Strategic Objectives for Every Acquisition

Each parcel is evaluated not only for its ecological and cultural value, but for its capacity to advance the full spectrum of the Tribe’s priorities.

Wilderness Conservation

The Muwekma Ohlone Preservation Foundation’s Land Acquisition Committee places high priority on acquiring large, connected landscapes for wilderness conservation. These lands safeguard core ancestral territories, protect intact ecosystems, preserve scenic and cultural resources, and maintain the ecological integrity of the San Francisco Bay Area and greater Diablo Range region for future generations.

Wilderness-scale acquisitions create protected areas that support biodiversity hotspots, critical watersheds, wildlife corridors, and the long-term health of oak woodlands, grasslands, riparian zones, and coastal interfaces. They provide buffers against climate impacts and urban encroachment while enabling large-scale restoration and traditional land management practices. Held in perpetuity by the Foundation for the benefit of the Tribe, these lands form the backbone of a resilient, interconnected network of protected territories.

Wilderness conservation is foundational to Muwekma Ohlone sovereignty and cultural continuity. These vast landscapes allow for the full expression of traditional lifeways, including seasonal gathering, ceremony, and spiritual connection to place. They ensure that the Muwekma people can continue their role as caretakers of the land, passing on knowledge and responsibilities to youth while contributing to regional conservation goals through Indigenous-led stewardship.

By strategically acquiring wilderness lands, the Committee advances the Tribe’s vision of large-scale rematriation and protected cultural landscapes — including contributions toward proposals such as an Ohlone Wilderness area. These conserved lands become living legacies: places where biodiversity thrives, cultural practices endure, and the Muwekma Ohlone people maintain a permanent, sovereign presence as the original stewards of this territory.

Wildlife Protection & Habitat Restoration

The Muwekma Ohlone Preservation Foundation’s Land Acquisition Committee prioritizes the acquisition of lands critical for wildlife protection and habitat restoration. These sites support the recovery of culturally significant species — including Tule Elk, beaver, salmon, and a rich diversity of birds, pollinators, and native plants — while re-establishing healthy, connected ecosystems across Muwekma ancestral territories.

Acquired lands enable large-scale habitat restoration through Indigenous-led practices such as cultural burning, riparian planting, oak woodland regeneration, and the creation of wildlife corridors. They protect essential watersheds, wetlands, and migration routes, enhancing biodiversity and climate resilience. By holding these lands in perpetuity, the Committee ensures long-term protection from development while creating opportunities for community involvement in monitoring, restoration work, and traditional resource management.

Wildlife protection and habitat restoration are inseparable from Muwekma cultural survival. Many species hold deep spiritual, ceremonial, and practical importance; their return signals the healing of the land and the strengthening of reciprocal relationships between people and all living beings. These efforts also support educational programs for tribal youth, research partnerships grounded in Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and the broader vision of protected cultural landscapes.

Through strategic land acquisition, the Committee advances a model of Indigenous-led conservation that benefits the entire region. These protected lands become thriving sanctuaries where wildlife flourishes, habitats are restored to balance, and the Muwekma Ohlone people can once again live in right relationship with their animal relatives and the ecosystems that have sustained them since time immemorial.

Revival of Native Food Systems

Acquired lands enable the restoration of oak woodlands, riparian corridors, and grasslands where culturally significant food plants can flourish. They support community harvesting, acorn processing, native gardens, and educational programs that teach youth traditional foodways, seasonal rounds, and sustainable harvesting practices rooted in reciprocity and respect. By holding these lands in perpetuity, the Committee ensures long-term food sovereignty, improved nutritional health, and the continuation of food-centered ceremonies and cultural practices.

Native food systems are foundational to Muwekma identity, health, and resilience. They reconnect families with the land, reduce dependence on industrialized food systems, and strengthen intergenerational bonds through shared harvesting, processing, and meals. These sites also integrate with broader stewardship goals — enhancing biodiversity, supporting pollinators and wildlife, and demonstrating the value of Indigenous land management for climate adaptation and ecological restoration.

Through strategic land acquisition for native food systems, the Committee advances the Tribe’s vision of self-determination and cultural revitalization. These lands become vibrant centers of life and learning — places where the Muwekma Ohlone people can once again gather, prepare, and share the foods of their ancestors, nourishing both body and spirit while fulfilling responsibilities to the land that has always provided for them.

Cultivation of Medicinal Plants

Medicinal plant gardens and gathering areas on acquired lands enable the revival and expansion of traditional pharmacopeia, supporting physical, spiritual, and emotional wellness for tribal members. They serve as living repositories of knowledge, where elders can teach youth the identification, respectful harvesting, preparation, and ceremonial uses of plants. By securing these lands in perpetuity, the Committee ensures long-term access free from contamination, development pressure, or overharvesting, while integrating traditional ecological knowledge with careful land management practices such as cultural burning and habitat restoration.

This work is deeply interconnected with broader tribal goals of food sovereignty, cultural revitalization, and environmental health. Medicinal plant cultivation sites often overlap with native food systems (mak-’amham) and ceremonial areas, creating multifunctional landscapes that strengthen community resilience and self-determination. They also position the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe as leaders in Indigenous-led conservation and ethnobotany, opening opportunities for research partnerships, educational programs, and the sharing of knowledge with allies who respect tribal intellectual property and protocols.

