Steps to Land Back: The Return of Rinihmu Pulteʻirekne from Red Bud Resource Center
Rinihmu Pulte’irekne is 3.8 acres of land in the Oakland hills that was returned to Indigenous hands in 2022 through the creation of a cultural easement with The City of Oakland, Villages of Lisjan Nation and Sogorea Te’ Land Trust.
Named with the Chochenyo words for “Above the Red Ochre,” the site is a wooded hillside once known as Sequoia Point. The land is a part of Joaquin Miller Park, now in early restoration with a focus on trash removal, fire fuels reduction and reintroduction of Native plants.
Learn about the rematriation of Rinihmu Pulte’irekne through this Rematriation Case Study.
Created in collaboration with Conservation and Adaptation Resources Toolbox (CART), this case study is based on a series of interviews with key participants, research and analysis. The study offers a valuable resource to those interested in urban indigenous land restoration, creation of cultural easements, and strategies for land return.
This short summary offers an overview and the full case study can be accessed here.
The Legacy of Joaquin Miller
The land at Rinihmu Pulte’irekne is a part of the Oakland Hills designated as “Joaquin Miller Park.” Named for the controversial writer and so called environmental conservationist, Miller planted more than 65,000 Non-Native trees in the hills, transforming the landscape and contributing to creating one of the highest fire risks areas of the city, choked with dead and dying Acacia, Monterey Pine, and Eucalyptus.
Learn More about Joaquin Miller and this history East Bay Yesterday podcast including an interview with our co-founder Corrina Gould
Rinihmu in the news!
Oakland to return land rights to Indigenous group, Oaklandside
‘We Have a Vision’: East Bay Ohlone Tribe Looks to Future as Oakland Announces Landback Plan, KQED NEWS
City of Oakland Announces Plan to Return Land to Indigenous Stewardship, NATIVE NEWS Online
City Announces Plan To Return Sequoia Point Land To Indigenous Stewardship, SF Gate
Sequoia Point in Oakland’s Joaquin Miller Park to be returned to Indigenous stewardship, CBS News
- Oakland plans to return 5 acres of city park to Indigenous groups, one of first cities to do so, USA Today
City of Oakland to return 5 acres of land to native tribe, Kron 4 News
This Land has returned to Indigenous Hands! The Announcement!
Nearly 5 acres returned to Indigenous hands!
Oakland, Unceded territory of Huchiun – The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and the City of Oakland have returned approximately five acres of land owned by the City to Indigenous stewardship.
The Oakland City Council held hearings to convey the site, known as Sequoia Point, to the non-profit, women-led, Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and the Confederated Villages of Lisjan Nation, an East Bay Ohlone tribe, through the creation of a cultural conservation easement. The motion passed in November 2022. The City granted the cultural conservation easement in perpetuity to the Land Trust on December 13, 2022, allowing the Land Trust to immediately use the land for natural resource restoration, cultural practices, public education, and to plan for additional future uses.
“This agreement with the City of Oakland will restore our access to this important area, allowing a return of our sacred relationship with our ancestral lands in the Oakland hills. The easement allows us to begin to heal the land and heal the scars that have been created by colonization for the next seven generations.”
Corrina Gould, Sogorea Te’ Land Trust co-founder and Lisjan Tribal Chairwoman
What started out with a casual conversation between Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and tribal Chairperson Corrina Gould in 2017, has grown into a partnership between the City and the Land Trust to begin to address the historic harms of Oakland’s founding. Chochenyo-speaking Ohlone people have inhabited Oakland and parts of the East Bay for thousands of years. They were forcibly removed from their land with the arrival of Europeans and descendants of Europeans beginning in the 18th Century.
“I am committed to returning land to Indigenous stewardship, to offer some redress for past injustices to Native people,” said Mayor Schaaf, “I hope the work we are doing in Oakland with the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust can serve as a model for other cities working to return Indigenous land to the Indigenous community we stole it from.”
The easement allows the Land Trust immediately to begin tending to the land, gather Native plants and foods, clean up the area, and perform environmental and natural habitat restoration.
Learn more in this Easement Fact Sheet from the City of Oakland.
Support
You can support this project through direct donations to the Rematriate the Land Fund which is dedicated to the costs associated with returning Indigenous land to Indigenous hands.
Additionally we invite everyone to come out and attend community meetings, voice and send letters of support, engage with the land and the parks, learning more about the history of the Bay Area and its original caretakers, work to take care of the places around you, and be a good guest on Indigenous Land.
For contributions over $2000, checks can be made to the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and sent to 2501 Harrison St. Oakland CA 94612. Please write “Rematriate the Land Fund” in the Memo. If you would like to discuss a significant contribution, encounter issues with or need to change your contribution, please contact ariel (at) rematriatetheland (dot) org.