Happy Native American Heritage Month!

Ramaytush Ohlone in a tule boat in the San Francisco Bay, 1816. Louis Choris

This Native American Heritage Month, we invite you to learn about and contribute to the Indigenous people of your area. Friends for Youth largely operates on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples (of the SF Peninsula and San Mateo County areas) and the peoples of the Tamien Nation (of the South San Mateo County and Santa Clara County areas). These peoples understood the interconnectedness of all things and maintained harmony with nature for millennia. We honor their enduring commitments to mother Earth.

We invite you to visit the websites of the Indigenous organizations and consider donating a periodic "land tax" to the tribe local to where you live. You can use the Native Lands app to identify which Native land you are on and where you can learn more about each group. As we collectively empower local Indigenous groups, their capacity to spread their ancestral wisdom will increase, offering the rest of us a chance to learn how to respectfully be in right relationship with the land.