{"id":464651,"date":"2026-09-15T17:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T17:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/464651\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T17:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T17:18:13","slug":"2026-change-maker-honoree-diana-almendariz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/464651\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Change Maker honoree: Diana Almendariz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Sacramento Bee and Nehemiah Leaders Programs are celebrating this year’s 60 Change Makers. Join them at our gala at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 13 at the Grand Sheraton in downtown Sacramento. Buy tickets at sacramentochangemakers.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Cultural practice is in Diana Almendariz\u2019s lineage.<\/p>\n

She was born and raised in Sacramento. For generations, Almendariz\u2019s family has been tending to the land and their community. Her childhood was filled with her family bringing home live salmon caught in Sacramento and her grandfather working on a ranch.<\/p>\n

When she got older, Almendariz\u2019s grandmother, a long-time cultural practitioner, told her: \u201cIt\u2019s time for you to do the real work.\u201d<\/p>\n

That work would be taking care of her ancestral lands.<\/p>\n

Almendariz is Maidu, Nisenan and Wintun, tribes which are all Indigenous to the Sacramento region. She is also Hupa, Yurok, Cherokee and Apache, she said.<\/p>\n

Today, Almendariz serves as a cultural burn practitioner and traditional Indigenous educator in the Sacramento area. She\u2019s served the region for more than 30 years.<\/p>\n

\"Diana Diana Almendariz, a Maidu-Wintun natural and cultural history expert, holds California tule at the Cache Creek Conservancy in Yolo County on Tuesday, July 28, 2026. Almendariz, a 2026 Change Maker, says tule is her spirit plant, which she uses to make baskets and sometimes to carry fire during cultural burns. HECTOR AMEZCUA hamezcua@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

When she first started shadowing her grandmother, Almendariz became fascinated by gathering milkweed, acorns, different types of fish \u2014 all flora and fauna native to Sacramento.<\/p>\n

\u201c(I would write) where were the best places to go catch, and that\u2019s kind of how it led me into it,\u201d Almendariz said. \u201cIt changed my whole life, just to be that and write about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her work has taken her to multiple places in Sacramento. Almendariz first started working with the Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael, leading a field day program. While she worked for Cache Creek Conservancy in 2004, she led an initiative to raise two acres of plants Indigenous to Yolo County.<\/p>\n

Almendariz said it was continuing her grandmother\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n

She also co-founded YoloSol, a group focused on civic engagement and environmental issues in Yolo County.<\/p>\n

With the University of California, Davis, Almendariz teaches college students about cultural burning in a higher division class known as \u201cKeepers of the Flame,\u201d along with the university\u2019s faculty.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take them out and do work on the land,\u201d Almendariz said. \u201cThe work is gathering, tending and burning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Diana Diana Almendariz, a Maidu-Wintun natural and cultural history expert, holds California tule at the Cache Creek Conservancy in Yolo County on Tuesday, July 28, 2026. Almendariz, a 2026 Change Maker, says tule is her spirit plant, which she uses to make baskets and sometimes to carry fire during cultural burns. HECTOR AMEZCUA hamezcua@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

Almendariz works with Cal Fire on fire education, explaining the difference between cultural burning and prescribed burns. That fire is not something to fear. Almendariz also organizes Leok Po, a prescribed burn workshop for local fire agencies, including Cal Fire, Yolo County and multiple tribal fire departments.<\/p>\n

Every day, she said her work is what drives her. It\u2019s what gets her up in the morning. To teach others that not only is fire good for the land, but that it directly helps the region\u2019s ecosystem.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is something that really motivates me and gets me up,\u201d Almendariz said, \u201c(It\u2019s about) going and doing these things, talking to people, making the calls and connections.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her, everything she does is cultural preservation, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur people and our languages weren\u2019t based for living inside the house or going to school,\u201d Almendariz said. \u201cOur language is based on stewardship of the land.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Emma Hall<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Emma Hall covers retail and business for The Sacramento Bee. Hall graduated from Sacramento State and Diablo Valley College. She is Blackfeet and Cherokee.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sacramento Bee and Nehemiah Leaders Programs are celebrating this year’s 60 Change Makers. Join them at our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-464651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}