A Place Where Waters Meet
The Owens Valley Indian Water Commission (OVIWC) is an inter-tribal organization that for over 30 years has brought to public attention and uplifted the water and land sovereignty rights of native communities in the Owens Valley of California, located in the eastern facing foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. In this region that is known for controversially supplying water to Los Angeles, OVIWC closed in February 2023 on a five acre property on traditional Payahuunadu land, an oasis where there is a vibrant pond, streams of moving water, food forests, and thriving native ecosystems. Meet some of the incredible humans involved in this transition by visiting their crowd funding website.
This land transition featured a prior title holder, Gigi Coyle, who stepped forward into the realm of more ethical land transitions and wished to transfer title of the land at a discount sale to a successor group who intended to ecologically steward/protect the land and ideally was involved with local first nation Tribes. The Owens Valley Indian Water Commission along with Core Partners Jen Schlaich and Teena Pugliese submitted a proposal sharing its vision of the land, and created the Three Creeks Collective who now care for the land and waters as they make it accessible for cultural use, including programs for education and community healing.
The Center for Ethical Land Transition facilitated this land transition through providing relationship and contract support for the different parties involved. CELT continues to recognize that even when all parties have the same goal, those who are seeking title and those relinquishing title have different and nuanced needs for personal and logistical support. This transition used a narrative transfer agreement contract, written by Cassandra and Michael Godbe, an attorney with California Indian Legal Services, to be accessible and honoring of all parties including the land.
We were able to work with narrative contracts in this transition because of the high level of alignment between everyone involved. The purpose of a narrative contract is to detail the story of the land and people involved in a transition using language that is inclusive and easy to understand. In all forms of business, standard boilerplate contracts are by nature transactional, and they are meant to be. People and land are highly objectified in standard contracts, and land is typically treated as a commodity. As the scope of human relationship with each other and with land broadens and we return to understanding the interdependent relationship between humans and the earth, narrative contracts help tell the story of those involved, including the land itself.
Congratulations Owens Valley Indian Water Commission and Three Creeks Collective!
