Spring 2024 Newsletter

AMLT’s Newest Partnership to Protect Ancestral Lands

By Sara French, AMLT Director of Development

Since its inception, Amah Mutsun Land Trust (AMLT) has exemplified and embraced the power of partnerships. Through Memoranda of Understanding, conservation easements, and a variety of partnership agreements, AMLT has established opportunities for Indigenous stewardship, Tribal access, and co-management on conserved lands throughout AMLT’s stewardship territory. AMLT’s collaborations with government agencies, Tribal networks, and some of the largest open space conservation trusts in California have been celebrated by all parties as historic in that they provide new ways to engage Native people in the work of public and private agencies, and are having a real impact on the vitality and resilience of sensitive resources and habitats.

After three years of planning and relationship building, a new capacity-building partnership was formalized between the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, AMLT, and the Trust for Public Land (TPL). TPL is a national conservation organization whose mission is to create parks and protect land for people, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come. The new partnership agreement brings the collective history, knowledge, and expertise of all three groups together to engage in landscape-level conservation planning and acquisition, reconnect the Amah Mutsun to their ancestral lands, restore Indigenous stewardship, and create workforce opportunities. 

TPL has over 50 years of experience acquiring land and putting it into conservation, and through this new partnership, TPL will mentor AMLT as we strengthen our capacities for acquiring and stewarding ancestral lands. At the same time, AMLT and the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band will support TPL in their endeavors to integrate Indigenous perspectives and values into their work, incorporating cultural and ecological knowledge into land protection and restoration efforts. This is the first time TPL has entered into such a wide-reaching partnership agreement with a Native American Tribe, and the Amah Mutsun and AMLT are proud to be paving the way.

The partnership agreement was officially signed on October 11, 2023, on the steps of the California State Capitol Building, in front of an audience of Amah Mutsun Tribal Band members, AMLT staff, TPL staff, and invited guests. Both Chairman Valentin Lopez, elected leader of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and AMLT Board President, and Alexii Sigona, Tribal Member and Chair of the AMLT Lands Committee, spoke at the signing event about the significance of the partnership and what it would make possible for the three groups. Chairman Lopez explained: “We were removed from our lands, and when we look at them today, we see ‘no trespassing’, ‘keep out’, ‘private property’. Those are our sacred sites. TPL can help us find ways to protect those sacred lands, through conservation easements, other kinds of agreements, or acquisition. And that is why this partnership agreement is a big deal for us. We believe this agreement will help many of our members come back home.”

Since signing the partnership agreement, AMLT and TPL staff are holding regular partnership meetings, and are currently planning an event to celebrate the protection of the Nyland property in San Benito County, which includes permanent legal access for the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band through an innovative cultural easement. TPL and AMLT fundraising staff are also meeting quarterly to strategize on how to fund the goals of the partnership and build AMLT’s capacity for land acquisition and stewardship. TPL is providing grant writing support to AMLT, including recent collaboration on a proposal to the Tribal Nature-Based Solutions grant program of the California Natural Resources Agency. AMLT has also benefited from the guidance of TPL’s legal, finance, and conservation staff as AMLT assesses several potential land acquisition opportunities within Mutsun territory. 

Despite systematic removal from ancestral territory during a brutal colonial past, an ongoing lack of federal recognition and support, and many other barriers, the Amah Mutsun have maintained their cultural identity and remain committed to the revitalization of their culture and stewardship on their ancestral lands. Strategic partnerships have proven to be a vital element of this revitalization process and will continue to be crucial as AMLT moves toward acquisition of priority ancestral lands. This partnership with TPL is a prime example. As Chairman Lopez stressed at the signing event:

 “The success of our land trust has been tremendous, and now we are ready to look towards the next step of protecting our lands more aggressively through acquisitions, and other mechanisms that will help protect our lands, and that’s what this agreement does. Our partnership with TPL is going to allow us to do this work more effectively. We are so happy and so proud to be signing this agreement today. TPL has been around for a long time and are recognized as leaders in the land conservation movement, and we could not be learning from better partners than them.”