AMLT IN THE NEWS
AMLT in Mercury News: Scenic ranch near Mission San Juan Bautista preserved in land conservation deal
This article highlights the exciting upcoming collaboration with the purchase of Nyland Ranch near San Juan Bautista on traditional Amah Mutsun territory. An excerpt from the article: “Under the plan, sometime in the next year or so, a local group, the San Benito Agricultural Land Trust, will purchase the property from the Trust for Public Land. Another nonprofit organization, the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, will purchase the development rights, known as a conservation easement. And a third group, the Amah Mutsun Land Trust, will hold a cultural easement providing access for native land stewardship and cultural and educational activities.” Read full article here.
Amah Mutsun Land Trust Featured in Santa Cruz Sentinel: Amah Mutsun Tribal Band reignites cultural burning
Ancestors of the Amah Mutsun tribe lit methodical, purposeful fires, across the Central California Coast for centuries to prevent megafires and sustain native species. Now, the Tribal Band is working to bring cultural burning back to the landscape. Read full article here.
Amah Mutsun Featured in Bay Nature
The author of this article is a colleague of Amah Mutsun Land Trust, Don Hankins. Hankins is a professor in the Department of Geography and Planning at California State University, Chico, is an expert in pyrogeography, water resources, and conservation. Professor Hankins writes from an Indigenous perspective, as he is Plains Miwok, and encompasses a holistic perspective on our human relationship to fire on the landscape. Read the full article here.
Amah Mutsun Featured in Business Insider
This online mini-documentary news piece about regional prescribed fire showcases fuel reduction and cultural fire efforts of the Native Stewardship Corps and interviews Chairman Valentin Lopez, told in conjunction with our friends at Fire Forward-Audubon Canyon Ranch.
Amah Mutsun Featured in Fire Adapted Communities’ Blog
This article details AMLT’s collaboration with San Vicente Redwoods partners and CalFire CZU to navigate the challenges of bringing good fire to the Santa Cruz Mountains in early 2020. Author Joanna Nelson, who worked closely with the Native Stewardship Corps in 2019 and 2020, describes some of the barriers that prescribed fire practitioners often face, and how cultivating relationships and working together on the ground opened new opportunities for burning. The article, linked here, also features beautiful pictures of the Native Stewardship Corps in the field.
Amah Mutsun Featured in TEDx Berkeley
UC Berkeley Professor Scott Stephens highlights Amah Mutsun perspectives on fire in California and its importance to Amah Mutsun culture and land stewardship, as well as showcasing a cultural burn in the Santa Cruz Mountains the Amah Mutsun Land Trust participated in.
Amah Mutsun Land Trust featured in Bay Nature
AMLT’s Native Stewardship Corps work in Quiroste Valley Cultural Preserve with California State Parks anchors this article highlighting the innovative partnerships fostered by the Santa Cruz Mountain Stewardship Network. The article describes the history of traditional landscape stewardship in Quiroste Valley and the Amah Mutsun’s return to actively tending the valley in contemporary years, exemplifying “what stewardship looks like.” Read the story, see the beautiful photos of Quiroste, and check out the map of lands in conservation in the Santa Cruz Mountains at this link!
Fantastic Article on Saving Juristac in Committee for Green Foothills
The efforts to protect our sacred lands have been highlighted in this fantastic article and we are incredibly grateful for the support! They have been opposing developments on Juristac since 1993 and have no plans of letting us fight this battle alone! The Committee strives to bring this cause to the attention of county decision makers and would benefit greatly from all of us signing up for their newsletter. Please give this insightful article a read as to deepen our understanding of our sacred lands and share it with you loved ones! Read here!
Amah Mutsun featured in Native America, a PBS Documentary
We are ecstatic to announce that our Amah Mutsun Tribal Band will be featured on PBS in Native America, a 4 part documentary series, starting with the first episode on October 23rd, at 6pm Pacific Time. The 4th episode will be highlighting the AMLT and will be aired on November 13th at 7:00 pm Pacific Time. PBS is launching this profound 4 part series that focuses on the sacred stories and practices of Native America with active participation from current Native Communities. This detailed documentary will study the ways Native people are defending their traditions, including AMLT's participation in the restoration of cultural burning within Amah Mutsun tribal territory. Please join us in our celebration by watching the 4th segment on this link https://www.pbs.org/show/native-america/ or on the PBS channel or the PBS app on your electronic devices. We kindly ask that you stay tuned for a date/time of a special screening and panel discussion hosted by the AMLT in late November!
Amah Mutsun Featured in the Half Moon Bay Review
The April 2018 release of the Half Moon Bay Review featured the Amah Mutsun Tribal band, giving a breif review of post-contact history and how the Tribal Band is trying to return to the ways of their ancestors as stewards of their native lands. The article ends with a quotes from Chairman Lopez stating, "One of our elders said... in seven generations, things would get better. I'm the seventh generation. It's time for things to get better." The full article can be found here on pages 26 through 34.
Amah Mutsun Oppose Gravel Mine at Sacred Site
San Jose Inside recently featured the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band’s opposition to the proposed gravel mine at Juristac, a sacred site and historic Mutsun village also known as Sargent Ranch. The 317-acre site is culturally, spiritually, and environmentally significant to the Tribe and would be irrevocably harmed by mining operation. Read the full article here.
Amah Mutsun Land Trust featured in Bay Nature
This visually stunning and informative article about the indigenous stewardship of the Amah Mutsun was published in Bay Nature in Spring 2016. Author Mary Ellen Hannibal offers a look at the AMLT Native Stewardship Corps in the context of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and the larger indigenous history of California. There is also a great map of Native people and Native languages of the Bay Area. Check out the full article here.
Amah Mutsun Land Trust featured in Indian Country Today
Indian Country Today Media Network, one of the foremost Native news publications in North America, recently published a story featuring the AMLT’s partnership with the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District and their efforts to open Mt. Umunhum to the public as a ceremonial site. Read the full story here.
Amah Mutsun and BLM Sign Coast Dairies Agreement
The Amah Mutsun signed an historic Memorandum of Understanding with the Bureau of Land Management this week, granting the Tribe formal access to the 5,800-acre site in their traditional territory to conduct ceremonies and steward biological and cultural resources. The agreement is the first MOU the BLM’s Central Coast Office has signed with any tribal organization. Read the Santa Cruz Hilltromper’s full story here.
Amah Mutsun Land Trust featured in Santa Cruz Sentinel
The Santa Cruz Sentinel recently featured the Amah Mutsun Land Trust, describing the background of the Land Trust in the context of Tribal history as well as some of its long-term goals and strategies to advance indigenous stewardship. Read the full story here.
Amah Mutsun Land Trust featured in San Jose Inside
San Jose Inside recently featured the Amah Mutsun Land Trust, describing the historic agreement signed with the Bureau of Land Management granting the Amah Mutsun access to the Cotoni/Coast Dairies property near Davenport. Read the full artile here.
Amah Mutsun Land Trust on the cover of Saving Land
The Land Trust Alliance attended a session of our Native Stewardship Corps program and interviewed Chairman Valentin Lopez in July, 2015 to learn more about the history, work, and accomplishments of the Amah Mutsun Land Trust. Read all about it in Saving Land, the magazine of the Land Trust Alliance, by clicking here.