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Ancient Coastal Connections: Collaborative Archaeology on the Santa Cruz Coast with Mike Grone


Indigenous communities have had relationships with local marine resources for millennia, and science can help shed light on these relationships. Join archaeologist Mike Grone for a discussion about collaborative historical ecology research carried out over the past decade in partnership with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, and the Santa Cruz District of California State Parks.

This program will emphasize the application of archaeological data for revitalizing and restoring traditional ecological knowledge suppressed during the mission period, as well as for providing deep time baselines of environmental change and more sustainable approaches for contemporary stewardship practices.

Resources

About the Speaker

Dr. Mike Grone is the Associate State Archaeologist for the Santa Cruz District of California Parks and Recreation. Prior to working for Parks he worked for the Amah Mutsun Land Trust as a manager of their Coastal Stewardship Program and Archaeological Resource Management Program. His research focuses on the historical ecology of coastal resources in the northern Monterey Bay Area and is ultimately geared towards integrating archaeological data and traditional ecological knowledge to guide policy, conservation efforts, and resource management practices.

Ancient Scorched Seeds and Indigenous Land Stewardship with Rob Cuthrell

Archaeologists can analyze charred seeds and other plant remains to learn about relationships between people and the natural world deep into the past. This talk will describe how a collaborative research project between Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, State Parks, and academic researchers utilized this type of information to explore how Indigenous peoples on the coast of San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties used prescribed burning to steward local landscapes. Guided by these findings, Amah Mutsun Land Trust is working to revitalize Indigenous-based stewardship of open spaces today.

Resources

Learn about the Amah Mutsun

Learn about Amah Mutsun relationships with fire

Resources mentioned in the talk

About the Speaker

Rob Cuthrell is a researcher in archaeology and historical ecology who has studied relationships between Indigenous people and landscapes west of the Santa Cruz Mountains for over a decade. Currently, Rob works as a consultant for Amah Mutsun Land Trust managing a native plant propagation and restoration project on Año Nuevo Point.

This program is in support of the exhibit Seeds: Nature’s Artful Engineering, on view at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History through November 28.

Amah Mutsun Fire Relationships

Fire is many things to the Amah Mutsun and other California Indian Tribes — it is sacred, it is a tool gifted by Creator, and it is a way to restore balance to Mother Earth. This presentation will share more about how the Amah Mutsun are using fire to restore landscapes and relationships in the Santa Cruz mountains and beyond.

About the Speakers

Lawrence Atencio is the Native Stewardship Corps Field Manager for the Amah Mutsun Land Trust.

Marcella Luna is an Amah Mutsun Tribal Member, Native Stewardship Corps member, and sits on the Amah Mutsun Tribal Council.

The Amah Mutsun Land Trust is an initiative of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, which is the vehicle by which the Amah Mutsun access, protect, and steward lands that are integral to their identity and culture. The AMLT returns the tribe to their ancestral lands and restores their role as environmental stewards.

RESOURCES

Learn about the Amah Mutsun
Amah Mutsun Land Trust website
Amah Mutsun Tribal Band Website
Virtual Exhibit: First Peoples of California (curated with tribal input)

Upcoming events and volunteering
CZU AND YOU event series
CZU Lightning Complex and Community Science Project
Volunteering with the Amah Mutsun Land Trust

Learn about Amah Mutsun relationships with fire
Amah Mutsun Land Trust article: Revitalizing Indigenous Stewardship with Cultural Burning
Bay Nature article: Finding Signs of Recovery in Santa Cruz’z Redwood Forest
Bay Nature article: Rekindling the Old Ways

The Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History is located in the unceded territory of the Awaswas-speaking Uypi Tribe. The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, comprised of the descendants of Indigenous people taken to missions Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista during Spanish colonization of the Central Coast, is today working hard to restore traditional stewardship practices on these lands and heal from historical trauma.


This program is part of the series CZU AND YOU: Resources for Recovery, Preparedness, and Ecological Understanding from the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History and Santa Cruz Public Libraries | August 2021