Castle Rock State Park

Uh oh, cannibal trees!!

Green Friday gives way to Golden Saturday...no shortage of days or colors up here!

As Native American Heritage Month draws to a close, we want to acknowledge the Amah Mutsun Native Stewardship Corps and their work co-managing ancestral lands with California State Parks today. The Native Stewardship Corps of young adult tribal members learn and perform traditional land management techniques and Traditional Ecological Knowledge, such as using fire to promote biodiversity and reduce fuel loads that contribute to catastrophic wildfires. Native Californians mana...ged their lands with fire successfully for thousands of years prior to European colonization, creating one of the most biodiverse regions in the world. Since June 2018, the Native Stewards have worked with State Parks to form and implement a co-management plan in Año Nuevo by using traditional land management practices to reshape the landscape to more resemble what it looked like historically, when it had been managed by the Quiroste tribe. These changes are increasing the plant and animal populations that the Indigenous ancestors managed for food, medicine, and tools and that today’s tribal members continue to use for cultural practices. As California State Parks and other land agencies reevaluate their fire management policies in the wake of devastating wildfires like the CZU Lightning Complex Fire, we are grateful that the Amah Mutsun Native Stewards continue to preserve and share their ancestors’ ecological knowledge. www.amahmutsunlandtrust.org #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth #NAHM

If given the choice I’ll take Autumn Gold over Winter Cold, but that’s just me

As we continue celebrating Native American Heritage Month, this week we want to spotlight a very important person in our local history. Maria Ascensión Solórsano (1855-1930) is an ancestor of members of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band (comprised of tribal families with historic ties to Missions Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista). She was a healer, collector of tribal lore and traditions, and the last fluent speaker of the Mutsun language. Ethnographer John Peabody Harrington recor...ded many of her stories and the Mutsun language over the last years of her life. The Amah Mutsun are now drawing on her stories and teachings to re-learn the Mutsun language and to introduce her wisdom to a new generation of tribal members. Without Ascencion’s dedicated efforts to preserving Amah Mutsun culture, much tribal knowledge would have been lost. The Amah Mutsun revere her memory as a guiding force during a critical time in their history. To recognize her social contributions, she was inducted into the Gilroy Hall of Fame in 1995 and Ascención Solóranso Middle School in Gilroy was named in her honor in 2003. To learn more about the Amah Mutsun and their history, visit www.amahmutsun.org. #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth #NAHM