Update, October 1, 2024:
On September 27, 2024, Woolman at Sierra Friends Center, also known as College Park Friends Educational Association, sold a more than 230-acre parcel of land in Nevada County, Calif., to an Indigenous group that includes descendants of the area’s original inhabitants. The California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project (CHIRP), a nonprofit organization directed by the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe, raised more than $2.5 million to purchase the property, according to Sandra Schwartz, clerk of the Woolman Board. A crowdfunding campaign was the primary fundraising vehicle. A joint statement can be found on the Woolman website and on CHIRP’s website.
Our original reporting from July 26, 2024:
A more than 230-acre parcel of land in Nevada County, Calif., is closer to being sold to an Indigenous group that includes descendants of the area’s original inhabitants, according to an April update on the Woolman at Sierra Friends Center, also known as College Park Friends Educational Association, website.
As of this week, California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project (CHIRP), a nonprofit organization directed by the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe, has raised $2.3 million through a GoFundMe campaign to put toward purchasing the property. In addition to acquiring the land, CHIRP intends to use the funds to improve the plumbing and septic systems, repair the buildings’ roofs, and construct a fire escape road. The group’s current goal is to raise $2.4 million. Funds raised beyond that amount would be slated to enable tribal elders to work with architects to design their own housing to be built on the property, according to a video update from Shelly Covert, spokesperson for the Nisenan Tribe and executive director of CHIRP, shared on CHIRP’s website.
Woolman at Sierra Friends Center owns the land and has used it for a high school, camp, and to offer instructional programs.
College Park Friends Educational Association agreed, at CHIRP’s request, to a deed restriction that would prohibit present or future owners from establishing casinos on the property. An additional land pact would proscribe changes to the undeveloped sections of the parcel as part of a forest management plan to be carried out by Sierra Streams Institute.
Quakers used the property for 60 years, operating the John Woolman School until 2001. The Woolman Semester School existed from 2003 through 2016. The pandemic and a wildfire forced the center to close for two years.
In 2020, CHIRP proposed purchasing the land. The Woolman board pursued the sale after recognizing that the center was not financially self-sustaining and out of a commitment to pursuing right relations with the Nisenan Tribe. The intention to transfer the land to CHIRP was first announced to the Woolman community by the board at a sixtieth anniversary event in October 2023, according to the website.
Both Ember Amador, executive assistant at CHIRP, and Jennifer Dickey, who served as interim executive director of Woolman at Sierra Friends Center/College Park Friends Educational Association until May 31, declined to comment for this article.
Correction 7/30/24: A previous version of this article identified Jennifer Dickey as interim executive director of Woolman, but that is not her current position. She served in that role until May 31, 2024, at which time she rejoined the Woolman board. The article has also been updated to include when the Woolman board announced its intention to sell the land to CHIRP.
This article was originally published on July 26, 2024, with the headline “Woolman Center to Sell Land to Indigenous Tribe.”
What will Woolman board do with $2.4M?
Perhaps endowments to help local indigenous, particularly camping scholarships and education scholarships?
Thanks for this! I’d love to see more reporting on the process. Why did the tribe need to pay all that money? Reading the following quote from the press release, I want to learn more: “There is a deep desire to return land to Indigenous communities. But many times, one’s desire to return land to Tribes and their real-time dependence on equity and/or dollar value of that land becomes problematic. ” It seemed like the process was contentious and without a lot of transparency.
I thought the article very well organized.
I would be interested, now that the purchase has been consummated, in why those in the initial story would offer no comment.
Very nice story, perhaps improved only if the happiness of the renewed owners is exposed.