Source Article: https://www.sfchronicle.com/eastbay/article/indigenous-land-reparations-17426036.php
Oakland leaders plan to allow an Indigenous group the right to exclusively use about five acres of city land, the first city in California to use municipal property as reparations for European settlers stealing Native American territories.
By Sarah Ravani, Sep. 7, 2022Updated: Sep. 9, 2022 7:57 p.m.
Oakland leaders plan to allow an Indigenous group the right to exclusively use about 5 acres of city land, the first city in California to use municipal property as reparations for European settlers stealing Native American territories.
Mayor Libby Schaaf and the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, an Indigenous and female-led nonprofit, announced Thursday that the city will grant an easement for Sequoia Point to the land trust and the Confederated Villages of Lisjan, which is the East Bay Ohlone tribe. The Point sits above the Sequoia Bayview Trail, one of the most popular trails in Joaquin Miller Park.
Oakland is creating a cultural easement at Sequoia Point, a legal arrangement that allows the city to transfer the right to use the land for cultural purposes, including ceremonial traditions, native habitat restoration and education activities. While the city retains the title to the property, the land trust has almost all of the rights of an owner, although the city can go on the property in case of an emergency.
Corrina Gould, the tribal chairperson and co-founder of the land trust, said the move is significant because “it’s the beginning of a healing process” after the “devastation of the Indigenous people and this land.”
“Oakland is the first city to give a tribe land back within city limits,” Gould said. “This is a global movement right now of land coming back to Indigenous hands.”
The Ohlone people lived in Oakland and other parts of the East Bay for thousands of years before Europeans and their descendants forced them out in the early 18th century.
“As we think about how to create a sense of belonging in Oakland and how we can repair historic harms, it made sense to start at the beginning, to start with the original harm of genocide of this land’s first people,” Schaaf told The Chronicle, referring to the genocide of Native Americans.
Gould said the land trust plans to restore the area by replanting native plants and rehabilitating the habitat. The trust also hopes to open a cultural resource center in the next decade at the site. The easement will require approvals from the Planning Commission and City Council, which are expected by year’s end.
Schaaf first met Gould in 2018 to discuss whether the city could return some land to the community, and the mayor asked which piece had the most significance.
If the group moves forward with building a cultural resource center, the city will have to update the area’s zoning.
The office of City Council Member Sheng Thao will host a community meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 13 for feedback. Thao, who represents the district that includes Sequoia Point, said in a statement that the partnership will “revitalize one of the most beautiful parts of Joaquin Miller Park, and begin to make amends for the pain and trauma our Indigenous communities have faced.”
The city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission will review the project on Sept. 14.
“I believe that government must be honest when it has failed in its duty to protect people,” Schaaf said. “And the genocide of our native peoples and the subsequent exclusionary laws that government has been responsible for is a wrong that must be corrected.”
Sarah Ravani (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani