Sacred lands in Northern California are finally getting needed national protections | Opinion

I once called the Berryessa Snow Mountain region the undiscovered landscape. Now it is not.

The Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument is located about 50 to 100 miles west and northwest from Sacramento. In the winter, the Snow Mountain, at 7,056 feet, will often be covered in white. I am awed by the forces of plate tectonics and the diversity of the plants and animals visible here.

A strong and inclusive coalition of partners — including conservation groups, businesses and elected officials — have worked with tribal leadership to permanently protect these federal public lands. On May 2, President Joe Biden signed a proclamation under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to add 13,696 acres to the national monument. In addition, Walker Ridge was renamed to Molok Luyuk, and co-stewardship by the tribe and the Bureau of Land Management was mandated.

The co-management agreement was signed on May 30, on the homelands of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation.

I recently took my long-time climbing friend Doug Robinson on a tour of a small part of the area that I feel represents much of the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument. Doug tells the story of this place that I have come to love:

“I was recently treated to a gravel road grand tour along the spine of the new Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument that runs along the western edge of the Sacramento Valley. Manzanita and lupine bloomed along the road. We saw four bald eagles within ten minutes. Snow set off Snow Mountain, far enough north to drive home the extent of this monument as a major wildlife corridor.

“We stopped for a hike through alternately brushy and open terrain with prospects of westerly ranges heading toward redwood country. Driving for hours, we covered only a fraction of a ridge-line known to Native Americans as Molok Luyuk, which translates as Condor Ridge.”

Molok Luyuk (“Condor Ridge” in the Patwin language) was formerly called Walker Ridge. These are sacred lands where Native Americans have lived for thousands of years. More than 30 tribes are found in and around the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument and these are their sacred ancestral lands. Their ancestors roamed the region, traded with neighboring tribes, tended the wild landscape and prayed here.

In 2015, President Barack Obama signed the proclamation to designate the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument under the Antiquities Act of 1906. But the work was not yet done. With full tribal engagement, an even stronger coalition advocated for inclusion of Molok Luyuk into the monument. That reality was realized this year.

Condors once soared over Molok Luyuk. The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation are already studying what needs to be done to accomplish reintroduction to Molok Luyuk, as the Yurok Tribe has done in the western Klamath region.

Only recently have I begun to understand the tragic history of Indigenous Americans in this place. Disease, enslavement, massacres, forced marches, forced family separations and boarding schools were part of a century-plus period of California history. In 1850, California Gov. Peter Burnett declared that “a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races until the Indian race becomes extinct.”

I am encouraged, though. There is now a California Truth & Healing Council, created by Gov. Gavin Newsom via Executive Order N-15-19 — a small but real step. I feel deeply that through this protection of their ancestral homelands and the renaming and co-stewardship of Molok Luyuk, another step is taken toward truth and healing.

We are recognizing and respecting our Native American friends and their traditional knowledge and culture.

This story was originally published August 12, 2024 at 9:46 AM.