The Sierra Fund

In the heart of the Sierra Nevada range of California, a transformative movement is taking shape led by the vision and wisdom of indigenous communities. In a seismic shift, The Sierra Fund, a 20+ year-old regional conservation nonprofit, has transformed itself into a dynamic indigenous led and centered organization. Now, with an indigenous-majority board and indigenous visionary leader at the helm, we need your support to launch the next era of The Sierra Fund’s work in service to the Sierra Nevada.

Please donate today!

The Sierra Fund’s new mission is to elevate Indigenous place-based wisdom, leadership, and guardianship to achieve reparative justice, healthy Indigenous futures, and regenerative Sierra Nevada cultural ecologies and communities.

The Sierra Fund envisions a future where: ◆ All people respect Indigenous cultural ecologies of the Sierra Nevada. ◆ Indigenous voices, leadership, and knowledge are centered in the movement to restore resiliency to our environment and communities. ◆ Rights of Nature are honored, and everyone understands their inherent caretaking responsibility to be a guardian. ◆ Indigenous peoples restore and protect the land through practices that have sustained the region for generations. ◆ Indigenous peoples’ cultures, lands, and languages thrive. ◆ All of our relations (humans and more than humans) are given equal voice. ◆ Women’s voices as cultural keepers are centered. ◆ All peoples’ learn from the land, intergenerational transmission of knowledge, and cultural wisdom.

“The Sierra Fund’s new mission is about more than conservation,” said A. Brian Wallace (Washoe/Nisenan), new Chief Executive Officer of The Sierra Fund. “It’s a call to action for funders, allies and partners to join a collaborative journey to a sustainable future. This is an organization reflective of a new movement to center and honor indigenous sovereignty to more effectively promote ecological balance and enhance community resilience.”

Pictured: TSF Board Chair Dr. Lisa Grayshield and CEO A. Brian Wallace

Background: California’s history is rich with beauty and cultural diversity, but is also marked by the brutalization of its First Peoples.

Pioneers and prospectors did not settle in a “wilderness” devoid of people. Prior to the Gold Rush, there were roughly 300,000 indigenous people living in California. Contrary to the belief of early colonists, the abundant California landscape they “discovered” was not naturally pristine, but had been actively managed through eco-cultural wisdom passed down through tribal families throughout the millennia. Indigenous people significantly shaped the California landscape they lived in, and this guardianship was brutally severed with the onslaught of the California Gold Rush and other european ‘settlement’. The Sierra Nevada was the epicenter of the Gold Rush-fueled genocide that included abductions, forced labor, removal of children from families, and massacres. During the Gold Rush period, 80% of all California Native Americans died. The treaties negotiated with Indigenous peoples in the mid-19th century were meant to secure tribal lands and protect tribal ways of life were very rarely ratified and honored. Indigenous peoples, despite this horrific treatment, continue to live and maintain their connections to each other and the Sierra Nevada bioregion they steward and called home.

Today The Sierra Nevada is a vast and abundant region and is the homelands of more than 40 distinct Tribes that have tended and been guardians to these lands for thousands of years. In addition, The Sierra now contains all or part of 22 counties and covering almost 25 million acres and 25% of California’s total land area; has 48% of California’s forests, and Sierra forests contain 50% of the state’s total above ground carbon; Is the source of 60% of California’s water supply; Is home to 50% of the state’s biodiversity, including 60 percent of California’s vertebrate species, and 50 percent of its plant diversity; and contains hundreds of rural communities with major wealth disparities that disproportionately bear the impacts of climate change.

It's not an accident that Indigenous communities steward 80% of the Biodiversity in the world. The Sierra Nevada is an internationally recognized biodiversity hotspot as a result of milenia of Indigenous stewardship. The time to center indigenous-wisdom to restore resiliency to our Sierra ecologies and communities in the face of climate change and other challenges is now.

Transformation! The Sierra Fund in Fall 2024 Becomes Indigenous-led and Centered.

The Sierra Fund, a respected twenty-year old regional conservation organization, proudly announced in September of 2024 that the board of directors had elected six new Indigenous Board Members from around the region (making the board 75% Indigenous members) and hired a visionary Indigenous leader as their new Chief Executive Officer – transforming the nonprofit into an Indigenous-led new force for the Sierra Nevada. By centering the voices of the Sierra’s first nations, The Sierra Fund seeks to blend traditional ecological wisdom with western science to restore and protect Sierra lands, waters, and communities through practices that have sustained it for generations. For the full board member list and bios visit here .

The transformation, fully supported by the prior Executive Director and board, includes the adoption of a new mission to invest in and elevate Indigenous place-based wisdom, leadership, and guardianship to achieve reparative justice, healthy Indigenous future generations, and resilient Sierra Nevada cultural ecologies and communities.

“By centering Indigenous knowledges and tribal ancestral wisdom in promotion of a culture that is founded on principles of collective stewardship, we work together to preserve & restore the rich biodiversity of the Sierra. “We ensure that our future generations can enjoy the natural beauty that defined this region since time immemorial” said Dr. Lisa Grayshield, (Washoe), Chair of The Sierra Fund Board of Directors. “This collaboration is writing a new future, one defined by reconciliation, stewardship, and shared responsibility for the land and our more than human relatives with whom we share this land we call home.”

