A Tribal Band Reconnects with Ancestral Lands

The idea of owning land was foreign to the Amah Mutsun. Their ties to the land instead came from a deep sense of responsibility and union with the life that surrounded them.”The land never belonged to us,” Lopez said. “We never considered the land to be our property. The land belongs to Creator.”

If you’re familiar with our local indigenous history you’ll know that with the invasion of the Spanish in the 18^th century (followed by the Mexicans and finally the Americans), the Amah Mutsun were brutally persecuted and forcefully removed from their homeland, subjugated to the missions of San Juan Bautista and Santa Cruz. Since that time, they have struggled to reconnect with the places that remain their responsibility, to live up to their sacred covenant with Creator. And yet, today, like many indigenous tribes in California, they remain a landless tribe.

“Our obligation and responsibility to the Creator remains as it has since the beginning,” Lopez said. “We have to find ways to live up to that responsibility.”

The good news is that they’re making progress. In 2013, the Amah Mutsun Land Trust (AMLT) was formed as a vehicle for tribal members to return as stewards of their lands. Core to its mission is to “conserve and restore the indigenous cultural and natural resources within the traditional territories.” Through cultural and spiritual necessity, they invented a way to reaffirm their role as the land’s stewards.

And that was just the beginning. Shortly thereafter, AMLT formed the Native Stewardship Corps, an ecological restoration crew made up exclusively of tribal members. Through this program, their community’s young adults receive training in traditional knowledge as well in the latest techniques of restoration ecology. They’re getting their community back to the land in a way that’s healing to both their people and the land.

Historical context is key to the story of San Vicente Redwoods too. In the early 1900s, nearly all of the trees were cut down in this forest — back before it was clear just how devastating such a practice was. And while some areas of the property have returned to their former health, much of the forest is still struggling to recover. When we acquired this property in 2011 with our partners at Save the Redwoods League, Sempervirens Fund, The Nature Conservancy and the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, we took on the responsibility of healing this damaged forest.

Much of what has grown back at San Vicente Redwoods is denser than it was in the past. Overcrowded and stressed from too much competition for available resources, the forest is more susceptible to drought, wildfire and disease — all of which are more likely as our climate continues to change.

We have begun the work to heal this landscape, thinning some of the smaller, less healthy trees to allow the larger ones to flourish (watch the video). In doing so, we have accelerated the recovery of a forest still affected by reckless management long ago.

Caring for this forest also requires that we mitigate the risk of large, uncontrolled wildfire. And in the process of thinning this overcrowded forest, we created unwanted fuel on the forest floor. To remove this threat, the Native Stewardship Corps has helped us sort and pile this material and prepare it for controlled burns by CAL FIRE.

But for the Amah Mutsun, this work is more than just good land stewardship. For these tribal members, healing this forest serves as a way of also healing themselves.

“It’s more than a job for these individuals,” Lopez said. “It’s a way of reconnecting with what was lost — it is still our responsibility to protect and steward this forest.”