Origins
From the local to the global, SPI exists to bridge this critical gap. As one of the few California Indigenous-led, grassroots, and BIPOC-staffed environmental justice organizations, we represent a unique and necessary voice at the intersection of Indigenous health, sacred place protection, climate justice, and environmental movements.
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Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples (SPI) is a California Indigenous-led, community-rooted organization dedicated to building the capacity of Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples to protect sacred lands, waters, and cultures.Founded in 2012, we create spaces for Indigenous communities to gather, strategize, and advance environmental justice priorities grounded in Indigenous knowledge and leadership.
Indigenous Peoples have successfully stewarded sacred lands and waters since time immemorial, yet, throughout the United States and globally, Indigenous Peoples are frequently omitted from data, excluded from decision-making, and removed from our ancestral homelands. This erasure severely impacts spiritual, mental, physical, and community well-being, and additionally compromises environmental, spiritual and community health. While California has the largest population of Native Americans in the U.S., our communities remain profoundly underrepresented in the environmental policy, research, and decision-making processes that directly affect our ancestral lands and waters.
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.