On Tuesday the group, Save the Redwoods League, which was able to purchase the forest with corporate donations in 2020, said it was transferring ownership of the 523-acre property to the Intertribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, a group of 10 Native tribes whose ancestors were forcibly removed from the land by European American settlers.
InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council is a Tribal non-profit consortium comprised of ten federally recognized Northern California Tribal Nations with cultural connections to the lands and waters of traditional Sinkyone and neighboring Tribal territories. Member Tribes of the Sinkyone Council:
Cahto Tribe of Laytonville Rancheria
Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians
Hopland Band of Pomo Indians
Pinoleville Pomo Nation
Potter Valley Tribe
Redwood Valley Little River Band of Pomo Indians
Robinson Rancheria of Pomo Indians
Round Valley Indian Tribes
Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians
Sherwood Valley Rancheria of Pomo Indians
For over 175 years, members of the tribes represented by the council did not have access to the sacred land they had used for hunting, fishing and ceremonies.
As part of the agreement, the land, known before the purchase as Andersonia West, will be called Tc’ih-Léh-Dûñ (pronounced tsih-ih-LEY-duhn), which means “Fish Run Place” in the Sinkyone language.
“Renaming the property Tc’ih-Léh-Dûñ lets people know that it’s a sacred place; it’s a place for our Native people,” Crista Ray, a board member of the Sinkyone Council, said in the statement. “It lets them know that there was a language and that there was a people who lived there long before now.”
Since 2006, the Redwoods League had been in conversations with a California logging family who had owned the land for generations. Mr. Hodder explained that after years of building a relationship with the family, the league was able to purchase the land in 2020 for $3.55 million. The money for the purchase was donated by the Pacific Gas & Electric Company as part of its program to mitigate environmental damage.
Sources: New York Times & InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council
Photo: Max Forster/Save The Redwoods League
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