Tag: amah mutsun

For our tribe, the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, Betabel is much, much more than a vacant lot conveniently located by a Highway 101 offramp. Positioned at the confluence of the San Benito and Pajaro Rivers, where earthquake faults also meet, the Betabel area is a place of power where, for countless generations, our people came together for healing and renewal.

The local Amah Mutsun tribe is reinforcing its opposition to the sainthood of Junipero Serra through a letter recently sent to Gov. Jerry Brown.

Sargent Ranch, on 6,500 acres of pristine and undeveloped land just west of San Benito County, is up for public auction this month. 

More than a decade after Irenne Zwierlein – a Native American tribal member who previously inked plans with a major developer to build on roughly 6,000 acres of pristine property just south of Gilroy known as Sargent Ranch – forged documents in an attempt to prove herself the rightful leader of the local Amah Mutsun Tribal Band of Ohlone/Costanoan Indians, the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs made a move last week that left her rivals “absolutely blindsided.”

The Pinnacles National Park Summer Speakers series starts Saturday with the “Hands of the Land” lecture at Soledad Library at 2 p.m.

The Amah Mutsun tribal band signed a memorandum of agreement with Pinnacles National Park staff members last week to formalize an ongoing partnership between the agencies.

Editor's note: This is part of the annual Pride section. This year's theme is "Made in Hollister".

The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band has received national recognition for its work at Pinnacles National Park in collaborating with the Universities of California, Santa Cruz and Berkeley to conduct two research projects that took an innovative approach to habitat restoration. The projects integrated traditional Native American land management practices with contemporary techniques to restore and protect the natural and cultural processes in the unique California grassland system.

Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar said the National Park Service is striving to become a place that is more inclusive and the redesignation ceremony Monday surely reflected that effort.

The day of Dec. 22, 2012 will go down in the millennia-long history of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band of Ohlone/Costanoan Indians as a day of healing.