as Sequoia Point has been The land formerly known as Sequoia Point has been renamed Rinihmu Pulte’irekne!

The Chochenyo name, meaning “Above the Red Ochre,” was given by @villages_of_lisjan language carrier Deja Gould. 

The name honors the location and connection to red ochre, once abundant in the East Bay hills.  Ochre holds cultural significance for Ohlone people and many Indigenous people of the world. It was among the natural materials extracted and exploited in the settling of California. 

Welcome back Rinihmu Pulte’irekne. 

Music: Landback @rebelwisemusic 
Drone video: Alfred @threesistersgardens 

Video is a peek of the view from the Oakland hills through tree branches fading into an aerial video of the land, panning out to the city and bay from an eagles eye view with text announcing the land formerly known as Sequoia Point has been renamed Rinihmu Pulte’Irekne. 

#rematraitetheland #sequoiapoint #RinihmuPulte’irekne #sogoreatelandtrust #urbanindigenous #womenled #landtrust #landback #landreturn #rematriation
Welcoming youth back as we continue our Indigenous Welcoming youth back as we continue our Indigenous led youth program, Mitiini Numma wave one! We are so excited to be back with you all and hope you had an amazing winter break ❄️. On our first day back we got to learn about and from each other during a yarn toss game 🧶, highlighting who we are, how we got to the land we are on, and sharing our relations. Looking forward to a spring full of fun activities, rematriated site visits, exciting field trips, amazing wisdom keepers, creative workshops, and more! 🤎

Image: Youth and facilitators gathered in a circle in our youth program space, each holding a piece of yarn connected to all of them, during a game of yarn toss. 

#MitiiniNumma #backinprogram #growthetruth #youthleaders #youthprogram #Indigenousled #oaklandyouth #rematriatetheland
This is what Indigenous women and two spirit land This is what Indigenous women and two spirit land rematriation looks like! 

Throwback to the official signing of the cultural easement returning the land formerly known as Sequoia Point to Indigenous care, December 13, 2022. 

Image is five Indigenous women and two spirit people of various ages wearing long skirts and dresses, standing in a line, looking out past the viewer. In the background is glimpse of an image of a ceremonial structure. 

#squadgoals #thecrew #matriarchylives #indigenouswomenled #sogoreatelandtrust #culturaleasement #itsofficial  #landreturn #landback #rematriation #Oakland #indigenousland
Lisjan: Rematriated Indigenous Land Ask Permissi Lisjan: Rematriated Indigenous Land 

Ask Permission 
Walk With Honor 
Respect The Sacred 

*No Photos * No Substances*

Image is a turquoise sign at the entrance of Lisjan with the above text in red and black letters with the Sogore Te' Land Trust logo- a silhouette of the Oakland skyline above an Ohlone basket- in front of an abundance of thriving green plants. 

#Lisjan #guidelines #comecorrect #askpermission  #sogoreatelandtrust #rematriatetheland
Winter Work ⛈️ Seasonal planning with the c Winter Work ⛈️ 

Seasonal  planning with the crew. 

Custom Ohlone Territory Hoody 
hand printed at a staff meet, 
By @creative_mudafukah 

Image is a figure in an orange Ohlone territory hoody, adding a post it to a large sheet of paper full of multicolored notes. 

#projectprocess #planning #sogoreatelandtrust #urban #Indigenous #womenled #landreturn
New year, new opportunity to Rematriate the Land. New year, new opportunity to Rematriate the Land. 

Hit us up. 

Image: a stack of stickers with a turquoise to pink gradient behind a silloutte of Oakland, with birds flying and the words Rematriate the Land, Sogorea Te Land Trust.

#2023 #landback #landreturn #unsettletheland #rematriatetheland #sogoreatelandtrust
🎄Land Back 🌲 If you have more that you nee 🎄Land Back 🌲 

If you have more that you need consider redistributing to Indigenous led work wherever you are. 