We Invite You to Stay With Us on this Transformative Journey

This movement is Indigenous-Led but not Indigenous only. The Sierra Fund invites the public to be a part of this transformative journey. This GoFundMe Campaign is an opportunity for you and others to show your support for helping the Sierra bioregion thrive by elevating the stewardship and leadership of Indigenous peoples whose wisdom and stewardship has ensured the natural beauty that has defined this region for centuries.

Donate today and together, we can create a future where Indigenous knowledge and modern science unite to protect our natural and built worlds for generations to come.

As we launch this work, we have five interwoven Indigenous-led Program Focuses:

The Sierra Nevada Indigenous-led organization will be working in the next few years to launch five new innovative Indigenous centered programs. Most of these new programs build on the terrific TSF accomplishments and programs of the past, and particularly the Tribal Partnership Program and co-hosting with tribes and academic partners an annual Sierra Tribal Summit. The new programs are: 1) Climate Adaptation, Emergency Services and Community Safety. 2) Cultural Ecologies – promoting tribal ecological knowledge, language, food, and data sovereignty and revitalization. 3) Land and Water Guardianship, 4) Workforce and Social Investment Strategies, and 5) Reconciliation and Equity.

The organization’s approach will establish and support collaborative tribal efforts, offer technical assistance and mentorship, create knowledge sharing platforms and events, support Indigenous land return and land and water management, and advocate for the centering of tribal voices and rights of nature.

Staffing Will Expand on Existing Sophisticated Infrastructure, Operations, and Collaborations.

At the heart of this transformation is a profound commitment to Indigenous leadership and decision making. By centering the voices of the Sierra Bioregions First Nations, The Sierra Fund seeks to restore and protect the land through practices that have sustained it for generations.

The new board of directors as of September 2024 is comprised of Chair Dr. Lisa Grayshield (Washoe), Vice Chair Joseph Miller (Big Pine Paiute), Secretary Pam Cubbler (Colfax Todds Valley Consolidated Tribe), treasurer Malissa Tayaba (Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians). At large board members are Kris Hohag (Bishop Paiute), Nils Moe, Brenden Mercer, and Tim Seward.

In addition, Brian Wallace was hired by the Board of Directors as the new Sierra Fund Chief Executive Officer. Brian served for two years as a TSF Board Member and is a visionary Indigenous leader with a wealth of experience and successes in advancing tribal led initiatives. Wallace served as an elected official of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California from 1979-2006, including four terms as Tribal Chair. Wallace secured federal court protection of sacred sites in Lake Tahoe and throughout Washoe homelands, was a key leader ensuring clean-up of the Leviathan Mine superfund site, facilitated a bio-cultural international agreement on restoration with the Republic of Buryatia and the Washoe Tribe, and was a founding member of the Lake Tahoe Federal Advisory Committee. Under his leadership the Washoe Tribe created their first Environmental Protection Department, Development Corporation, Cultural Foundation, Language School, and Conservation Land Trust.

Joan Clayburgh, former TSF Executive Director, served with Brian for two years to elevate the Tribal Partnership Program. She joyously volunteered to step down as Executive Director and was hired as Executive Officer of Collaborations and Operations by Brian. She brings over 40 years of experience leading conservation nonprofits, including over a combined 15 years leading Sierra Nevada Alliance and The Sierra Fund, and forming, facilitating and supporting collaborative conservation efforts.

“I’ve worked for over forty years in the conservation movement, and I’ve never been this excited about coming to work,” said Joan Clayburgh, prior Executive Director and now retained as an Executive Officer of Collaborations and Operations. “This bold transformation is reflective of a profound commitment to Indigenous leadership and decision making, knowing that centering Indigenous wisdom is needed more than ever to craft solutions for the challenges ahead. I’m not Indigenous and I’m very honored to be invited to serve under this talented and committed new CEO and board.”

The Sierra Fund intends to hire Rebecca Allen Ph.D. as soon as funding is available as the new Executive Officer of Programs. Rebecca has over forty years’ experience collaborating with tribes, leading preservation departments, running small businesses, and launching new programs. The Sierra Funds prioritizes hiring, as we achieve our fundraising goals, four new Indigenous staff to support tribal collaborations, services, and initiatives.

The value-driven core, proven operating team of The Sierra Fund will remain the same – providing the infrastructure and capacity to powerfully launch this transformed Indigenous-led organization. In addition to Joan, Beth Bordner remains as Finance and Operations Director and Laura Carroll was promoted to Communications and Development Director. Jenny Michaels will be retained to support events, special projects, and initiatives.

“The sky shouts now or never,” continued Wallace. “Together, we can create a future where indigenous wisdom and western science unite to protect our natural worlds, cultures, and ecologies for generations to come.”

Pictured: TSF's Board and Staff at recent retreat in Tahoe.

Want to learn more? Join us on September 24, 2024 for an informational webinar on the new Indigenous-led Sierra Fund. Register here.

Links to learn more:

The Sierra Fund’s Website

The Sierra Fund’s Indigenous-majority Board of Directors

Blog Announcing Indigenous-led Transformation