After more than 150 years on a small, inland reservation, the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians returned to their ancestral home on the California coast in 2016.  

Just a few hours north of San Francisco, the Kashia Coastal Reserve is 700 acres of redwood groves, wave-battered bluffs, and fog-swept prairie. Thanks to your support, it’s now permanently protected for the Kashia—whose ancestors lived here for thousands of years before European settlers arrived.  

Trust for Public Land joined hundreds of people gathered at the newly established reserve in 2016 to celebrate, dance, pray, and feast in a blessing ceremony we’ll never forget. 

With access to their ancestral home restored, members of the tribe have a place to harvest and gather for medicines, food, and ceremonies. A traditional management plan is helping restore the health of the forest.  

For Kashia like Billyrene Pinola, who’s lived her entire life on the reservation, the reserve restores a connection to her family’s heritage. 

“I don’t know how else to explain it: it’s like a home [I had] never been to before, but I can feel,” she says. “I know this is where I belong.” 

Billyrene Pinola, third from left, raised her family on the Kashia reservation.Photo credit: Terray Sylvester