Our Vision
Ohlone people steward and renew their ancestral lands through Indigenous-led restoration, cultural practice, and community care—repairing relationships with the land while sustaining and teaching about ecological health and living culture in the East Bay and across the San Francisco Bay Area.
Our Strategy
mak-warép Ohlone Land Conservancy works to reacquire, restore, and steward Ohlone ancestral lands through Indigenous-led ecological restoration, hyper-localized land management, and the practice and transmission of traditional culture.
Our work strengthens Ohlone relationships to land; supports access to traditional foods, medicines, and basketry materials; and engages the public in understanding Ohlone history, culture, and place-based knowledge.
Our Mission
To enhance representation for the greater Ohlone community, the indigenous people of the San Francisco Bay Area, while simultaneously educating the public about the value of living Ohlone culture and specific land-based practices.
Our Values
Ohlone Leadership
Our work is led by Ohlone people, guided by our elders, and accountable to our community. Partnerships are welcome and important; Ohlone vision and authority are not negotiable.
Place-Specificity
Our knowledge, our food, our land management practices, and our culture are hyper-local — rooted in the specific microclimates, plants, and histories of the San Francisco Bay Area. This specificity is a source of strength, not a limitation.
Beauty and Dignity
We represent our culture with care and intention. The aesthetics of our work — in our gardens, in our communications — reflect the vibrancy, beauty, and permanent relationship of Ohlone life.
Reciprocity
We believe that the health of the land and the health of our community are inseparable and that relationships — with partners, with the public, with the land itself — must be genuinely mutual.
‘ottoy-to repair
Everything we do is oriented toward mending — the land, the culture, and the relationships between Ohlone people and our home. We do not accept the unjust conditions imposed on us; we act from a place of hope.
Our culture is beautiful.
Our people are strong.
We’ve been in our homeland all along, like before.
We’re in our homeland today—and we’ll be here tomorrow, too.
Our Approach to Affecting Meaningful Change
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Our land-based work is inseparable from cultural practice. We gather traditional foods, medicines, and basketry materials; strengthen Chochenyo; and share traditional knowledge intergenerationally within our Ohlone community — informed by our elders and by documentation recorded by community members in the 1920s and 1930s.
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We create dignified, beautiful spaces where the public can learn Ohlone history and living culture directly from Ohlone people. We believe these encounters build respect and repair old wounds.
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We work to return Ohlone ancestral lands to Ohlone care through acquisition and long-term stewardship — managing those lands through cultural burns, traditional digging and aeration, seasonal coppicing, and the reintroduction of interconnected native plant communities suited to Bay Area microclimates. We study soil health and document the outcomes of our work with data to demonstrate the efficacy of Indigenous-led ecological restoration.
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We work alongside state fire agencies, conservation organizations, and UC Berkeley and CSU East Bay to implement Indigenous-led land management and cultural practices as experts on our ancestral landscape. We pursue government and institutional relationships that meaningfully acknowledge Ohlone history and culture and support land return.
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Our long-term vision — Ohlone Land — is an East Bay site with restored gardens, immersive cultural experiences, and private community space for Ohlone people: a place for harvesting, ceremony, and gathering that has been denied to us since the 1927 disenfranchisement of the Sunol Rancheria.
Who We Are
Louis Trevino (left), Vincent Medina (right)Our Founders
Vincent Medina, President of the Ohlone Indian Tribe, is an East Bay Ohlone man born and raised within his ancestral homeland, halkin (hall-keen), which encompasses the heart of the East Bay. Founder of the cultural institution mak-'amham and the internationally acclaimed Cafe Ohlone, and leader of the unprecedented 'ottoy (oh-toy) Initiative at the University of California, Berkeley, Vincent has consistently dedicated his life to the continuity of his beautiful and enduring East Bay Ohlone culture. His efforts have led to tremendous success, with more on the horizon, including with the establishment of the mak-warép Ohlone Land Conservancy. Vincent is a speaker and the teacher of Chochenyo, the indigenous language of the East Bay. A thought leader engaged with science centers and museums across the Bay Area, including the Lawrence Hall of Science, the California Academy of Sciences, the Chabot Space and Science Center, and the Exploratorium, Vincent is reshaping public discourse on the complexity of Ohlone knowledge. His vision and leadership are inextricably rooted in the oldest identity of the East Bay, and his work is conducted with the loving support of his partner, Louis, and the sincere blessing of his elders, and follows in the footsteps of his ancestors. Vincent's profound vision and genuine dedication continue to immeasurably enrich the entire Bay Area.
Louis Trevino, First Gentleman of the Ohlone Indian Tribe, is an Ohlone cultural leader. Under the leadership of his partner Vincent Medina, Louis co-founded the cultural institution mak-'amham; the internationally acclaimed Cafe Ohlone; the unprecedented 'ottoy (oh-toy) Initiative on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley; and the mak-warép Ohlone Land Conservancy. Louis is a graduate of UC Berkeley; and active in the Chochenyo language restoration. Louis is an integral part of relationship building with science centers and museums across the Bay Area, including the Lawrence Hall of Science, the California Academy of Sciences, the Chabot Space and Science Center, and the Exploratorium. In addition to his advocacy and educational work, Louis is a traditional artisan and regalia maker of Ohlone finery and a renowned student of Ohlone archives — his work, conducted with accountability to community elders, is done with a great love for Ohlone culture and tradition and is guided by the love and leadership of his partner Vincent.
"Our work is an act of love, born of the hope instilled in us by our elders."
— Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino, Co-founders
The Team
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Deirdre Greene
Managing Director, mak-warép Ohlone Land Conservancy
Deirdre has collaborated with the Ohlone community since 2018 in various capacities and has been with MOLC since its inception. In addition to her work with MOLC, Deirdre is the manager of the ‘ottoy Initiative--UC Berkeley’s campus-wide effort to restore its relationship with the most local people--where she builds relationships with campus partners and coordinates campus projects. She lives in Albany.
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Mary Ladd
Director of Development & Special Projects, mak-warép Ohlone Land Conservancy
Mary Ladd is Director of Development and Special Projects at mak-Warép Ohlone Land Conservancy, where she supports fundraising, partnerships, and initiatives advancing Ohlone land return, cultural revitalization, and stewardship. A member of the We Wai Kai First Nation, she brings experience as a grant writer, event organizer, writer, and editor. Mary’s work helps connect supporters and conservation partners with the Conservancy’s tribally led vision for repairing relationships with the land. She is especially drawn to the connections among Indigenous knowledge, cultural practices, and ecological restoration. Mary attended UC Berkeley and the California Culinary Academy and enjoys farmers markets, walking her rescue doggie, and bringing people together.
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Liz Angeloni
Development & Project Assistant, mak-warép Ohlone Land Conservancy
Liz serves as the Development & Project Assistant at mak-warép Ohlone Land Conservancy, having joined the team in July 2026. With a background in Human Resources, Recruiting, and Business Development, she brings versatile experience and a thoughtful, people-centered approach to her work. Her deep connection to nature and spirit of stewardship guide the care she gives to the organization, its people, and its community. Liz lives in Petaluma, where she cherishes moments with her family and devoted pup, Bo.
Cafe Ohlone
Our co-founders Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino opened Cafe Ohlone in 2018 as the only Ohlone restaurant in the world, a space built to represent the living culture and to educate the public about Ohlone cuisine in a dignified and honest way. This is where the vision for mak-warép Ohlone Land Conservancy began. The current iteration of Cafe Ohlone is 'ammatka Cafe at The Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, CA.