Through strategic land acquisition for medicinal plants, the Committee helps restore the intimate relationship between the Muwekma Ohlone people and the plant relatives that have provided healing for thousands of years. These lands become sanctuaries of continuity — places where ancestral wisdom is actively practiced, where future generations can learn to care for the medicines of the earth, and where the land itself is healed through reciprocal stewardship.

Environmental Research & Indigenous Science

Acquired research lands support partnerships with universities, conservation organizations, and tribal scientists to monitor watersheds, restore native habitats, study the impacts of cultural burning, track culturally significant species such as Tule Elk, and test innovative approaches like fog harvesting and native plant cultivation. By providing secure, long-term access to ancestral territories, the Committee ensures that research is conducted under tribal leadership and benefits the Muwekma Ohlone people first and foremost — informing land management decisions, strengthening federal and state advocacy, and contributing to broader ecological knowledge.

This work embodies the principle of reciprocity: the land that has taught the Muwekma Ohlone people for millennia now becomes a space where Indigenous science can flourish and guide future generations. Research sites also double as outdoor classrooms for youth education, language revitalization tied to the natural world, and community-based monitoring programs that empower tribal members as stewards and knowledge keepers.

Through land acquisition for environmental research and Indigenous science, the Committee helps build the evidence base needed to protect larger cultural landscapes, secure grants and policy support, and demonstrate the superior outcomes of Indigenous-led conservation. These lands become bridges between ancient wisdom and modern challenges — ensuring that Muwekma Ohlone knowledge systems remain vibrant, respected, and central to the stewardship of the San Francisco Bay Area’s natural heritage for generations to come.

Tribal Housing & Community Resilience

Tribal housing initiatives on acquired lands will support multi-generational living arrangements that honor Ohlone values — incorporating traditional architectural elements, native plant landscaping for food and medicine, and designs that integrate cultural practices into daily life. These spaces foster community cohesion, elder care, youth mentorship, and the everyday practice of language, ceremony, and traditional lifeways. By securing land for housing, the Committee addresses the long-term impacts of displacement and supports the Tribe’s vision of a permanent, thriving presence on its homelands.

Beyond housing, these acquisitions advance broader community resilience. They create opportunities for economic development tied to land stewardship (such as native food systems, eco-tourism, and cultural education programs), climate adaptation through traditional ecological knowledge, and strengthened intergovernmental and philanthropic partnerships. All development will be guided by tribal leadership to ensure ecological sustainability, cultural appropriateness, and alignment with the Tribe’s strategic goals for sovereignty and self-determination.

Acquiring land for tribal housing and community resilience is a vital step toward reversing historical dispossession and building a future where the Muwekma Ohlone people can fully exercise their inherent rights to live, thrive, and care for the land as their ancestors have for millennia. These lands will serve as anchors of stability, healing, and prosperity — places where families grow strong, culture flourishes, and the next generations inherit not only stories of survival but the reality of home on their own territory.

Dignified Reburial of Ancestral Remains

These lands serve as permanent, dignified resting places where ancestors can be returned to the earth with proper ceremony and care. Reburial sites are chosen for their cultural significance, privacy, and ecological suitability, ensuring they remain undisturbed in perpetuity. The Committee works closely with tribal spiritual leaders, Most Likely Descendants, and cultural resource experts to uphold traditional practices, support repatriation efforts from institutions, and facilitate healing ceremonies that honor the ancestors and strengthen the living community.

Acquiring land for reburial is more than a logistical responsibility — it is an act of justice, cultural revitalization, and reciprocity. It allows the Muwekma Ohlone people to fulfill their obligations to those who came before, heal intergenerational trauma caused by dispossession and disturbance of burial sites, and restore balance to the relationship between the people and the land. Once established, these sacred sites are held in trust by the Foundation for the exclusive benefit of the Tribe, protected from future development or desecration.

By prioritizing reburial lands within the Tribe’s ancestral territories, the Committee advances the broader vision of rematriation: returning not only the living but also the ancestors to their rightful home. Every protected site becomes a place of reverence, resilience, and continued spiritual connection — ensuring that future generations can visit, honor, and learn from the ancestors who have walked this land for millennia.

Ceremony and the Tribe's Spiritual Life

Access to such lands is foundational to the practice of innu heeme (culture) and the fulfillment of reciprocal responsibilities to the land and all of Creation. Secure sites allow for uninterrupted ceremonies, the safe transmission of spiritual knowledge from elders to youth, the harvesting of traditional materials, and the maintenance of fire-keeping and other time-honored protocols. By acquiring and holding these lands in perpetuity, the Committee helps ensure that spiritual practices can occur with dignity, privacy, and freedom from external interference.

This work is central to rematriation and sovereignty. It counters generations of disconnection caused by land loss and supports the revitalization of living traditions that sustain Muwekma identity. Ceremonial lands also serve as gathering places for the broader community — enabling youth education, elder gatherings, seasonal observances, and the strengthening of bonds between people, ancestors, and the natural world.

Through thoughtful acquisition and stewardship grounded in Traditional Ecological Knowledge, the Committee helps restore the conditions for the Muwekma Ohlone people to thrive spiritually on their ancestral homelands. These sites become living sanctuaries where culture is not only preserved but actively lived, ensuring that future generations can continue the sacred work of their ancestors in relationship with the land that has always cared for them.