Per their website, the Shuumi Land Tax - a project of the the Sogorea Te Land Trust - “is a voluntary annual financial contribution that non-Indigenous people living on traditional Chochenyo and Karkin Ohlone territory make to support the critical work of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust.” I am a light-skinned brown woman. In the historical Spanish casta system - the influence of which is still deeply upheld throughout lands colonized by the Spanish - I would be considered mestiza, some combination of Indigenous and European ancestry. My familial oral history cites particular matriarchal figures as being Indigenous. Ultimately, there is no visible trace of those Indigenous affiliations or identities in our family tree or traditions.
In my experience, Mexicans and Mexican-Americans often claim some tangential connection to Indigenous heritage while simultaneously ignoring the struggles of Indigenous peoples in Mexico, and co-opting Indigenous struggles in the United States. This is a culturally ingrained practice thanks to the proliferation of mestizaje.
This is something I have wrestled with for some time, but I have arrived at the conclusion - for myself - that to be in solidarity with Indigenous struggles globally, I cannot call myself Indigenous.
I want to be very clear, when I talk about Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, and Indigenous identity; it can feel complicated. Some of us are descended from the colonized and colonizer through a violent history of rape, and a societally imposed need to assimilate. I also want to be clear that I’m not talking about Indigenous peoples being actively displaced from their lands and livelihoods throughout Mexico and Central America. I am speaking of my own self-reflection of what it means to be someone who may have Indigenous ancestry, but has no affiliation or connectivity to the Indigenous people I am allegedly descended from.
The duality of being colonized and a colonizer exists presently in the fact that, unless I am descended from an Ohlone people - the original people whose land I live on - then I am a settler of that land. I acknowledge and wrestle with this fact, especially given I do not presently possess any connectivity to the Indigenous peoples named in my ancestry.
None of this means that I cannot act in solidarity with Indigenous struggles, but I feel caution is necessary regarding claiming an Indigenous identity that my ancestors - for whatever reason - chose to erase or suppress. Through this process of reflection, which started as the popular concept of reclamation, I developed a personal philosophy of what it means to be in connection with those possibly Indigenous ancestors. At the core of this philosophy is the question: what does it mean to respect the land I occupy? In living out this philosophy I am not always perfect, but setting the intention to act out this concept will always be better than not acting at all.
So when the Sogorea Te Land Trust addresses their Shummi Land Tax project to non-Indigenous people living on traditional Chochenyo and Kakin Ohlone territory; I classify myself as one of those non-Indigenous people. Further, as someone with the privilege of being a homeowner, of a socio-economic class that means I not only have savings but also disposable income; it is my responsibility to act in solidarity with the original peoples of the land I occupy. And if - for them - that means paying my Land Tax; then that’s what I do. Amongst many other things, this is one significant way I respect the land I occupy.
I want to encourage you to research the original peoples of the land you occupy. What are their present struggles, and activism? Understand the varying ways in which they feel land acknowledgement can be enacted. Then act upon the ways those people have suggested.
You may find you have to expand your research beyond the colonial boundaries of your city or county. You may also be surprised by what you learn about the history of the land you occupy in your research. Set your intention about why you desire to make this effort and do this research, and wherever that road takes you continue to act with that intention.