InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council

ACCOMPLISHMENTS & CURRENT WORK

INCEPTION

The InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council was founded by Tribes in Mendocino and Lake counties in December 1986 as the first-ever intertribal cultural land protection organization. The Sinkyone Council grew from the deep intergenerational connections of this region’s Indigenous Peoples with their sacred lands and waters, and from the inspiring efforts of activists, Tribal community members and others to halt logging of Sinkyone’s remnant old growth rainforest, protect declining salmon and other native species, promote healing, and re-vitalize the Tribes’ cultural relationships with lands and waters of the Sinkyone region. To find out more, read Return of the Sinkyone in the Sierra magazine, and Legendary Landmark—EPIC v. Johnson Turns Thirty (Updated March 23, 2023).

RETURNING TRIBAL PRESENCE

In late 1997, the Sinkyone Council established the first-ever InterTribal Protected Area on 3,844 acres of traditional Sinkyone territory acquired from The Trust for Public Land (TPL). Parties to the transaction and supporters of the Council’s acquisition included TPL, the California State Coastal Conservancy, the County of Mendocino, Lannan Foundation, and Pacific Forest Trust (PFT). To find out more, read Ten Tribes Reclaiming, Stewarding and Restoring Ancestral Lands in the International Journal of Wilderness.

The InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness is adjacent to the 7,250-acre Sinkyone Wilderness State Park, and is protected in perpetuity by conservation easements—the first such agreements in the U.S. to be executed between a Tribal entity and private land trusts (PFT and Sanctuary Forest). The easements prohibit development, industrial logging, other harmful extractions, and fragmentation and are focused on Tribal traditional values, revitalization of the ancient redwood ecosystem, and reestablishment of the Tribes’ cultural relationships with the Natural World.

The Council has completed numerous salmon habitat and watershed restoration projects on its land and the adjacent Sinkyone Wilderness State Park. To learn more about the Sinkyone people’s history and the Council's work to protect and help bring healing to this sacred coastal redwood ecosystem, read the article about us in Cultural Survival.

PROTECTION for coastal and marine environments

COLLABORATION WITH CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS

The Council collaborated with California State Parks on the multi-year Sinkyone Wilderness Watershed Rehabilitation Project, in which more than fifty miles of abandoned logging roads, landings, and stream crossings were decommissioned and re-contoured to reduce sediment delivery to Sinkyone coastal streams and rehabilitate watersheds within the Sinkyone Wilderness State Park. The Council provided cultural monitoring by local Tribal members during the entire project. A grant to the Council from the State Water Resources Control Board provided training for Tribal heavy equipment operators to learn watershed rehabilitation/road removal techniques, and contribute significantly to this important effort.

The InterTribal Sinkyone land and the Sinkyone Wilderness State Park share eight coastal watersheds that together encompass 11,000 acres. Since 1992, the Council has worked collaboratively with California State Parks on numerous projects that address cultural and ecological needs within these recovering watersheds. California State Parks recognized the Council’s efforts by honoring us in 2008 with the prestigious Dewitt Award for Partnership.

Featured in Restoring Native Homelands

In 2009, the Council’s Chairwoman Priscilla Hunter was featured in the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness section of Restoring Native Homelands, A 10th Anniversary Project Gallery celebrating the Tribal & Native Lands Program of Trust for Public Land (TPL). The booklet tells the stories of nine TPL Tribal partnership projects. The Council’s former executive director Hawk Rosales is featured on the cover of the publication.

2010 National geographic article

The Council was featured prominently in an August 2010 National Geographic photographic essay article entitled Native Lands, by author Charles Bowden and Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Jack Dykinga. The article features seven Tribes and Tribal consortia engaged in cultural land protection work within their traditional territories. National Geographic subscription is required to view the article.

additional lands protected

In spring of 2012 the Council received 164 acres of culturally important Sinkyone land, donated by Save the Redwoods League. This land is protected in perpetuity by a conservation easement that is held by the League.

In late 2021, an additional 523 acres of Sinkyone land was returned to the Council through another donation by Save the Redwoods League. Please see the Council’s News page for more information.

marine protected areas

The Council was instrumental in the establishment of California’s network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), the second largest network of its kind in the world. Due to activism and advocacy by the Council and many others, the California Fish and Game Commission in 2012 approved a first-of-its-kind regulation protecting Tribal traditional fishing, gathering, harvesting, and other cultural practices within specific MPAs, without imposition of the new restrictions applying to non-Tribal commercial and recreational harvesters.

The “Tribal take regulation” pertains to State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA) MPAs, and apples to a total of 24 federally recognized Tribes along the North Coast. The Council successfully advocated on behalf of 18 of those 24 Tribes, for the Tribes’ continuation of their customary cultural ways within six new SMCAs situated between Point Arena and Mattole River.

For more information on North Coast Tribes’ crucial role in establishment of California’s MPA network, read the article Tribes, State, and Public Work Together to Protect our Ocean.

In October 2013, the Council organized and led the California Ocean Wilderness Delegation comprised of Tribal and other ocean experts including California’s Natural Resources Secretary, to present a series of sessions about California’s MPA network and Tribal marine issues at the 10th World Wilderness Congress in Salamanca, Spain.

