SAVING the Sacred

learn . inspire . act FALL.2015 www.landtrustalliance.org VOL.34 NO.4

SAVING THE Sacred

Partnering on Ballot Measures Kingsbury Browne Fellows THE SOURCE of All That Sustains Us

BY ELISABETH PTAK

14 Fall 2015 SAVINGland www.landtrustalliance.org Young people of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band learn how to process California brome into pinole, a food their ancestors ate. The Amah Mutsun Land Trust is working to restore coastal prairies that provide this seed.

HARRY WHO PHOTOGRAPHY

Stories of Native Americans collaborating with each other

and with land trusts ‘‘

In the settler mind, land was property, real estate, capital or natural resources. But to our people, it was everything: identity, the connection to our ancestors, the home of ‘‘our nonhuman kinfolk, our pharmacy, our library, the source of all that sustained us. — Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Potawatomi

collaborations informed by the ancient and Trust for the Little Tennessee (LTLT) is he author and wilder- remarkably effective Native American land based. It starts with the story of a little ness advocate Wallace management practices that are based on the girl on a drive to Bryson City. “My mother relationship between people and the natural would tell me to look at the Kituwah Stegner called national world. At the same time, tribal groups are Mound as we passed it,” says Joyce Dugan, parks “The best idea we ever had. creating their own land trusts to protect former chief of the Eastern Band of Absolutely American. Absolutely traditional lifeways on ancestral lands Cherokee Indians (EBCI). “At the time I Tdemocratic. They reflect us at our located outside reservation boundaries. knew it had significance, but not why.” best rather than at our worst.” In her first year as chief in 1996, Dugan Land Trust for the Little was approached by the owners of the mound Who could disagree? Tennessee/Eastern Band of to ask if the tribe wanted to buy it. “They “In their early years, a number of Cherokee Indians felt that the mound belonged back with us.” national parks evicted Native people,” As Dugan researched the mound, she says Hawk Rosales, executive director Tsigeyu?i ga:dohi – love of the land discovered it is considered “the mother town of California’s InterTribal Sinkyone of Cherokees.” She says, “Many of our oral Wilderness Council. “There’s a long history One of those collaborations began seren- histories say that all Cherokees came from of cultural and social injustice within the dipitously in 1999 in North Carolina’s that place.” conservation movement.” Upper Little Tennessee River Basin, in Dugan went before the Tribal Council Now a nascent effort in the land trust the heart of the southern Blue Ridge of 12 who needed to approve the purchase. community is achieving meaningful Mountains where the accredited Land “My knees were shaking. Here I am asking

“The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR 25 Part 151) explains governing the acquisition of land by the United States in trust status for individual Indians and tribes. It can be a very long, very expensive and sometimes controversial process. By establishing a land conservancy, tribes can protect culturally significant, ethnobotanical or traditional use lands through ownership, cultural easements or conservation easements. A tribal land conservancy is also a way for several federally recognized tribes to own land jointly.” —Lisa Haws, Kumeyaay-Digueño Land Conservancy

www.landtrustalliance.org SAVINGland Fall 2015 15 THE SOURCE of All That Sustains Us

What is a cultural conservation easement? [C]ultural conservation easements place greater emphasis on the stewardship and use of a property in order to perpetuate cultural practices and enhance culturally important plant and animal species. These easements affirm certain land uses, such as tending and harvesting culturally important plants…As they grow in popularity, cultural conservation easements may serve to push conservation easements to become more attentive to cultural land uses and cultural preservation.

