How an Ohlone nonprofit quickly became one of the wealthiest Indigenous land trusts in the nation

"For more than 80 years, the block on Fourth Street between University and Hearst avenues has been covered in pavement. Spenger's Restaurant first laid asphalt there in 1946 to provide parking for the steady drumbeat of customers who came for fresh fish and clam chowder. Later it became a parking lot for Fourth Street shoppers. Soon the asphalt will be gone, a major step toward transforming the parcel into an Indigenous-controlled space honoring ancestors, nature, culture and the 5,000-plus year history of Ohlone people on the shores of San Francisco Bay."

"It's a first iteration of people actually seeing it as a green space, not a parking lot, said Corrina Gould, co-founder of Sogorea Te' and chair of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan. Imagine taking up the asphalt, covering it with soil, covering it with California native flowers and plants, and allowing the time for people to reimagine something else that could be in this space."

"The transformation is funded by the fast rise of Sogorea Te', which over the past five years has become one of the wealthiest Indigenous urban land trusts in the nation, with $54 million in assets. The trust raised $1 million in just three months toward removing the pavement, much of it from a single Zoom call, said Gould."

A Fourth Street block in Berkeley that has been paved since 1946 will be transformed into an Indigenous-controlled green space by the Sogorea Te' Land Trust. The land trust acquired the property in 2024 as part of the West Berkeley shellmound, a site with over 5,000 years of Ohlone history. The Let the Land Breathe! campaign aims to remove the asphalt and restore native plants and soil, allowing the community to reimagine the space. Sogorea Te' has become one of the nation's wealthiest urban Indigenous land trusts with $54 million in assets, raising $1 million in three months for this project through donor support.

Read at www.berkeleyside.org