To find out more about the Tribal role in establishing California’s MPA network, please view the short film Stewards of the Wild Sea.

The Council has contributed to the educational signage describing the North Coast’s MPAs by providing Tribal cultural context and photographs, which can be seen in the MPA signs at several State Parks along the Mendocino Coast.

The precedent of the Tribal take regulations established in the North Coast have now been applied to some MPAs in other Tribal territories to the south through a collaborative effort by Tribes in those regions working with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the California Fish and Game Commission. More southern MPAs are expected to be adapted in future to address Tribal needs.

marine traditional knowledge

Sinkyone Council, Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation, Wiyot Tribe, and Cher-Ae-Heights Indian Community of Trinidad Rancheria co-authored and published a paper for the North Coast’s MPA Baseline regarding Tribal Traditional Knowledge of culturally significant marine species and ecosystems, which summarizes the results of their research conducted between 2014 and 2017. The first of its kind, this project contributes a highly relevant and groundbreaking study that utilizes Traditional Knowledge to develop a baseline characterization for key nearshore marine habitats, and provides significant cultural-historical context for that baseline. See Informing the North Coast MPA Baseline: Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Keystone Marine Species and Ecosystems

protectING the ocean from militarY ACTIVITIES

The Council’s opposition to military activities known to negatively impact ocean life grew from our longstanding commitment to protect marine ecosystems and the Tribes’ cultural ways of life, which are inseparable from each other. Environmental permitting is required every 5-7 years in order for the Navy to continue its training and testing activities. Since 2005, the Council and its member Tribes have commented extensively on the Navy’s draft environmental impact statements and the permits required from National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and other federal agencies. For 15 years, we have pressured the Navy to adopt practices that are less harmful to marine and coastal environments and the Tribes’ traditional lifeways.

The Sinkyone Council was the lead plaintiff in a 2012 federal lawsuit against National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). The lawsuit charged that the permit issued by NMFS for the Navy’s Northwest Training and Testing (NWTT) program had failed to provide adequate mitigations for avoiding impacts to marine species and the Tribes’ cultural ways of life, or mitigating harm to the estimated hundreds of thousands of marine mammals likely to be injured or killed as a result of the Navy’s activities. The NWTT covers a vast area stretching from the Humboldt—Mendocino county line to the US—Canada border.

In 2013, a federal court ruled in our favor, forcing the Navy and NMFS to address longterm impacts of training and testing activities by including mitigations in future environmental permits for the NWTT program.

See Press Release Regarding the Lawsuit

See the Federal Court’s Ruling

current and upcoming

Continued Tribal Opposition to Navy Training & Testing

The Council and its member Tribes continue to actively oppose training and testing activities of the US Navy, which we know cause devastating impacts to sea mammals and Tribal ways of life.

For the latest developments on important mitigations the Navy and NMFS have adopted as a direct result of a multi-Tribal Consultation process facilitated by the Sinkyone Council, see our News page.

For in-depth information about Tribal engagement in this important issue, read the June 2019 Cultural Survival article on our efforts to protect marine species and the Tribes’ cultural lifeways from the Navy’s testing and training activities.

More background is available in the March 2019 Tribal press release Ten Northern California Tribes Call on Navy to Address Impacts of Training and Testing to Protect the Ocean and Tribal Ways of Life, and the accompanying Tribal Statement of Opposition to the U.S. Navy’s Training and Testing.

protectinG kelp AND SEAWEED

The Council advocates that the State of California adopt much stronger protections for culturally-important kelp and seaweed. We are committed to ensuring these and other marine and coastal species and their habitats are protected in perpetuity for the sake of all life on this planet.

See the Sinkyone Council’s slide show Protecting and Revitalizing Kelp & Seaweed and Tribal Traditional Lifeways

To learn more and see our draft Tribal proposal CDFW. go to our News page.

protecting additional lands

The Council is currently engaged in efforts with project partners and supporters to protect other culturally and ecologically important lands and waters within traditional Sinkyone and neighboring Tribal territories. Connecting the growing mosaic of these cultural landscapes and adjacent seascapes ensures greater protection, recovery and resilience for native animal and plant communities, and Tribal cultures of this region.

partners

We thank the following people, organizations, foundations, and agencies for helping us reach our goals:

• Tribes of Mendocino & Lake Counties and the North Coast

• The Baum Foundation

• Berkey Williams LLP

• California Sea Grant

• California State Coastal Conservancy

• California State Parks

• Center for Biological Diversity

• The Conservation Alliance

• Cultural Survival

• Earthjustice

• Environmental Protection Information Center

• For the Wild

• Ford Foundation

• Indigenous Environmental Network

• International Indian Treaty Council

• The James Irvine Foundation

• Lannan Foundation

• Klein and Roth Consulting

• LeaderFit

• Mendocino Environmental Center

• The Nathan Cummings Foundation

• National Congress of American Indians

• Natural Resources Defense Council

• Ocean Conservancy

• Pacific Forest Trust

• Resources Legacy Fund

• Sanctuary Forest

• Save the Redwoods League

• The Schmidt Family Foundation / The 11th Hour Project

• Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples

• Surfrider Foundation—Mendocino County Chapter

• Trees Foundation

• The Trust for Public Land

• WILD Foundation