—From Trust in the Land, by Beth Rose Middleton, The University of Arizona Press (2011)

them to buy some land, and here they are with estimates that there are more than 1,000 needs that are unsurpassed, such as housing remains on the property. and roads. After many years of poverty, the “To me, as an American Indian, casino that we opened in 1995 was finally conservation includes preservation of allowing us to address those needs.” culture. It’s not just about saving the But the purchase was approved unanimously. natural resources but about saving the “After we bought the land it created a kind human resource also,” says Dugan. of renaissance in our tribe of preservation and She says the Land Trust for the Little LITTLE CONSERVANCY TRAVERSE Little Traverse Conservancy helps the Odawa Natural protection,” says Dugan. “Our people love it, Tennessee gets that. Resources Department with the Getting Kids Outdoors that it’s ours. They used to drive by it like me “The things that are important to the Emmet County project. The kickoff event is held at a local farm that has been protected, in part, with a but now they can visit it.” An archeologist Cherokees are also important to our land conservation easement. trust,” says Executive Director Sharon Taylor. “Many significant cultural sites are close to major water bodies and on prime farm soil.” One of those sites is Cowee only shown respect for the land but for Mound, which had been the political, those who live on it.” economic and social center of the tribe until it was seized 190 years ago. The land Little Traverse Conservancy/ trust worked with the landowners, whose Little Traverse Bands of family had owned the property since 1838. Odawa Indians Juanita Wilson, deputy administrative officer for the tribe at the time of this Aaki gee Zah gay e go – project, helped broker a collaboration love of the land between the Tribal Council and the land trust. She says the effort wasn’t an easy Though not yet in widespread use, a one—“You have to know how to stroke the new type of protection mechanism— feathers”—but it resulted in the purchase a cultural conservation easement—is and transfer of the mound to EBCI in 2007. being considered by some groups as a way A conservation easement held by the state to safeguard historic geographic areas

SHARON TAYLOR SHARON of North Carolina allows only traditional and sacred sites.

Standing on Cowee Mound, Cherokee elder, council agricultural and educational uses. Other Frank Ettawageshik, executive director member and language specialist Marie Junaluska collaborative projects followed. of the United Tribes of Michigan and speaks to participants in the Right Path Program for Eastern Band of Cherokee adults. The program’s goal “The land trust moved slowly to gain our former tribal chairman of the Little is to produce “generations of strong Cherokee leaders trust,” says Dugan, who serves on LTLT’s Traverse Bands of Odawa Indians, grounded in tribal culture and values.” board. “Most important, they have not has been working to develop cultural

16 Fall 2015 SAVINGland www.landtrustalliance.org conservation easement models with apply principles that are central to ancient Tom Bailey, executive director of Little tribal relationships with nature.” Traverse Conservancy. “In some sense, Rosales encourages non-Native land cultural conservation is implicit in trusts to build meaningful relationships preserving nature, and so it is inextricably with Native peoples through authentic tied with natural history,” says Bailey. and respectful efforts toward collaboration “Natural history includes human history, based on mutual understanding and the and human history includes the history of need to protect both traditional lifeways Native people.” and conservation values. He notes that, The sentiment is echoed by Ettawageshik, “Traditional knowledge is usually very who also serves on the land trust’s board of guarded due to the history of indigenous directors. “For Native people, land preserva- peoples and places having been colonized tion is our mission. We view ourselves as and devastated. I hope that ultimately we part of the environment, not masters of the will get there, but it will require a lot of environment. In that respect, anything that sincere respect, dedication, learning and helps protect the natural landscape falls hard work.” within our Native philosophy. We want to The consortium of 10 federally recognized honor and respect Mother Earth. Any way tribes in northern California has been very LISA HAWS we can work with others who have that as successful in its own efforts with various This 80-year-old Kumeyaay elder has dedicated her part of their mission is a good thing.” partners to protect marine areas, redwood retirement from the Marine Corps to training Kumeyaay Working together is key because conflicts forests and salmon streams in the ancestral young adults to protect cultural resources. can arise if traditional uses like ceremo- Sinkyone tribal territory. It established the nies, fishing rights or seed collection and 3,845-acre InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness disbursement are outlawed when a property Area, the first of its kind in America. the reservations, the tribes formed a is conserved. “How do we preserve land and nonprofit conservancy to be able to act not make criminals out of our grandmothers Kumeyaay-Digueño quickly to preserve endangered locations. collecting medicinal plants? How do we Land Conservancy/ KDLC currently owns and manages four recognize that relationship to the land?” Kumeyaay Bands properties, including the 42-acre Sacred asks Ettawageshik. Mountain Ranch at the base of Mount éMut Mohey – love of the land Kuuchamaa on the Mexican border. InterTribal Sinkyone Kuuchamaa means “exalted high place” Wilderness Council/ Each of the nine Kumeyaay Bands that and has been considered sacred since Consortium of 10 federally are members of the Kumeyaay-Digueño before recorded history. It figures in the recognized tribes in Land Conservancy (KDLC) are recog- tribe’s creation story as the source of northern California nized by the Secretary of the Interior as teachings about personal discipline and individual tribal governments with juris- religious harmony, and it’s also considered “For Native peoples, the relationship diction over their nine separate Indian an important healing site. KDLC hopes with the natural world is the core of our reservations. Together, they straddle to return the ranch to a natural state, existence, the foundation of who we are and coastal San Diego County and northern healing the land, as well as people. why we exist,” says Hawk Rosales, executive Baja California, spanning 75 miles north In the 1950s a communication site was director of the InterTribal Sinkyone and south of the international border built on the top of the mountain, followed Wilderness Council. He believes respect and from the Pacific Ocean to western by additional communication equipment for this profound and multilayered bond is Imperial County. placed by the Border Patrol, Drug essential for the future work of non-Native “Native tribes see conservation as one Enforcement Administration, the FBI and land conservation organizations, too. “It’s holistic unit,” says Lisa Haws, assistant others. “Maybe someday, when technology remarkable that the conservation movement, executive director of KDLC. “They has advanced, the equipment can be as well-intentioned as it is, has—by and view it on a landscape scale, not removed and the mountain restored,” large—not sought to partner meaningfully piecemeal.” So when urban growth says Haws. “Until then, KDLC has with the tribes in order to understand and threatened traditional sacred lands outside developed a relationship with Homeland

