Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples

Our mission is to build the capacity of Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples to protect sacred lands, waters and cultures. SPI is an Indigenous-led, grassroots, community-based organization located in the ancestral homelands of the Tongva People in Los Angeles. We work with Native Nations, Elders, traditional cultural practitioners, Indigenous organizations, environmental justice groups, universities, artists, youth, and others to protect environmentally and culturally significant places, practices, and ideologies and create paradigm shifts that support environmentally and socially just systems that assure the continuation of Indigenous cultures for all time. California Native Nations have been fighting since those first acts of violent displacement to protect the lands and waters within their ancestral territories and undo the environmental damage caused by colonization. Industries such as gold mining and oil and gas extraction continue to threaten culturally and environmentally significant lands and waters, and tribal communities continue to respond. SPI was founded to support and uplift these campaigns and work alongside tribal governments and traditional community leaders to advance policies and procedures in support of Indigenous environmental justice goals.