{"id":486734,"date":"2026-10-06T09:08:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T09:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/486734\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T09:08:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T09:08:25","slug":"mariposas-tara-fouch-moore-appointed-to-native-american-heritage-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/486734\/","title":{"rendered":"Mariposa\u2019s Tara Fouch-Moore Appointed to Native American Heritage Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation leader brings experience in landscape stewardship and tribal service to the statewide commission.<\/p>\n<p>Tara Fouch-Moore\u2019s work with the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation connects land stewardship, cultural traditions and the community she calls home. Now, the Mariposa resident has been appointed to California\u2019s Native American Heritage Commission.<\/p>\n<p>Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the appointment September 29. Fouch-Moore has served as the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation\u2019s director of landscape stewardship since 2022, following two years as its outreach coordinator. She also serves as secretary of the Nation\u2019s Tribal Council and is a member of its Steering Committee. The unpaid commission position requires Senate confirmation, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.ca.gov\/2026\/09\/29\/governor-newsom-announces-appointments-9-29-26\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">governor\u2019s announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A Connection to Land and Community<\/p>\n<p>Raised in Mariposa County, Fouch-Moore returned home after years away to raise her family and reconnect with her community and ancestral homelands, according to her biography published by Planet Women.<\/p>\n<p>Her stewardship work includes partnerships supporting cultural burning, native plant restoration, traditional foods and pollinator habitat. Those efforts connect the care of local landscapes with opportunities to sustain and share Indigenous knowledge. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetwomen.org\/tara-fouch-moore\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read her biography.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>One example is the restoration work at Stookey Ranch Preserve, where the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation, Sierra Foothill Conservancy and Point Blue Conservation Science are collaborating on native habitat restoration and cultural stewardship.<\/p>\n<p>In a feature about that partnership, Fouch-Moore described the connection at the heart of the work: \u201cWe as indigenous people look at this landscape as our relative.\u201d The project includes removing invasive plants and replanting native species selected in collaboration with the Nation. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pointblue.org\/roots-film\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Point Blue\u2019s project overview<\/a> highlights how the partners bring ecological restoration and tribal knowledge together.<\/p>\n<p>What the Commission Does<\/p>\n<p>Established in 1976, the Native American Heritage Commission is a nine-member body appointed by the governor. Its responsibilities include identifying and cataloging California\u2019s Native American cultural resources, including places of religious or social significance and known Native American graves and cemeteries on private land. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ca.gov\/departments\/249\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">California\u2019s commission overview<\/a> describes that statewide responsibility.<\/p>\n<p>Fouch-Moore\u2019s appointment brings a Mariposa-based tribal leader to that work, with a background rooted in caring for the landscapes and cultural traditions of the Yosemite region.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n<p>Feature Photo: Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation Tribal Council members, from left: Danette Johnson, Shona Medinas, Sandra Chapman, Tara Fouch-Moore and Tisina Parker. Fouch-Moore has been appointed to California\u2019s Native American Heritage Commission.<br \/>Photo Credit: Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation. The website does not state republication permission; this is not a confirmed free-use image.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation leader brings experience in landscape stewardship and tribal service to the statewide commission.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[179,4583,79800,121,123,122],"class_list":["post-486734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-community","tag-headlines","tag-native-news","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486734","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=486734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}