Five Acres in Oakland Hills Officially Under Indigenous Stewardship

January 19, 2023 Momo Chang
An Ohlone Indigenous woman with long hair wearing a face mask signs and agreement at a public event
Photo by Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie.
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At a celebration at the Chabot Space & Science Center in December, The City of Oakland and Sogorea Te’ Land Trust made it official: around five acres of land in the Oakland hills were returned to Indigenous stewardship, under the care of the Indigenous women-led organization.

The city previously announced the idea last fall, which had been in the works for many years. The city council later passed the motion to create a cultural conservation easement in what was known as Sequoia Point, now called Rinihmu Pulte’irekne, which means “above the red ochre” in the Chochenyo language.

At the December 13, 2022 evening celebration, with former Mayor Libby Schaaf and city staff in attendance, where Corrina Gould, tribal spokesperson for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan and co-founder of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, signed the cultural conservation easement agreement which puts the land under the care of the organization in perpetuity.

Plans include environmental restoration, plant gathering, public education, and creating a ceremonial space.

An aerial map of green hills and boundaries of about 5 acres
The easement of land, approximately five acres in the hills of Oakland known as Sequoia Point, that would be granted to Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, an Indigenous women-led nonprofit based in Oakland. Photo courtesy of City of Oakland.
About Momo Chang 124 Articles
Momo Chang is a freelance journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area and Senior Editor at Civil Eats. She served program alumni as the Oakland Voices Co-Director from 2019 to 2024. Her work focuses on healthcare, immigration, education, Asian American communities, food and culture. She is a former staff writer at the Oakland Tribune. Momo has received journalism awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for investigative reporting and the Asian American Journalists Association, among others. Her work has appeared in the East Bay Express, San Francisco Chronicle, Wired, and The New York Times. Momo is primarily a print journalist who also produces audio and visual stories for documentary film and radio. She is a Senior Contributing Editor for Hyphen and formerly the Content Manager at the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).

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2 Comments

  1. Momo and Iris, would you mind contacting my organization CitizensForBalancedGrowth.org so I can let you know about some potential land returns near Livermore? We are already working with Sogorea Te on the issue but I am scraping the “internets” for other people who are interested or could help with the effort.

  2. I love that you covered this Momo. I’m in the works of writing something about this also

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