www.landtrustalliance.org SAVINGland Fall 2015 17 THE SOURCE of All That Sustains Us ANIA RZEPKO PHOTOGRAPHY, SYCUAN BAND OF THE KUMEYAAY NATION Paddling in a traditional reed boat called a hakuayowo on Halasii `eHa Topit (Willow Lake in Kumeyaay) on the Sycuan Indian Reservation in California

Security, providing access to Sacred The trauma that began when the band The Amah Mutsun is not a federally Mountain Ranch to carry out their border lost its traditional homelands—first to recognized tribe; it receives no assistance from protection programs.” the Spanish Missions, then to Mexican state or federal governments. “The land trust land grantees and finally to the U.S. is designed to help bring us back to traditional Amah Mutsun Land Trust/ government—is long-lasting. “Without the tribal territory,” says Lopez. But ownership is Amah Mutsun Tribal Band connection to the land, we are no longer not the tribe’s main goal. “In our tradition, our able to keep the balance in our life and ancestors didn’t look at it as owning the land. muySin-mi pire – love of the land world,” says Lopez. Drug addiction, The obligation is to stewardship. If acquisition alcoholism, mental illness and suicide is the best way to protect those lands, we will “Creator put us here to take care of plague today’s tribal members. do that, but it’s not a top priority.” Mother Earth and all living things,” “For us to restore our balance, to get well says Amah Mutsun Tribal Chairman again, we have to fulfill our obligation to Maidu Summit Consortium/ Valentin Lopez, recounting a portion Creator. That’s why we created our land Mountain Maidu of the central California tribe’s creation trust.” Lopez serves as president of the story. “For thousands of years, our board, which is a mix of tribal members hybýktini mym k’ódom – ancestors worked hard to fulfill that and non-Natives. It receives organizational love of the land responsibility.” They developed prayers expertise and support from the accredited and ceremonies to satisfy the spiritual Sempervirens Fund and has partnered with The Maidu Summit Consortium (MSC) requirements of their obligation, and UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley and Stanford isn’t a land trust, says founder and Executive they very actively managed the land to share traditional stewardship teachings Director Kenneth Holbrook. “It’s a through burning, pruning, sowing, seed- while gaining scientific and botanical social and environmental justice–minded scattering and more. knowledge (see page 12). nonprofit organization doing advocacy

