Do you really know where you live?

If you reside in North America or Australia, learn which Indigenous people's territory you inhabit:

Once you know, how do you begin to honor native land?

Follow this guide for making a Native Land Acknowledgement at your next public event or gathering:

Living on Ohlone Land

Building Reciprocity with Indigenous Communities

In 2017, Indigenous women leaders from throughout the Bay Area gathered to share ways organizations can build relationships with local Native people. Panelists include Ann Marie Sayers (Mutsun Ohlone), Ruth Orta (Him*re-n Ohlone, Bay Miwok, and Plains Miwok), Corrina Gould (Chochenyo and Karkin Ohlone), Chief Caleen Sisk (Winnemem Wintu) and moderator Desirae Harp (Mishewal Wappo, Diné).

Speakers cover Native Bay Area history and geography, settler colonialism and accountability, confront Indigenous erasure, tokenization and superficial land acknowledgement, share protocol and respectful ways non-Natives can acknowledge local Indigenous communities, model practices of permission between communities and discuss current Indigenous-led campaigns.

Sogorea te' land trust

An urban Indigenous women-led community organization that facilitates the return of Chochenyo and Karkin Ohlone lands in the San Francisco Bay Area to Indigenous stewardship. Sogorea Te' creates opportunities for all people living in Ohlone territory to work together to re-envision the Bay Area community and what it means to live on Ohlone land. Guided by the belief that land is the foundation that can bring us together, Sogorea Te' calls on us all to heal from the legacies of colonialism and genocide, to remember different ways of living, and to do the work that our ancestors and future generations are calling us to do.

international institute of indigenous science

IIIS is a non-profit rooted in an indigenous cosmovision that seeks to promote community development through traditional approaches in education, art, integral health and traditional agriculture. IIIS's Indigenous Permaculture Project partners with organizations that have unused gardens or parking lots and build food security for the community by building infrastructure and growing vegetables, herbs, flowers, and useful crops. The produce is picked up by people who use the local food pantry and given to kitchens that run weekly meal programs. Root Wisdom students propagate medicinal plants for the Q'anil Permaculture Gardens in Berkeley and Oakland.

La Nación ComcA’ac (Seri) de Sonora

Covid-19 Crisis in Sonoran Indigenous Communities

The Comca’ac Council of Elders have called for humanitarian support for the communities of Punta Chueca and El Desemboque in urgent need of food and fresh water.

The Comca’ac are traditional protectors of the sacred Sonoran Desert Toad. But protecting the toads means supporting the indigenous guardians of the Sonoran Desert. Consider donating and signing this petition to support the Comca’ac Nation (Seri) in their struggle to gain access to clean water. Learn more about efforts to build sovereignty and harmony within the Comca’ac Nation here.

Oni Xobo

El amor divino florece el universo

Oni Xobo is an intercultural organization that operates a cultural center for art, medicine and environment in Yarinacocha de Pucallpa, Peru. The Oni Xobo mission says that the universe blooms from divine love. At the center of their work is the Shipibo ayahuasca bioculture and their projects focus on the preservation, conservation, revival and inspiration of people and worlds connected via the medicine. This organization is guided by the living grandparents of the Sinuiri family and their ancestors. They are particularly interested in how the present moment is connected and guided by the past and the ancestors, and how to a future based on that wisdom. They want our children and future generations to live in abundance and connected to nature. Follow them on facebook or donate to help them fund cultural events.

honor the earth

Our mission is to create awareness and support for Native environmental issues and to develop needed financial and political resources for the survival of sustainable Native communities. Honor the Earth develops these resources by using music, the arts, the media, and Indigenous wisdom to ask people to recognize our joint dependency on the Earth and be a voice for those not heard.

Save the West Berkeley Shellmound

Beneath the pavement in West Berkeley dwells a cultural and historical touchstone of singular significance: the first human settlement on the shore of San Francisco Bay, established 5,000 years ago… older than they pyramids of Giza. There, at the mouth of Strawberry Creek, the ancestors of today’s Ohlone people created a unique lifeway between land and sea. For countless generations, they practiced ceremonial traditions and constructed a great mound in which they buried their dead—the West Berkeley Shellmound. Join the coalition of Ohlone tribes, indigenous organizations, and individuals who advocate for historic preservation, indigenous sovereignty and environmental justice.

Indian Canyon

Indian Canyon is the only land continuously held by the Ohlone people, the first inhabitants of the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Areas. Indian Canyon is the only federally recognized "Indian Country" along coastal Northern California, from Santa Barbara to Sonoma. The canyon is a refuge and a peaceful place for people in the world who do not have sacred land for performing their ceremonies. Almost 5,000 visitors participate in rituals, educational programs and vision quests annually. It is an irreplaceable resource for community events as well as a place to preserve cultural heritage. Each year, Indian Canyon hosts major ceremonies for local Native Americans, including the California Indian Bear Dance and prayer run/storytelling gathering, which is open to the public. Donate directly to Indian Canyon or support the ongoing cultural and ecological revitalization work of Kanyon CoyoteWoman Sayers-Roods.

Unión of Indigenous Yagé Doctors of the Colombian Amazon

UMIYAC is an indigenous organization representing traditional healers of five ethnic groups from 22 territories within the Colombian Amazon rain forest. They work to preserve the Amazon rain forest and to revitalize and protect their cultures and their ancestral medicine. UMIYAC healers are spiritual authorities, medicine men and women of knowledge and their role is to ensure the health of their traditional territories and the physical and spiritual wellbeing of their communities. Donate here to support Amazonian traditional medicine and cultural survival.

Indigenous Peyote Conservation initiative

The IPCI engages in diverse biocultural strategies for spiritual reconnection and restoration of Peyote/Hikuri, including land access and stewardship, youth education and engagement, peyote cultivation and propagation, and a system of harvest and distribution that is regenerative and spiritually sound. This is an international collaborative, supporting tribes and partners focused on the sustainability and indigenous sovereignty of peyote across the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. This project helped purchase 605 acres in Southwest Texas as a conservation, research and pilgrimage site for indigenous peoples around the country to have direct and prayerful connection to their medicine in its natural habitat.

Read the official solidarity statement between the Wixarika National Council and the National Council of Native American Churches (NCNAC) as well as an official apology from Decriminalize Santa Cruz for their oversight in the inclusion of Peyote within their city resolution. 

the Lakota people’s law project

Dedicated to reversing the slow genocide of the Lakota People and destruction of their culture, the Lakota People’s Law Project partners with Native communities to protect sacred lands, safeguard human rights, promote sustainability, reunite indigenous families, and much more. Current initiatives include boycotting and divesting from fossil fuels, providing legal defense for water protectors and providing renewable energy on tribal lands.

Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative

Explore more ways of giving back to Indigenous communities,
supporting plant medicine and nurturing ecological health, including land rights activism, bolstering food security, and strengthening economic resilience. Check out the Chacruna Institute’s Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative.