How the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band is Coming Home

Header photo: This Bonny Doon home on 1.5 acres is the first piece of land the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band has been able to call its own since the 1790s. Photo: Erin Malsbury/Good Times

Last spring, we received a phone call from our friends at the Amah Mutsun Land Trust.

Could we help them raise $3 million in a week to purchase a piece of property to bring the tribe back to the lands members care for, house the Native Stewardship Corps, hold sacred ceremonies, and build cultural identity across generations?

Working together with tribal leaders, and thanks to the truly incredible generosity of donors, we were able to help the Amah Mutsun Tribal band purchase the home and land—the first the tribe has been able to call their own for over 220 years.

On land their ancestors lived on for thousands of years, tribal members are now building gardens that will soon be filled with traditional herbs and crops. They will soon hold workshops on language, culture, dance, and song. And, the Native Stewardship Corps members, most of whom reside in the Central Valley, far from ancestral lands, will live together as they manage land along the Pacific coast—in Awaswas homelands—with traditional indigenous ecological practices.

This 1.5 acres is a place to heal and restore cultural identity while bringing tribal members back to the lands they care for.