+Pulitzer Center//LandBack

In 2017, the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians purchased 700 acres of ancestral land on the Sonoma Coast, one of the largest returns of land to tribes at the time. Since 2020, I’ve partnered with the tribe to document their use of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) to restore the land, showcasing how the LandBack movement fosters cultural revitalization and ecological resilience. The tribe’s efforts include a fire management program to reintroduce native plants, restoring abalone populations, and reseeding kelp forests—90% of which were decimated along the North Coast.

Every summer, I return to document the tribe’s conservation efforts, including their Tribal youth ecology program, which strengthens connections to land, culture, and language. My goal is to showcase the profound impact of Indigenous land management in addressing climate change.

The LandBack movement seeks to restore land stolen during colonization, with tribes now controlling a fraction of the 2 billion acres they once managed. The suppression of TEK has contributed to environmental degradation, including coastal erosion and mega-fires. My work aims to capture how the Kashia Pomo are reviving TEK to restore both land and cultural ties.

I’ve been working on this project for five years, supported by a Pulitzer Center Grant through the Connected Coastlines initiative. The return of land on California’s North Coast exemplifies how LandBack can benefit both cultural revitalization and ecological resilience. By documenting intertribal land trusts and the reestablishment of Tribal control, this photo story highlights the importance of Indigenous land and sea management in the era of climate change