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Alliance for Felix Cove
The Alliance for Felix Cove aims to re-Indigenize the ancestral homelands of the Felix family, the last Tamalko family to live on the western shores of Tamal-liwa (Tomales Bay) at what is known as Laird’s Landing. Felix family members would call this Felix Cove, to recognize their ancestral Coast Miwok homesite.
The Alliance for Felix Cove advocates for the protection and restoration of the last remaining 19th century Coast Miwok-built home at Felix Cove in the Point Reyes National Seashore, to honor the lives of the Felix family. The Alliance also envisions establishing a living history center and garden at Felix Cove, to teach visitors about how the Felix family lived sustainably on Tomales Bay, and how visitors can learn to live with nature by developing an awareness of Indigenous ecological knowledge and practices.
“The land is calling us, and I'm trying to bring Native people, relatives, children, and grandchildren back to this place to heal.”
Featured Media
Op-Ed: How a national park can honor Coast Miwok ancestors and their living descendants
The movement to tell the full story of first peoples is a project for all national parks, monuments and public lands. Point Reyes can be an example in honoring Coast Miwok ancestors and their living descendants.
2022 Anthony Prize Winner
The Rose Foundation announced Theresa Harlan, Founder and Executive Director of the Alliance for Felix Cove, as the winner of the 2022 Anthony Grassroots Prize.
Coming Home to the Cove: A Story of Family, Memory, and Stolen Land
A story of family, memory, and stolen land, this three-part series follows a Coast Miwok family’s eviction from their ancestral home—on a cove in Tomales Bay in Northern California—and one woman’s effort to bring the living history of her family back to the land.
Theresa Harlan: Telling the story of Felix Cove
Theresa Harlan has a vision for the cove on Tomales Bay where her Coast Miwok family lived for generations. She wants the spot, now called Laird’s Landing, to be renamed Felix Cove after her ancestors, and transformed into an Indigenous cultural center.
Tamál Húye: Coast Miwoks Fight for Recognition of Point Reyes’ Indigenous History
In 2015, the National Park Service asked the state to sign off on the demolition of all of the buildings at Laird’s Landing as unsafe. To Theresa Harlan and her husband, Tiger, the buildings represent the Coast Miwok’s survival of settler colonialism. Theresa Harlan’s family is asking that Laird’s Landing be reinvented as a living cultural center celebrating the Indigenous practices of managing the land for the common good.