The Justice Funders office was originally located on the unceded land of the Lisjan Ohlone people. We have since become a national organization where staff reside on the lands of the: Lisjan Ohlone, Tamien Ohlone, Amah Mutsin, Ramaytush Ohlone, Tongva, Tewa, Paiute, Shoshone, Washoe, Jumanos, Coahuiltecan, Lipan Apache, Tonkawa, Shawnee, Cherokee, Catawba, Sugaree, Waxhaw, Anishinaabe, Ottowa, Potawatomi, Lenape, Chumash, Massa-adchu-es-et, Pawtucket, Pocumtuc, Nipmuc, and Abenaki peoples. We recognize that we, like all non-Indigenous people in the Bay Area, have inadvertently benefitted from the genocide waged against the Lisjan Ohlone people and the theft and occupation of this land.

We believe that philanthropic institutions, as stewards of wealth that has been accumulated through the extraction of Indigenous lands and the exploitation of communities of color, have a particular responsibility to contribute to the healing of the lands they occupy and to enter into a restorative relationship with their local Indigenous communities.

We encourage philanthropies across the U.S. to learn whose land you are on, support your local Indigenous communities and pay land taxes where your staff, board of directors, and grantees, live and work. Paying Indigenous Honor & Land Taxes is one step in a long-term process of healing, action, and repair. Learn more about the Indigenous land you occupy at native-land.ca.

This year, Justice Funders is committed to paying the:

• Institutional Shuumi Land Tax to support the critical work of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust to return Indigenous land to Indigenous people.
• Yunakin Land Tax to support the work of the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone, the original peoples of the San Francisco Peninsula.
• Kuuy Nahwá’a Guest Exchange to support the work of Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy, a Tongva-led organization created to steward lands in Tovaangar, the traditional Tongva region, encompassing the greater Los Angeles basin.

To learn more about Shuumi Land Tax for foundations, please check out the following:

• Bless and Release: Shuumi and the Process of Repair (Medium post)
• We Started Paying Shuumi in 2021. Now What? (Medium post)
• The Ohlone Have Never Forgotten, and We Are Remembering (Medium post) – Recording
• A Growing Number of Bay Area Foundations Are Paying “Land Taxes” to Native Peoples (read here if you do not have an Inside Philanthropy subscription)
• From Learning to Action: A Foundation’s Journey to Paying Shuumi Land Tax (Medium post)
• It’s Tax Season! Philanthropy, let’s Pay Shuumi (Medium post)
• Giving Shuumi: Philanthropy’s Role in Redistributing Wealth and Supporting the Return of Indigenous Land (webinar recording)
• Giving Shuumi Part 2: Exploring the Extractive Origins of Philanthropic Wealth and Moving Towards Repair (webinar recording)
• Shuumi Land Tax Guidance for Foundations (Sogorea Te’ Land Trust webpage)

There are also two important Resource Guides on supporting the work of rematriation (the return of Indigenous lands to Indigenous hands) and Indigenous sovereignty:

• Rematriation Resource Guide by Sogorea Te’ Land Trust
• Resource Guide for Indigenous Solidarity Funding Projects: Honor Taxes & Real Rent Projects by the Indigenous Solidarity Network and representatives from the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, Real Rent Duwamish and Manna-hatta Fund

Please also see these related resources from allied organizations:

• Land Reparations & Indigenous Solidarity Toolkit by Resource Generation
• Indigenizing Philanthropy blog series + webinar by Cultural Survival
• Philanthropy in Indian Country resource center by First Nations Development Institute
• Investing in Native Communities Portal by Native Americans in Philanthropy

No amount of money will undo the damage caused by colonization, land theft and attempted genocide; bring back the lost lives; or erase the centuries of suffering that Indigenous people have endured. Paying Indigenous Honor & Land Taxes is one step in a long-term process of healing and repair in which philanthropy can play an important role, in proportion to the resources and power that our sector directs.