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On March 12, 2024, the Berkeley City Council unanimously approved an ordinance authorizing the purchase of land containing the West Berkeley Shellmound and Village Site. The City has purchased the property with funds raised by the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, an Indigenous-led land trust based in Oakland, and will transfer the property to Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. This will make Berkeley, California, among the first cities in the country to return land to Indigenous people.

This site is one of the most important and earliest known Ohlone settlements on the shores of San Francisco Bay, with a village dating back 5,700 years. It served as a burial and ceremonial ground, as well as a lookout and communications site, with the repository of shells, ritual objects, and artifacts forming a massive mound. When Spanish missions began enslaving Ohlone people, many remaining villagers fled. Shell material was later removed by Gold Rush settlers to fertilize farms and line streets. The site was mapped in 1907, and UC Berkeley archaeologists removed 95 human burials and 3,400 artifacts before the shellmound was leveled in the 1950s.

Today the Shellmound site is still an active place of Ohlone prayer and ceremony and is considered sacred by the Ohlone people, though it has been covered by a parking lot for decades. The West Berkeley Shellmound and Village Site was included on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in 2020 after a condo development was proposed in that location by the long-time private owner of the Shellmound site. The City of Berkeley blocked the building permit, but the developers sued the City, and the California courts ruled in favor of the developers, although the National Trust’s Law Department filed amicus briefs in support of the City and the Confederated Villages of Lisjan, a group of seven tribes across the Bay Area. In light of the court decisions, the successful acquisition of the site is an especially important achievement.

In response to the news, Corinna Gould, Chochenyo Ohlone activist and co-director of Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, told the Berkeleyside: “It’s one of the most culturally significant sites for the Lisjan people and to have it protected forever, I think I’m without words.” Read more about Corinna and the Shellmound site as part of the National Trust’s Where Women Made History campaign.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is saddened to learn that the Deborah Chapel in Hartford, Connecticut, is being demolished today. Community members and leaders in Hartford and Connecticut have been working to save the Deborah Chapel for several years. In 2022, the National Trust included this significant place on our annual list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, and we have continued to advocate on its behalf.

The Deborah Chapel was not only a rare and early American example of an intact Jewish funerary structure, it also told the story of women’s leadership within 19th century Jewish religious and communal organizations. The loss of this building represents a missed opportunity to honor that history while reactivating the space for a new use.

The National Trust was proud to work alongside the Friends of Zion Hill Cemetery, the Hartford Preservation Alliance, Preservation Connecticut, Mayor Luke Bronin, Attorney General William Tong, and many others who advocated on behalf of the Deborah Chapel, and we share their sadness at the loss of this important place.

On March 28, 2023, the Detroit Land Bank approved the sale of the Sarah E. Ray House to Detroit business leader Shannon Steel. It has been a long journey for the Sarah E. Ray Project, but now the site is in the hands of someone who embraces the significance of the property and wishes to honor Sarah Ray's legacy.

Sarah Elizabeth Ray was a remarkably influential Civil Rights activist though her story has largely been untold. A decade before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, 24-year-old Ray filed a successful discrimination case after the SS Columbia, a steamboat that carried passengers to Detroit's Bob-Lo Island Amusement Park, removed her from the vessel on the basis of race.

The 1948 case reached the U.S. Supreme Court and was decided in Ray’s favor, becoming an important precursor to the Brown v. Board of Education decision, which struck down the doctrine of separate but equal educational facilities in 1954.

Ray’s Civil Rights work in Detroit continued over her lifetime. She and her husband opened Action House, a community center to promote racial tolerance and enrich the lives of local children, and she lived in the house next door until her death in 2006.

While the Action House was eventually demolished, Ray’s home remains. It has sat vacant and deteriorating, but now has a bright future.

The new owner, Shannon Steel, plans to turn the home into a museum and the adjoining lot into a community garden dedicated to Ray’s memory.

The Sarah. E. Ray House was included on the National Trust's list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2021.

As a final step in a massive four-year preservation and legal battle to protect Native American sacred ground, the James River Water Authority (JRWA) has voted to choose an alternate site for its water supply project, protecting the sanctity of Rassawek, the historic capital of the Monacan Indian Nation and an important ancestral burying ground.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has been one of the key advocates in the struggle to save Rassawek, participating in federal review processes and advocacy campaigns to preserve this historic site, as well as placing Rassawek on the 2020 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

After a hard-fought legal battle and massive public response in support of saving Rassawek, the JRWA changed course and worked with the Monacan Indian Nation to study a potential alternative site for the pumping station, and on March 16, they voted to move the plant to an alternate location. They also have agreed to facilitate transfer of the JRWA’s parcel at Rassawek to the Monacan Tribe.

This marks a victory for the Monacan people and for all Tribal Nations striving to protect their sacred lands, and we support the precedent that the JRWA has set in working with the Monacan leadership to make this important decision.

In moments like this, we celebrate who we were in the past, who we are today, and who we hope to become in the future. Congratulations to the Monacan Indian Nation and our preservation partners in Virginia for helping to protect and tell the full American story.