This is the second article in my series about our changing Earth from interviews with Native Americans shared in We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth, edited by Dahr Jamail and Stan Rushworth (USA 2022). My presentation does not follow the order of the interviews.

#2: Alexii Sigona (Amah Mutsun) – Stewardship
      (Chapter 12, pp. 180-192)

Alexii Sigona is a member of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. At the time of the interview in 2020, he was a candidate for a PhD in environmental science focusing on Indigenous land conservation and food sovereignty at the University of California, Berkeley.

The stated Conservation Mission of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band is:

We are Amah Mutsun, of the lands known to us as Popeloutchom.
Home to our four-legged, winged, finned, and plant kin;
they have provided us with all that we needed for millennia—we will care for them.
Resting place of those that came before us and cradle of those yet to come,
they are sacred—we will protect them.

For thousands of years, their ancestral lands lay in the southern foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains in California. They call it Juristac (pronounced Huris-tak). The area covers cultural sites and natural features, such as volcanic tar pits, of significant spiritual importance for the tribal band.

At the time of the 2020 interview, the owners of the land, an investor group in San Diego, had plans to develop a 320-acre open pit sand and gravel mine. As stewards of their ancestral land, the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band opposed this plan.

I’m happy to report that, on January 29, 2026, together with a coalition of environmental and Indigenous rights advocates, they succeeded in ending the planned mining project at Juristac. The purchase of the property by the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) ensures that the heart of the Juristac Tribal Cultural Landscape will be protected in perpetuity.

During the interview, Alexii explained their relationship with the land where they lived.

Native plants that were important for us were important because they had an essence that was important, but also because we managed it and were the stewards of it. So when I see a really important cultural plant growing somewhere that I’ve never been, I don’t necessarily think it’s the same type of relationship or importance as in the place that I’ve been from, because I’ve not stewarded that plant in that particular location.

The introduction of fences and the concept of private property, integral to the American colonist culture, prevented his people from accessing Juristac to conduct their ceremonies. Private property ownership also severed their close relationship with the plants on their ancestral land. How can one truly be a steward of the land where they live without an active relationship, Alexii wondered. Furthermore, he noted:

If you’re tending a certain plant population for the past four decades, you may notice a change corresponding to climate change in the ecosystem. And if you notice that, then maybe your management systems would change slightly. You’d adapt, and that relationship would be able to let you carry on stewarding it in a good way.

Alexii considers the assumption of ownership over the land, started 150 years ago in his region and expanded worldwide, as the cause for humanity’s disconnection from Mother Earth. Without a deep connection to the place where we live, and which sustains our lives, we will not take care of it.

Another aspect of private property rights presents a bind for the Amah Mutsun: “The right to exclude.” As Alexii explained:

The closest things we have to property rights are rights to exclude through memoranda of understanding [MOUs], conservation easements, and other agreements with public park or state agencies. We do have property rights in that sense, and with those, the right to exclude other people and to have these practices and ceremonies on top of the hill where our creation story took place, without other people around.

Even with the MOUs, they still need permission, such as from the California State Parks, to exercise those rights to hold a ceremony within Juristac without other people around. These access rights, Alexii pointed out, says nothing about responsibility for the land. Under these constraints, the tribal band must find ways of caring for their sacred ancestral lands.

We have loads of culturally significant places in Amah Mutsun territory, and some of them are owned by private property folks. And we have to mount all these campaigns just to keep sites from being destroyed. And that is a form of stewardship. And then on the other side is when there is an important site in state parks. And so what we have to do is we advocate for us stewarding it, and we steward it and we protect it and we actually do conservation work on it.

In obtaining his doctorate, Alexii aims to help his people get more rights and add his voice for the marginalized people in his community who he believes deserve to be heard. He is aware of the challenges he will face as he navigates a White world.

Taking care of Mother Earth is a lot of responsibility. It takes a lot of work. But if you’re talking to people about your tribe, stewardship, and researching, you’re not necessarily the one doing that work. You’re working with other people who are doing that work.

Concerned about the converging and accelerating crises, already upon us, Alexii pointed out that there are only six hundred Amah Mutsun left who know how to take care of their territory. There are still areas of relatively undeveloped land or land being challenged by development requiring attention. Degraded landscapes, that have been developed and exploited, require special attention. Without the existence of the former native rare ecosystems, restoration is not possible. Restoration of their relationship with the land is also compromised.

What I worry about is the future generations. If we don’t work hard on keeping these culturally significant landscapes tended and okay, open and undeveloped, then what will we have? Maintaining our culture, restoring our ways, having the traditional practices would just be impossible. Then, with climate disruption and sea level rise and the catastrophic wildfires, it puts that even more into question. That is unsettling, and maybe a reason why we need to have more stewardship right now on the ground than ever before in order to get more people to feel that way.

*  *  *  *  *  *

Here in the Americas and the Caribbean Region, we are all occupying ancestral lands of the Indigenous peoples. While Alexii may be advocating for the rights of his people, I also hear his call to join them in caring for the precious places we now occupy.

I don’t own the land upon which my home stands. Moreover, it’s located in what is now a dense urban landscape. Unlike Alexii, I don’t share the same deep connection to this land as he does with his sacred ancestral lands. On the other hand, I do enjoy a close relationship with the plants I care for in our collective residential garden. Many of you also have your own way of connecting with Mother Earth.

I agree with Alexii that we only care for what truly matters to us. Our loved ones, like my sons, fall into this category. Yet we take Mother Earth for granted. We ignore the fact that, without her, we would have no life-giving air to breathe, water to quench our thirst, and nutriment to grow and reproduce. To enjoy life.

Alexii makes clear that each one of us is called upon to be stewards of the places we occupy. He reminds us that taking care of Mother Earth is a lot of responsibility. A lot of work, requiring lots of hands. Depending upon our lifestyle and where we live, there are several changes and actions we can each make as stewards of the planet we call home.

How can I end the harm I inflict with my choices of foods and beverages, keeping up with the latest fashion trends, and all the other trappings of my lifestyle? What can I do to protect other lifeforms—from the mighty forests to the lowly insects—that have no rights or voice?   

Let’s get moving. Mother Earth is undergoing radical changes. Let’s counter the hate and violence with kindness and peace towards others. We’re all in this together.

Click on links below for previously featured interviews:

#1: Raquel Ramirez (Ho-Chunk, Ojibwe, Lenca) – Awareness