Tribal Partnership in State Park Land Management
Many public and private events now begin with formal land acknowledgments recognizing Indigenous communities' rights to territories seized by colonial powers. But California State Parks (State Parks) does not stop there. “State Parks focus is not just acknowledgement (of) relationships with tribes, but co-management of the land,” said State Parks Director Armando Quintero to a group of representatives from government and environmental agencies who were touring the Malibu Creek Ecosystem Restoration Project (MCERP), which is taking place on parkland in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Across California, State Parks has actively formalized the coordination and cooperation with tribal nations for the protection, preservation, and interpretation of tribal ancestral homelands within the parks. “State Parks has set the gold standard on tribal relations with agencies because not everybody is like State Parks,” said Christina Conley, Cultural Resource Administrator for the Gabrielino Tongva Indians of California. “They offer a place at the table every time there is a discussion on the management of our tribal land, and we could not be more grateful for that.”
The first known occupants of the Santa Monica Mountains were the Gabrielino Tongva, Chumash, and Fernandeño Tataviam tribal groups. Director Quintero explained what happened to tribes. “When this state was first established, there was literally a bounty put on the men, women and children of these tribes and ther e were a number of militias formed, and the places where the militias went were the village sites while the tribes were in ceremony. So, when you hear about a place where tribes are practicing ceremony, it’s likely the site of an incredible tragedy in this state.”
To help bring tribes to their own places again, State Parks has implemented programs through its Tribal Affairs Program. Agreements have been made with tribes where they are able to return their cultural practices to many state parklands and again practice their traditions in privacy, without the oversight of State Parks, but rather in partnership. State Parks is also providing educational opportunities within parks for Californians and visitors to understand the full state’s history.
“Our relationships with tribes are anchored in incredibly deep respect, and we look forward to a long and great future collaborating with them in both land management and cultural recognition as we move forward with the Malibu Creek Ecosystem Restoration Project.”
As a cultural resource administrator, Conely says her job is to be a caretaker of not just the artifacts that her ancestors left behind. “It's also the trees, the waterways, the steelhead--it's all of these things that make up our family. Our culture is different, and we are excited for the future and the trajectory State Parks has set.”
Quintero discussed how the MCERP is an extraordinary fulcrum in our history. “We are seeing agencies and nonprofits realizing that the only way we're going to be able to do this work successfully is to do it together and at scale, and by that I mean landscape scale, where we have multiple agencies working in the planning and the sharing of information. It's all of us and bringing all the science together, it's an amazing thing to do. This type of work does not happen by accident, it takes time, leadership, and partnership.”