California Council of Land Trusts Speaker Series
Land Protection in Partnership with Indigenous Peoples & the Unique Role of the Land Trust Community
In partnership with the California Council of Land Trusts and the California Department of Conservation, this Speaker Series brought together Indigenous leaders, conservation practitioners, and land trust professionals from across California. The 130 participants from 46 organizations were supported to:
Deepen their understanding of Indigenous histories, worldviews, and approaches to land stewardship.
Strengthen their capacity to build respectful, reciprocal partnerships with Indigenous communities.
Develop practical action plans to strengthen organizational readiness and advance right relations in their own work.
Why this project matters
Across California, land trusts steward millions of acres while Indigenous Peoples continue to hold deep relationships, knowledge, and responsibilities connected to those same places. Yet many conservation organizations have inherited systems, assumptions, and ways of working that make authentic, reciprocal partnership difficult. This project helped participants better understand the historical and contemporary context shaping these relationships, then supported them to identify concrete actions for strengthening partnerships and advancing Indigenous land stewardship, laying the groundwork for a model of conservation rooted in reciprocity, responsibility, and right relations.
The work
The series combined Indigenous and conservation voices to explore Native California history, Federal Indian Policy, Indigenous stewardship practices, and examples of successful partnerships between Tribes and land trusts within the context of the systems that drive conservation and land use decisions. Participants worked within their own organizations and in regional cohorts to assess readiness for partnership, identify barriers, and develop action plans for strengthening relationships with Indigenous communities and supporting Indigenous land stewardship.
Participants came away with:
Opportunities across the spectrum of ancestral land return
Real-world pathways for partnership: supporting access for ceremony, collaborating on cultural burning, and helping Indigenous Peoples secure legal rights to their ancestral territories
Tools and frameworks to assess organizational readiness, identify next steps, and connect with peers advancing similar work
The Impact
The Speaker Series helped participants move beyond awareness toward a new understanding of what authentic partnership requires. Participants came to see that meaningful partnerships with Indigenous Peoples are built as much through an organization's internal culture as through its external collaborations. Shared understanding, leadership commitment, staff readiness, committed resources, flexibility, long-term commitments and relationship-building emerged as essential foundations for the work.
“We cannot act with integrity externally until we are aligned internally.”
This shift was reflected in both the survey results and the Action Plans. Participants reported a deeper understanding of Indigenous histories and worldviews, a stronger sense of their own role in advancing right relations, and increased readiness to build respectful partnerships. Organizations translated that learning into concrete commitments, including strengthening internal alignment, creating Tribal liaison roles, proposing Indigenous board representation, establishing ongoing relationship-building with Tribal partners, and integrating Indigenous priorities and land-care practices into stewardship. Across the cohort, a clear pattern emerged: lasting change begins by changing how organizations work, not simply the projects they undertake.
“The Speaker Series gave me the background information and basic understanding of history/culture to allow me to see a whole new perspective. It literally changed my way of thinking.”
“The continual focus on the development of truly genuine relationships... instilled in me the need to slow down and spend the time to invest in people before prioritizing work.”
“The sessions provided practical frameworks… I now feel more confident advocating for early engagement, flexible funding mechanisms, and actions that prioritize tribal sovereignty.”
Core resource
Whether supporting access for ceremony, collaborating on cultural burning, or helping Indigenous Peoples secure legal rights to their ancestral territories, there are many ways land trusts can advance ancestral land return while achieving enduring land protection. Preserves as a Pathway to Right Relationsprovides practical guidance for land trusts seeking to strengthen relationships with Indigenous Peoples and support Indigenous leadership in land stewardship.
Partners + support
California Council of Land Trusts — program partner
California Department of Conservation, Climate Smart Land Management Grant Program — funder
Speakers
Damon B. Akins & William J. Bauer Jr., authors of We Are the Land: A History of Native California
Karen Diver, Senior Advisor to the President for Native American Affairs at the University of Minnesota, former Tribal Chairwoman Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, former Obama-appointee
Dr. Daniel Wildcat, Yuchi member of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma, author, speaker, scholar, professor at Haskell Indian Nations University
Elizabeth Azzuz, Yurok and Karuk descendant, cultural practitioner, Cultural Fire Management Council Board Member, Traditional Fire Director
Dr. Carolyn Rodriguez, Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, revitalizing Indigenous teaching methods with Amah Mutsun Land Trust Youth Summer Camp
Linda Yamane of the Rumsen Ohlone Tribal Community
Taylor Honrath, Assistant Director of the Elkhorn Slough Foundation
Charlotte Lange, Tribal Chairperson of the Mono Lake Kootzaduka’a Tribe
Kay Ogden, CCLT, California's 30x30 Partnership, and former Executive Director of the Eastern Sierra Land Trust
Clyde Prout III, Tribal Chairman of the Colfax-Todds Valley Consolidated Tribe
Jeff Darlington, Executive Director of the Placer Land Trust