An Update From Little Arthur Creek

By Alec Apodaca, AMLT Cultural Resources Program Manager

Even when using conservative counts, there are more than 80 rivers, creeks, and streams in Mutsun territory. Together they make up just north of 170 miles of watercourses that are a vital part of Mutsun traditional lifeways. The majority of these 170 miles are unrecognizable from what they once looked like, having been radically altered from historical land use, pollution, and the construction of dams. Monolithic cement structures choking the arteries of watercourses, these dams memorialize the dispossession of rivers and fisheries from Indigenous peoples. Native people bring a deep knowledge that is rooted in the relationship and kinship of the fish and their waterways. It is this intrinsic knowledge that is necessary to healing the damage from decades of pollution, restriction, and desecration. From the Snake River to the Klamath River to the Grand Canyon, Tribes are leading efforts to restore free-flowing rivers and revive fish populations.

For countless generations, Amah Mutsun ancestors witnessed and stewarded fish runs. The creeks that drain from the eastern foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains creates a vast area of streams, grasslands, and oak savannah that was once the known as the territory of the Unijiama, or people of the fish. The series of spring-fed streams were a source of life for Amah Mutsun ancestors who lived in and stewarded the region, as well as numerous animal relatives who drank and swam in those creeks for countless millennia. Today, a series of dams choke the path for fish returning to those waters. Amah Mutsun Land Trust is joining the number of Tribes and First Nations to restore the waters and fish within their ancestral territory.

In 2020, Amah Mutsun Land Trust (AMLT) first became involved with a dam removal project at Mill Creek, a spring-fed tributary of the San Vicente Creek watershed in partnership with the Sempervirens Fund, UCLA, and other San Vicente Redwoods Partners. Sempervirens Fund kindly reached out to the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band (AMTB) for their input, and AMLT agreed to an innovative project that sought to track the pre-dam and post-dam removal effects on cultural resources. Some of the cultural resources that we examined together over the course of this project were steelhead trout, coho salmon, hazelnut and berry plants, as we looked to understand how these resources may respond to the dam removal. Once the dam survey work was complete, the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band held a ceremony to call home the salmon and let the salmon know that the creek was ready for their return. This was the first such ceremony in over 200 years.

*Amah Mutsun Tribal Band members held a salmon ceremony near the Mill Creek dam site in November 2021 to call the salmon home.*

*Both photos courtesy of Frans Lanting.*

Just under one year after the Mill Creek dam was removed in October 2021, 15 juvenile coho salmon were recorded downstream from the dam, the first ever record of a coho in Mill Creek. Twelve juvenile steelhead trout had also been spotted in 3 sampling sites upstream from the dam site for the first time in 100 years. AMLT continues to partner with UCLA for ongoing fish monitoring at Mill Creek to assess how the dam removal is impacting the stream as well as the broader San Vicente Creek watershed.

*Pickell’s Dam at Little Arthur Creek, prior to its removal.*

*AMLT Native Stewards conducting native monitoring in area surrounding the dam site at Little Arthur Creek.*

Following the collaboration at Mill Creek, AMLT became involved with yet another dam removal. AMLT was approached by Trout Unlimited, a conservation organization dedicated to restoring and protecting coldwater fisheries, to collaborate on the removal of Pickell’s Dam. Pickell’s Dam was located on Little Arthur Creek, a tributary to the Pajaro River, an important watershed for steelhead trout and sacred waterway for the Amah Mutsun. AMLT embarked on a project to co-design a cultural resource survey, monitor the dam, and conduct similar research along Little Arthur Creek around the dam site.

*AMLT Native Steward Esak Ordoñez carrying out an integrative survey next to the dam site.*

The project took five years from start to finish and was completed in early October of 2024. In the months leading up to the dam removal, AMLT Native Stewards and staff provided guidance on project design, carried out integrative surveys, and conducted native monitoring to ensure the protection of cultural resources and archeological sites in the project area, such as bedrock mortars and patches of culturally important plants.

“I joined the project in September 2024 right before the dam was removed. We did monitoring and water sampling. We were collecting data to see what types of fish populations were in the area, and they were testing the water before and after the dam removal. It was important that we as Tribal members were the ones to go and monitor the dam removal in case of disturbance to the native plants and bedrock mortars over there. The dam removal is a destructive process and we wanted to make sure our sacred areas were protected along with the plants. It felt great to be a part of the project. The land is very close to sacred mountain peaks that are special to us, and it’s always good to be out on our land and connect with the wildlife and plants out there…it’s a special feeling.” - Zechariah Ordoñez, AMLT Native Steward and Tribal Member

*Water beginning to pool immediately following the dam removal. Photo courtesy of Gabriel Pineida, AMLT Native Steward and Tribal Member.*

*Bulldozers taking down Pickell’s Dam at Little Arthur Creek. Photo courtesy of Gabriel Pineida, AMLT Native Steward and Tribal Member.*

“I did native monitoring on the project to see if there were any features or artifacts that needed protection, such as the bedrock mortars. The dam was in the process of being removed when I joined. There were metal bars that seemed like they were coming out of the [debris]. Some of them were still buried with the dirt, and I realized that you’re not really able to remove all the pieces of the dam once it’s in there. I haven't seen a dam being removed before, it was interesting to see how they were going about it. I understood that removing the dam was beneficial for the fishes, the animals, and the surrounding environments.” - Gabriel Pineida, AMLT Native Steward and Tribal Member

The removal of dams offers many benefits to the environment and cultural resources which they sought to stifle. Culturally-important fish, such as steelhead, lamprey eels, and salmon swim upstream to spawn and give life to the next generation of fish. Dams block the natural flow of large woody debris, which provides protection against the erosion of river beds, reduces flood risk, and sustains aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Dams trap untold amounts of sediments from being transported and dispersed throughout the watershed. Sediments are important because they also sustain aquatic and terrestrial habitats, transport nutrients, and ultimately replenish coastal sandy beaches, which have significantly narrowed or disappeared across the territory. This process accelerates erosion on coastal cliffs, further threatening coastal access, resources, and Indigenous archaeology sites.

Bringing the health back to streams requires a holistic perspective that includes stewarding cultural landscapes and supporting the revival of fish populations and native plants. AMLT brings that comprehensive approach to dam removal with the Integrative Cultural Resources Survey (ICRS), a survey method developed by AMLT and partners to comprehensively map cultural resources and landscapes. In the context of a dam removal project, integrative surveys can help organizations think carefully about the on-the-ground effects that dam removals have on cultural resources. Through conducting the integrative survey and monitoring, AMLT Stewards and staff were able to assist Trout Unlimited in identifying cultural resources within the work site and provide guidance on how to protect them from destruction. Following the removal of the dam, our work will continue as we monitor the restoration of fish relocation and help native plants return to this environment.

Over recent years, AMLT has engaged in protecting water rights as much as possible. As a community and land trust, we have learned about different approaches to tackle the challenges associated with dams, and learned different ways to support their removal and the larger picture behind restoring waterways. The removal of dams helps us as a Tribal land trust make progress towards our goal of restoring healthy rivers and to bring back the fish that once fed Amah Mutsun ancestors. AMLT is grateful to partner on this project along with Trout Unlimited and others and we hope to continue our involvement with many more dam removals for years to come.