#landback #thatsthespirit #rematriatetheland #urbanindigenous #seasonsgreetings #sogoreatelandtrust #spotted #oaklandgraffiti #indigenousland
✨Rest ✨Reflection ✨Renewal ✨ Returning to ✨Rest ✨Reflection ✨Renewal ✨

Returning to balance with the seasons. ⚖️ Every year on Solstice we close for our Winter hibernation. This is a time separate from vacation for our crew to rest, reflect and recharge for the new year. 

Sending solstice wishes for winter wellness to all. 

Image is an Indigenous woman standing on the edge of a piece of green grassy land  high up in the Oakland hills hills looking out at the view of  dark winter clouds and green trees opening to  vista of the distant city and Bay. 

#solstice  #winter #hibernation #sogoreatelandtrust #urbanindigenous #womenled #returntobalance #rest #reflection #regeneration  #rematriaton  #territoryofhuchiun
Sogorea Te’ Land Trust Team wants to thank all o Sogorea Te’ Land Trust Team wants to thank all of our community members and allies who have volunteered & supported us throughout the past year. We are because of you all and we are immensely grateful for the continued support we have received. 

We look forward to connecting with folks in the new year! In the meantime, feel welcome to fill out our volunteer form to receive notification emails: https://tinyurl.com/STLTVolunteer. You can also find other ways to stay engaged by visiting our website: https://sogoreate-landtrust.org/other-ways-to-engage/ 

Alt Description 1:

The background is a transparent picture of some yellow and multi-colored corn. In the middle of the post, you find another yellow transparent box with a solid dark white box in front of it that says: “As Sogorea Te' Land Trust wraps up another incredible year, we want to say thank you to all our community members and volunteers who have supported us throughout these past twelve months. The work we do is possible because of the on-going support we receive from our community who believe in us and share the same goal as we do. Kiš horše ‘ek-hinnan (Thank you so much)”. At the bottom two corners of the white box, you find three vertical hearts. 

Alt Description 2:

The background is a transparent picture of some yellow and multi-colored corn. In the middle of the post, you find another yellow transparent box with a solid dark white box in front of it that says: “Our office has closed volunteer days and they will be reopening mid-January. We will be back with more volunteer opportunities in the new year so keep a lookout! In the meantime, feel welcome to fill out our volunteer form to receive notification emails: https://tinyurl.com/STLTVolunteer. You can also find other ways to stay engaged by visiting our website: https://sogoreate-landtrust.org/other-ways-to-engage/
🌿 Respect my Medicine 🌿 Block printing wit 🌿 Respect my Medicine 🌿 

Block printing with the crew for the end of the year. 
Art by vick @creative_mudafukah 

#respect #native #medicine #sogoreatelandtrust #blockprint #art
✨💛Rematriate the Land 💛✨ #customeveryth ✨💛Rematriate the Land 💛✨

#customeverything #lisjan #thepony #sogoreatelandtrust #urbanindigenous #womenled #landreturn #landback #rematriation
Big Valley Dancers ✨ Closing of the Rinihmu Pul Big Valley Dancers ✨

Closing of the Rinihmu Pulte'irekne land return celebration. 
December 13th, 2022

📷 @hulleah 

#sogoreatelandtrust #sequoiapiont #landreturn #landback #rematriation #celebration
Celebrating the Return of Rinihmu Pulte'irekne✨ Celebrating the Return of Rinihmu Pulte'irekne✨

December 13th, 2022

📷 Jean Melesaine 
@bayarealife 

#sogoreatelandtrust #sequoiapiont #landreturn #landback #rematriation #celebration
Round Valley Dancers✨ Opening of the Rinihmu Pu Round Valley Dancers✨

Opening of the Rinihmu Pulte'irekne land return celebration
December 13th, 2022

📷 @ines_ixierda 

#sogoreatelandtrust #sequoiapiont #landreturn #landback #rematriation #celebration
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