"Juristac was a place of good medicine. It was a place where many shamans lived, in particular Kuksui, lived in the hills here and would come down to ceremonies. We then got help from many other groups and formed an alliance, which then grew to a movement to protect Juristac and stop the mining operation."
"I think in the near term, what we're really focusing on is providing opportunities for members of the tribe who have been disconnected from this landscape for many, many generations to get back on this land, reconnect with the land, learn more about the land."
Ed Ketchum, tribal chairman and historian of the Amah Mutsun band, led efforts to reclaim Juristac, a historically sacred landscape near Gilroy that served as a spiritual center where shamans conducted ceremonies. The land was colonized by Spanish missionaries, later became Sargent Ranch, and faced destruction through proposed sand and gravel mining operations. Community opposition to the mining project sparked a broader movement to protect the area's cultural heritage. The Peninsula Open Space Trust negotiated the purchase of over 6,000 acres for $23 million, marking a significant victory. This acquisition enables tribal members who were disconnected from their ancestral lands for generations to reconnect with the landscape and learn about their cultural history.
#indigenous-land-reclamation #sacred-tribal-sites #environmental-conservation #cultural-heritage-preservation #community-activism
Read at ABC7 San Francisco
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