Eroding Indigenous Sovereignty - The Margin

Like the Houma, the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation have been seeking recognition for over 40 years and Coats says his Tribe is rebutting this denial with the federal government. An anthropologist and archaeologist by training, Coats has been working on his Tribe’s digitization efforts for years, but accelerated the efforts after the 2022 Oak fire — a devastating wildfire that burned about 20,000 acres west of Yosemite National Park — ravaged the Miwuk community, destroying over 100 of the citizens’ homes and some of their sacred gathering spots.