Ramaytush Land Trust
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After receiving original instructions from our Earth Mother, our ancestors passed down various teachings to us through oral narratives. One of the most important teachings, as shared by one of our Elders, is that we are responsible for caring for all of nature and for the people who reside in our ancestral homeland in the same way that Mother Earth has cared for us for millennia. That responsibility extends to all of our work, including holding land, accessing land for various uses, and co-managing land.
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The Ramaytush Land Trust (RLT) is the official land trust of the Ramaytush peoples of the San Francisco Peninsula. The primary goal of the RLT is to acquire lands or to gain access to lands or to co-manage lands within our ancestral homeland for the following purposes: 1) Stewardship: to restore the health of the land; 2) Service: to work with the land in service of others; and 3) Cultural Revitalization: to reanimate our traditions and ceremonies.
From a Native perspective, no one really owns land. "Ownership" of land is in fact an anathema to many Native peoples. The Earth is our Mother and is not a thing to be owned--she is not property. Instead, we have the responsibility to care for Mother Earth as responsible stewards; however, the current capitalistic and colonial structures of American society may on occasion make legal land ownership necessary. Again, legal ownership of land is not necessary for the stewardship of land, although it may on occasion make it more feasible! Access to lands through lease, special permitting, and other methods for gathering, for ceremony, and for other purposes are goals of the land trust. Since many of these types of relationships to land require legal and quasi-legal agreements with the land owners, a land trust is necessary for their management.
From a Native perspective, no one really owns land. "Ownership" of land is in fact an anathema to many Native peoples. The Earth is our Mother and is not a thing to be owned--she is not property. Instead, we have the responsibility to care for Mother Earth as responsible stewards; however, the current capitalistic and colonial structures of American society may on occasion make legal land ownership necessary. Again, legal ownership of land is not necessary for the stewardship of land, although it may on occasion make it more feasible! Access to lands through lease, special permitting, and other methods for gathering, for ceremony, and for other purposes are goals of the land trust. Since many of these types of relationships to land require legal and quasi-legal agreements with the land owners, a land trust is necessary for their management.
Lands That Are Held, Accessed, or Co-Managed
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The Association of Ramaytush Ohlone (ARO) is working with the following partners to acquire lands, to access to lands, or to co-manage lands at the following locations with the following collaborating groups, organizations, and agencies. The ARO will exercise various measures of leadership over these lands independently or in collaboration with our partners.
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Golden Gate ParkCurrently a storage area for wood chips and other wood, the five acre site at the lower end of Golden Gate Park has been unofficially designated as the site of a Ramaytush Ohlone and American Indian community garden. The ARO is in talks with the Recreation and Parks Department of the City of San Francisco in order to acquire the garden space and make it available to the American Indian community for gardening. Other plans include adding a demonstration garden of native plants and a ceremonial gathering space.
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