Rematriate the Land Fund

The Bay Area is home to diverse communities of Indigenous peoples. We are an intertribal Indigenous women-led land trust, working closely with the Lisjan whose land we are on. We work to restore reciprocal relationships with the sacred land we live on, and with the plants, animals and other human beings who we share this land with. We create opportunities for all people living in Lisjan Ohlone territory to work together to re-envision the Bay Area community and what it means to live on Ohlone land.

Together with our relatives, allies, collaborators and supporters who engage with our Shuumi Land Tax, we have built the first Ohlone ceremonial arbor in the territory in more than 250 years and are returning access to Indigenous land to Indigenous hands in innovative ways including the use of long term leases, cultural conservation easements, and agreements of all kinds. Still, Indigenous people have extremely limited access to land in the Bay Area.

Sogorea Te’ Land Trust works predominantly within the territories of the Lisjan Ohlone, which includes 5 Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa, Solano and San Joaquin, close to 3 million acres of land. Right now, Lisjan tribal members and the Trust protect less than 0.0001% of this land base.

As we begin to heal and transform the legacies of colonization, genocide, and patriarchy and to do the work our ancestors and future generations are calling us to do, we invite those who have benefitted from stolen land and settler-colonialism to contribute to our vision of rematriation, to help us build Indigenous Sovereignty, and support our movement to rematriate the land.