Just outside of the town of Lincoln, CA, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to return 3,200 acres on Raccoon Creek to its original caretaker, the Nisenan People, is unfolding. Indigenous Futures Society, an inter-Tribal Indigenous-led and -governed nonprofit dedicated to igniting Indigenous guardianship in the Sierra Nevada, has set out to acquire lands to become the future home of an Eco-Cultural Restoration Lab and Food Sovereignty Campus. Before the dams. Before the fences. Before the deeds that never should have existed, this land on Raccoon Creek belonged to no one, because it belonged to everyone: the Nisenan people who tended it, the waters that ran through it, the food it grew for generations.
THE VISION: Picture a place where 3,200 acres of ancestral Nisenan land are restored to Indigenous stewardship. Momi’ Jokoj’ (Running Waters) is envisioned as a full-scale Indigenous food sovereignty campus: a place where Native communities grow their own food, teach their own children, and govern their own land, on their own terms. This is where 15,000 years of Nisenan land stewardship meets modern restoration science. Acorns are processed in commercial kitchens next to research labs, and students earn degrees while learning from elders in the oak woodlands their ancestors cared for.
“We’re working with the last generation of Indigenous elders who remember life on our traditional territories before colonization. Their knowledge of sustainable land management, traditional medicines, and ecological relationships represents thousands of years of accumulated wisdom,” comments Albert Brian Wallace, CEO, Indigenous Futures Society, a Nisenan elder and former Tribal Chairman of the Washoe Tribe.
California faces multiple overlapping crises: catastrophic wildfires, shrinking salmon numbers, food insecurity, and loss of biodiversity. These issues require Indigenous solutions. Momi’ Jokoj’ shows that the most effective way to address these challenges is to prioritize Indigenous knowledge, sovereignty, and leadership in caring for the land. $13,000,000 will complete the purchase of these lands and return them permanently to Indigenous hands. Indigenous Futures Society is seeking $500,000 in community support to hold the land, as they pursue larger institutional support.
Support the campaign at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/momi-jokoj-running-waters-land-back-initiative