18 Fall 2015 SAVINGland www.landtrustalliance.org work for protection of our sacred cultural She also founded the Native Land “Each organization is unique, yet they resources—but we’ll be looking more and Conservancy, a Native-run land trust, in 2013 have a lot of commonalities,” explains more like a land trust as time goes by.” with a consortium of representatives from several Lisa Haws of Kumeyaay-Digueño Land That’s because one of its main goals is tribes. Challenged by the high cost of buying Conservancy. “Being part of the larger reacquiring ancestral lands and managing land in their traditional homelands in eastern consortium brings economies of scale and them according to traditional Maidu ecolog- Massachusetts, the intertribal conservancy the opportunity to learn how each group is ical practices. As a largely unrecognized tribe hopes to receive donations of land rather than addressing its own conservation work. We federally, that hasn’t always been easy. In purchase them. In June they got their first support each other’s goals and missions. addition, understandable resentments related gift—a Barnstable, Massachusetts, woodlot. Learning about the success of others helps to sovereign rights, dignity and respect kept “It’s very small,” Peters says, “but the white pines each of us.” the tribe from actively seeking direct partici- are of major cultural significance to us.” pation. Holbrook says that as a nonprofit “I think people are very receptive to the Collaborations between Native tribes and adjunct to the tribe, MSC will be able to idea of returning land to Native people. non-Native land conservation organizations maintain those ethical standards and ways of We’re trying to make it easy for potential can offer both opportunities and obstacles as dealing with the world while representing the donors to approach us. Some had the the groups try to balance land conservation concerns in a different way. inclination, but no means to do it,” says the and cultural conservation goals and The nonprofit has representatives from potter. “We are now that container.” priorities. Perhaps the dilemma, and the all nine Maidu member organizations, and hope, are best summed up by Joyce Dugan provides an opportunity to be effective An Alliance of of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians: outside the tribal government setting. “We’re Western Tribes “We have an election this year. I’m learning new ways of governing programs and hopeful the next chief will continue the projects, like being mission-oriented instead Kurt Russo, executive director of California’s tradition of looking at opportunities to of being caught up in historic trauma issues, Native American Land Conservancy purchase and save tribal ancestral land. which are an exposed wound. The nonprofit is (NALC) was instrumental in bringing It’s important for everyone, but especially a source of strength for the tribe.” together six Native-run conservation groups, for our people because it says our history The group’s major turning point came including several of those profiled here, to is important. That was never taught in in 2013 when a 2,325-acre Sierra Nevada pool resources, share information and promote the past. When that information is not mountain meadow in the Humbug Valley public awareness of traditional knowledge available to our students, it tells them was turned over to the consortium by Pacific and stewardship practices. In addition to we’re not valuable. But we can never lose Gas and Electric in a bankruptcy agree- NALC, the founding members also include sight of that—people are important, as well ment. Holbrook sees it as an important step Amah Mutsun Land Trust, InterTribal as the land.” in healing and community development. Sinkyone Wilderness Council, Kumeyaay- ELISABETH PTAK IS A FREELANCE WRITER, AUTHOR AND FORMER “Without land, without a sense of owner- Digueño Land Conservancy, Maidu Summit LAND TRUST STAFF PERSON. SHE CAN BE REACHED AT EPTAK@ ship, we’ll never be able to revitalize our Consortium and the Native Conservancy. HORIZONCABLE.COM. community,” says Holbrook. “We must own our future.” An Alliance of Eastern Tribes What makes a collaboration work?

– Nuwâmônumumum ahkee • Patience and Listening. Don’t come with all the answers. Get to know we love the land one another and establish trust. Ramona Peters, artist, educator and • Sincerity and Respect. Collaboration should be based on mutual Mashpee Wampanoag Elder, makes coiled understanding and the desire to protect both traditional lifeways and pots in the style of Eastern Woodland conservation values. Native American pot builders. Beautifully • Education. Learn about tools, such as cultural conservation easements. incised with traditional symbols, the pots are delicate, yet utilitarian containers, made for cooking and storage.