Native land stewardship in the Bay Area
- Act Now Bay Area
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Before there was a Bay Area climate movement, there were people who'd already been tending this land, sustainably, for thousands of years — and continue to lead local climate justice work to this day.
Whose land are we on?
If you're reading this in the Bay Area, you're most likely on Ohlone land.
"Ohlone" isn't one tribe — it's a shared term for many distinct groups who've lived here since time immemorial: the Chochenyo and Karkin around the East Bay, the Ramaytush in San Francisco, the Muwekma across the region, and others whose territories stretch from the Santa Cruz mountains up through the North Bay.
Places you drive through every day carry their names, too — Huichin (Oakland/Berkeley) and Yelamu (San Francisco) among them. We go into more depth on our land acknowledgment page, including a tool to look up whose specific territory you're standing on.
History of Native land stewardship in the Bay
Long before "sustainability" was a buzzword, Ohlone communities were practicing it. Cultural burning kept oak woodlands and grasslands healthy, encouraged the growth of food and basket-weaving plants, and reduced the kind of overgrown brush that fuels today's megafires. Fishing, gathering, and land management were done with future generations in mind, not short-term profit.
This is traditional ecological knowledge, or TEK — generations of hands-on understanding of how to live with this place instead of against it. A lot of what the climate movement is only now rediscovering (controlled burns, regenerative agriculture, watershed thinking) has Indigenous roots going back millennia.
What Native-led organizations are doing right now
Native land stewardship isn't just history, it's happening now. Here are a few groups doing the work, right here in the Bay:
This urban Indigenous women-led land trust is working to return Ohlone land to Ohlone hands. They've brought back acres of East Bay land (including a stretch of Lisjan Creek returned by Eden Housing), built the first traditional ceremonial arbor in Ohlone territory in over 250 years, and run Himmetka, a growing network of community resiliency hubs that help Bay Area neighborhoods prepare for wildfires, heat waves, and other climate emergencies.
The Cultural Conservancy works to protect and restore Indigenous cultures, empowering them in the direct application of traditional knowledge and practices on their ancestral lands.
The Amah Mutsun Land Trust is the vehicle by which the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band is returning to the lands, knowledge, and practices of their ancestors.
This organization is researching, revitalizing, and preserving Ramaytush Ohlone history and culture in San Francisco.
This work isn't separate from climate action, it is climate action: protecting open space, restoring native plants, building emergency preparedness, and keeping knowledge alive that helps all of us adapt to a hotter, drier Bay Area.
How you can support their work
1) Pay Shuumi
Shuumi is a voluntary annual contribution non-Native residents of Ohlone land can make to Sogorea Te' Land Trust. It's not a donation, it's a small, ongoing act of accountability for living here.
2) Learn whose land you're on
. . . and actually use the name! Start with our land acknowledgment page.
3) Show up IRL
Follow these organizations, attend public events when they're open to the community, and share their work with your friends & family.
4) Support Native-owned Bay Area businesses
Get started with our roundup of Native-owned businesses across the Bay Area.
Have a Bay Area climate story or Native-led organization we should feature? Reach out to us — we'd love to hear from you.
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