January 30, 2024 — Three tribes along California’s rugged northern coast made history in late September by designating the first Indigenous Marine Stewardship Area (IMSA) in the United States.
The Resighini Tribe of the Yurok People, the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation, and the Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad Rancheria agreed to collaboratively steward nearly 700 square miles (about 1,800 square kilometers) of ocean and coast from the California-Oregon border to Little River near the town of Trinidad, California.
“Our tribes have a responsibility to steward, protect, and restore the ocean and coastal resources within our ancestral territories,” Jeri Lynn Thompson, chair of the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation, said at a Dec. 6 celebration held on their ancestral land. “We can no longer wait.”
The tribes say permission from the U.S. government isn’t required to designate the IMSA because they are sovereign, and they recognize the IMSA.
“Tribes are sovereign, and this is designated under tribal authority,” said Megan Rocha, executive director of the Resighini Rancheria Tribe. This is the first declaration of its kind in U.S. history.