Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples

Our Mission: Building the capacity of Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples to protect sacred lands, waters, and cultures

Our Vision: Creating paradigm shifts that support environmentally and socially just systems and assure the continuation of Indigenous cultures and peoples

As one of the very few California Indigenous-led, grassroots, and BIPOC-staffed organizations in California, we represent a unique and necessary voice within the nexus of Indigenous health, climate justice, and environmental movements.  

In all our programs, we utilize multiple strategies 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:

Sacred Ecologies: We work with  Native Nations, Indigenous-led organizations, and ally organizations to work on specific environmental and cultural protection campaigns, as threats to sacred places and environmentally sensitive habitats continue to multiply.

Indigenous Waters: We work with Native Nations, universities, environmental organizations, institutions, and agencies to protect waters significant to Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples to ensure tribal voices are involved in all watershed planning.

Indigenous Media: We produce and digitally distribute documentaries uplifting the environmental and climate justice stories of California Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples— highlighting how the violence of colonization continues to affect  Indigenous communities.

Indigenous Just Transitions and Indigenous Climate Justice: By building the capacity of Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples to protect their sacred lands, waters, and cultures in the wake of our current global climate crisis, we uplift the nexus between physical, mental, spiritual, and cultural health, climate justice, and just transitions.

Ocean Protectors: We raise awareness about threats and pollutants to ocean waters by mobilizing California Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples while prioritizing the reconnection of coastal Indigenous peoples with their ancestral waters and Tribally-led ocean conservation work.

Indigenous Youth Environmental Justice: We connect Indigenous youth with resources and opportunities as they relate to environmental justice while uplifting environmental issues such as conservation, restoration, traditional ecological knowledge, and coastal access.

Indigenous Research & Policy: We address Indigenous research justice needs through outreach, education, research, and policy advocacy

Creative Wellness: We support community resiliency centered on collective Indigenous creative wellness, art, scholarships, and sustainability initiatives with partner organizations.