"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.”"
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