[Sunset Cliffs Natural Park] Sunset Cliffs and much of the city of San Diego is the homeland of the Kumeyaay people. While today they retain just a fraction of their original land across 17 small reservations in California and Baja, Mexico, for thousands of years, nearly the entire California/Baja borderlands were Kumeyaay lands - lands they lost through multiple waves of colonization in the area. They were among the first to experience the violence of the Spanish mission system and lost even those mission land claims when Mexico secularized the system after independence.

Under American occupation, white settlers continued to encroach on what they considered “newly opened” land and while Kumeyaay land claims were finally acknowledged 1875 in the form of 13 inland reservations on the American side, sacred spaces, burial sites, and land important for maintaining traditional economies - especially coastal land - were excluded. However, while land was lost, the Kumeyaay people continue to live throughout their traditional homeland and maintain multiple sovereign, nation-to-nation relationships with the U.S through their federally recognized tribes. I talk a lot about public lands and outdoor spaces here, but remember every city, every beach, every local park exists on Native land. San Diego is Kumeyaay Land.