Origins
Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples (SPI) began in 2012 to provide in-person and virtual spaces for Native Nations and Indigenous People to think and strategically plan about how best to protect their sacred places as well as advance the environmental justice priorities of tribal communities. As a response to the lack of Indigenous representation in larger environmental justice organizations, universities, and government bodies, we apply Indigenous knowledge and worldviews to our environmental justice policy and advocacy work while re-establishing relationships with ancestral lands and waters.
Together, we can create paradigm shifts that support environmentally and socially just systems and assure the continuation of Indigenous cultures and people.
Indigenous communities in the United States are often erased from government data, decision making processes, and their own ancestral homelands—impacting spiritual, mental, physical, and community health. This erasure of Native peoples is manifested in a variety of contemporary health inequities, including infant mortality, teen suicide, diabetes, liver disease, heart disease, and lower life expectancy.
We utilize multiple strategies within our programs to build community power and achieve community-identified goals including grassroots organizing, direct action, law and policy research and advocacy, civic engagement, media outreach, public education, and leadership development:
Empowering Native Nations
We are flexible and responsive in our support for Native Nations and Indigenous communities working on the ground to protect sacred lands, waters, and cultures.
Research Justice
We support direct community-led research on environmental issues which is critical to Indigenous climate justice.
Indigenous Leadership Development
We engage activists, artists, and youth concerned about climate justice and the protection of sacred places.
Coalition Building
We create networks, support coalitions, and build partnerships to raise awareness and generate public enthusiasm for the protection of sacred lands, waters, and cultures.
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Land Acknowledgement
Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples is located in Los Angeles County, California, within the traditional and unceded ancestral homelands of the Gabrielino/Gabrieleño Tongva Nations. Though their homelands continue to be occupied in violation of their sovereignty, these Native Peoples are still here and operate as Tribal Nations with international relationships. Our work to build the capacity of Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples to protect sacred lands, waters, and cultures extends throughout what is known as California, the United States, as well as internationally as we create paradigm shifts that support environmentally and socially just systems and assure the continuation of Indigenous cultures and peoples.
SPI pays respect to and honors the Gabrielino/Gabrieleño Tongva Nations, the original caretakers of what is now known as Los Angeles County, northern Orange County, southern San Bernardino County, Riverside, Corona, and the four southern Channel Islands. We firmly believe that we should be accountable to and in service of the Native Nations on whose ancestral homelands we live and work. Our staff and advisory Board Members include Gabrielino/Gabrieleño Tongva Nations, Ajachemem, Šmuwič Chumash, Samala Chumash, Cahuilla, Dinė, Hupa, Yoeme, and Chicana/Xicana.