Sogorea Te’ Land Trust

Background

Sogorea Te’ Land Trust is an Indigenous Ohlone women-led organization focused on taking back what it claims to be “stolen” Indigenous lands in the San Francisco Bay Area. ¹ The Ohlone are a coalition of around 50 Indigenous tribes that live in coastal California. The Ohlone are not federally recognized as a tribe and cannot obtain health and education benefits or reservation land from the federal government. ²

Sagorea Te’ Land Trust is working to restore Ohlone language and ceremonies, ³ to revitalize the Ohlone history, ⁴ and to change the impact of what it calls “legacies of colonization, genocide, and patriarchy.” ¹ It advocates for land, housing, and social services for the Indigenous communities in the Bay Area. ⁴ It is working to obtain parcels of land for communal use. ⁵

The Rematriation Resource Guide published by Sonorea Te’ Land Trust supports redistribution of wealth caused by “structural inequality, white supremacy, and patriarchy.” It demands that people stop celebrating Columbus Day and that states and cities recognize Indigenous Peoples Day instead. It also supports the removal of “monuments of racism and violence” and racist or colonial names of local schools and parks. ⁶ The Land Trust defines “rematriation” as restoring ancestral lands honoring “matrilineal societies and in opposition of patriarchal violence and dynamics.”  ⁷

History

Sogorea Te’ is also known as Glen Cove, just south of Vallejo, California. The Ohlone tribe considers it to be a sacred burial ground. In 1999, the city of Vallejo made plans to develop the land into a public park. Corrina Gould and Johnella LaRose, founders of Indian People Organizing for Change (IPOC) in the San Francisco Bay Area, fought the proposed park. In 2011, they organized a gathering at Sagorea Te’ that lasted for 109 days, which ended when an agreement to protect the site was reached. In 2012, the district began construction anyway, and protests were organized once again. In 2015, Gould and LaRose founded the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. ⁸

Land Acquisition

Planting Justice gifted Sogorea Te’ its first piece of land in 2017. ⁵ Planting Justice is a left-leaning organization that builds gardens and hires the formerly incarcerated to work them in the San Francisco Bay area. ⁹

In 2018, Sogorea Te’ obtained its second piece of land, a small garden in West Oakland. ¹⁰ In August 2020 the Land Trust purchased its first house, and in July 2021 the city of Richmond gave Sogorea Te’ stewardship of Ookwe Park. ¹¹

An anonymous donor gifted Sogorea Te’ part of a community garden in April 2022. ¹² In September 2022 the city of Oakland agreed to give Sogorea Te’ stewardship of a 5-acre plot through a cultural easement. ²

Sogorea Te’ is working with Sustainable Economies Law Center to develop legal processes that will allow people or organizations to leave their home or land to the Trust. ¹³

Funding

In 2021, Sogorea Te’ reported $7,405,128 in revenues and $1,288,917 in expenses.

The Shuumi Land Tax was created to support the work of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. It is a voluntary annual contribution to be paid by non-Indigenous people who live on traditional Ohlone land. Sogorea Te’ Land Trust claims that anyone living on this land is benefitting from the genocide of the Ohlone and the theft of their land and should pay this tax. ¹⁴ It is not an actual tax and is not connected to any government. ⁵

Donors

Penney Family Fund is a family foundation that prioritizes organizations led by Black, Native, and other communities of color focused on left-of-center issues on race and the environment. ¹⁵

Women Donors Network was founded as a project of the Tides Foundation. It invests in Black-led political movements and prioritizes funding for Black, Indigenous, and people of color-led organizations. ¹⁶

First Nations Development Institute provides grants in support of Native American communities and economies. ¹⁷

Several large, left-of-center focused philanthropies donate to Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, including David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Skoll Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Tides Foundation. ¹⁸

Partners

Sogorea Te’ has partnerships with several organizations that support left-of-center policies and ideas. ¹⁹

University of California, Berkeley Multicultural Community Center facilitates multicultural education and collaboration, and Berkeley Center for New Media coordinates media research. ¹⁹

Showing Up for Racial Justice Bay Area is a local chapter of SURJ, a far-left activist group that engages white people in racial and economic activism by convincing them that white elites are a threat to all races. ²⁰

Planting Justice is a left-leaning organization that builds gardens and hires the formerly incarcerated to work them in the San Francisco Bay area. ⁹

American Indian Movement – West is a Native American activist organization. ²¹

Leadership

Corinna Gould is co-director and co-founder of Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. She co-founded Indian People Organizing for Change in Oakland, California in 1998, and is a spokesperson for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan in the California Bay Area. ²² IPOC is a group of Ohlone tribal members and conservation activists fighting to conserve Ohlone burial sites in the San Francisco Bay area. ²³ The Confederated Villages of Lisjan is one of the Ohlone tribes that live in the Bay area. ²⁴

Johnella LaRose is co-director and co-founder of Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. She co-founded Indian People Organizing for Change with Gould in 1998. Previously she was involved in the Red Power movement and the American Indian Movement Survival School and helped to coordinate the Longest Walk, ²⁵ a five-month protest walk from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. by several hundred American Indian activists. ²⁶