Mount Umunhum
“We are Amah Mutsun, of the lands known to us as Popeloutchom. Home to our four-legged, winged, finned, and plant kin; they have provided us with all that we needed for millennia—we will care for them. Resting place of those that came before us and cradle of those yet to come, they are sacred—we will protect them.”
I zip up my jacket. Hands snuggled in pockets find a bit of warmth on this overcast Sunday afternoon. Pure air, the freshest I have probably ever felt inside and all around me, chills my face walking along the path to reach the immensity of the view from the 3,486 foot peak of Mount Umunhum in the Sierra Azul range in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Deep ravines of bay trees and golden grasslands meet the hazy pastel blue sky as far as the eye can see. It is serenely quiet. I hear only the call of crow. I am as far away as you can get from the ground level of cars and rush and too many things to do. I walk slowly on sacred ground and remember. I am here to listen and learn how the wilderness talks and tells stories of the first peoples who celebrate their traditions and ceremonies here. Mount Umunhum takes its name from the Amah Mutsun language which means place of the hummingbird, a mystical animal that symbolizes their creation story.
November is National Native American Heritage Month in California. https://openspacetrust.org/blog/native-american-heritage/ As a Legacy Circle member of the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County I share a passion for preservation and restoration of our beautiful natural habitats for generations to come. I learned recently that our local tribes, The Amah Mutsun, Muwekma Ohlone, Ramaytush Ohlone, Esselen and Tamien Nation, trace their ancestry to the people who, for thousands of years, cared for the lands we work to protect. They have been the stewards of the land for generations past.
“The Creator gave us a responsibility to take care of all living things,” said Valentine Lopez the chairman of the Amah Muston Tribal Band. It is our culture, it’s who we are.”
Yet, through more than two centuries of displacement, oppression and genocide, the descendants of these tribal bands have been left scattered and disenfranchised. Their sacred lands were stolen from them. In some cases, the lineage of family groups and entire tribes were completely extinguished. It is a brutal, ugly history and one that has left deep scars.
Spanish missionaries enslaved Indigenous people, beat them with whips as many as 125 blows at one time, forced them into hard labor to build the missions and raped the women and girls. Children were taken from their parents and transported far away to boarding schools in attempts to assimilate them and uproot their culture, language, and traditions.
“I didn’t know how to talk the English language in school at Covelo so I hollered at them. They took me and strapped the heck out of me with a big leather strap. I didn’t know what I got strapped for. Three days later some girls told me it was for talking in the Indian language on the grounds which I’m not supposed to do.” Elsie Allen, Pomo Tribe from The Way We Lived: California Indian Stories Songs & Reminiscences
People first started appearing in California more than twelve thousand years ago. When the first Spanish colonists arrived, there was an estimated 310,000 native people. Then came the missions and the ranchos; the goldminers, loggers and farmers, the silting of streams, clearing of forests, draining of marshes, fencing of grasslands, and elimination of game, the diseases, the violence. By the beginning of the twentieth century there were fewer than 20,000 native people left in the state.
However, with the near extinction of the California Indigenous people there are also examples across our region where lineages, oral histories and traditions have survived due to the resilience and strength of these communities despite extreme adversity.
For example, 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 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. Both the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County and the Pennusula Open Space Trust have ongoing restoration projects working in collaboration with Indigenous partners’ experiences.
“If we allow the pieces of our culture to lie scattered in the dust of history, trampled on by racism and grief, then yes, we are irreparably damaged. But if we pick up the pieces and use them in new ways that honor their integrity, their colors, textures, stories-then we do those pieces justice, no matter how sharp they are, no matter how much handling them slices our fingers and makes us bleed. I am talking about the power of transformation.” Deborah A. Miranda, Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir
The sky darkens. It is time to go. Before I leave, I stand where the mountains touch the sky. I ask, please accept my prayer and blessing. I honor and worship the land. We have that in common. I ask for your forgiveness. I want you to know that I will never know your pain, but I come open and willing to hear your stories and to celebrate your ancestors as wise teachers for all of humanity. With your wisdom may we learn how to live in harmony with Mother Earth. I ask Mother Earth for forgiveness for the destruction we cause. May we grow in numbers, those of us who will never give up on loving you Mother Earth. Please show us how to have hope.
As I turn and descend the path back to the city in my heart I hear her message. “AND I will never give up on loving you. You belong to me.”