A regional body of The Presbyterian Church (USA) has returned a piece of land to a California-based Native American tribe, reportedly the first church in the state to do so.
The PC(USA) Presbytery of San Gabriel donated their La Casa de San Gabriel Community Center to the San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, led by the Gabrieleno Tongva Tribal Council under Chief Anthony Morales.
The community center, which opened around 80 years ago to serve the Latino community, has since closed due to a lack of funding and changes in the local demographic.
The land return ceremony was held in August and featured representatives of the mainline Protestant denomination and the San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, as well as San Gabriel Mayor Denise Menchaca.
A SGBMI spokesperson told The Christian Post via email this week that the Gabrieleno Tongva have lived in the area “since time immemorial,” with their ancestors being “taken from their village locations all across their ancestral territory known as Tovaangar and enslaved at the San Gabriel Mission” during the 1770s.
The spokesperson described the ceremony as “a beautiful day full of joy, community and hope,” noting that the community center property will have multiple purposes in the near future.
“The tribe plans to use the space to regain culture, focusing on cultural preservation, land stewardship of growing native plants, an education center and a place where the community can gather and hold ceremony,” the SGBMI spokesperson stated.
Constructed in 1929, the donated facility requires updates like improved roofing and plumbing, as well as an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant ramp. The tribe is seeking donations for the project.
Since “this recent land return,” the tribal spokesperson stated that other “church organizations have reached out” with curiosity about how they can “participate in reparations and healing.”
“We are optimistic about the doors this can open,” the spokesperson said.
San Gabriel Presbytery Executive Presbyter Wendy S. Tajima told CP via email that the PC(USA) regional body and the tribe “have had a long relationship” and that she is “painfully aware of the violence perpetrated on them and lands taken with justification from early Christian missionaries.”
Tajima said “it was time” to contribute a “permanent base” for the SGBMI and “to atone for suffering done to the tribe’s ancestors in the name of Jesus Christ.”
“This property provided a kairos moment because of its proximity to the ancestral village of the tribe and San Gabriel Mission, and its history as a community center, so it is not designed as a church facility,” she added.
“Our focus, of course, is primarily serving the community through congregations and new church plants, so all of our other properties are used for worship and congregational mission.”
Calling the land return ceremony “a wonderful and blessed day,” Tajima said the gathering included “symbolic gifts exchanged, prayers raised, the Word proclaimed” and tribal representatives hosting “an open house to show folks their plans for the property.”
Tajima said she was “comforted by the fact that the leaders of this tribe are faithful Christians, several members of our churches, with whom we have served for many decades.”
“Though many Native Americans have rejected Christianity because of the history of oppression, we were invited by one of our own elders, who is a tribal member, to join in Christ’s path of healing for the Indians, and that was the spirit of this transfer,” Tajima told CP.
“We believe Jesus led us to the transfer, God blessed us before the transfer and continues to bless us into the future, and the Spirit of reconciliation was strong through this whole process.”
