1500 California Place Names

 1500 California Place Names

Their Origin and Meaning, A Revised version of 1000 California

Place Names by Erwin G. Gudde, Third editionWilliam Bright

This is the new “pocket” version of the classic California Place Names, first published by

California in 1949. Erwin G. Gudde’s monumental work, which went through several

editions during its author’s lifetime, has now been released in an expanded and updated

edition by William Bright. The abridged version, originally called 1000 California Place

Names, has grown to a dynamic 1500 California Place Names in Bright’s hands. Those who

have used and enjoyed 1000 California Place Names through the decades will be glad to

know that 1500 California Place Names is not only bigger but better. This handbook

focuses on two sorts of names: those that are well-known as destinations or geographical

features of the state, such as La Jolla, Tahoe, and Alcatraz, and those that demand

attention because of their problematic origins, whether Spanish like Bodega and Chamisal

or Native American like Aguanga and Siskiyou.

Names of the major Indian tribes of California are included, since some of them have been

directly adapted as place names and others have been the source of a variety of names.

Bright incorporates his own recent research and that of other linguists and local historians,

giving us a much deeper appreciation of the tangled ancestry many California names

embody. Featuring phonetic pronunciations for all the Golden State’s tongue-twisting

names, this is in effect a brand new book, indispensable to California residents and visitors

alike.

Life in a California Mission

A great resource for 4th grade Mission projects!

On the afternoon of September 14, 1786, two French ships appeared off the coast of Monterey, the first foreign vessels to visit Spain’s California colonies. Aboard was a party of eminent scientists, navigators, cartographers, illustrators, and physicians.

For the next ten days the commander of this expedition, Jean Francois de La Pérouse, took detailed notes on the life and character of the area: its abundant wildlife, the labors of soldiers and monks, and the customs of Indians recently drawn into the mission. These observations provide a startling portrait of California two centuries ago.

By Jean François de la Pérouse; Introduction and Commentary by Malcolm Margolin; Illustrations by Linda Yamane.

 

 

Native American Testimony

In a series of powerful and moving documents, anthropologist Peter Nabokov presents a history of Native American and white relations as seen though Indian eyes and told through Indian voices. Beginning with the Indians’ first encounters with European explorers, traders, missionaries, settlers, and soldiers to the challenges confronting Native American culture today, Native American Testimony spans five hundred years of interchange between the two peoples. Drawing from a wide range of sources–traditional narratives, Indian autobiographies, government transcripts, firsthand interviews, and more–Nabokov has assembled a remarkably rich and vivid collection, representing nothing less than an alternate history of North America.

Mutsun-Ohlone Language Coloring Book

Language revitalization through coloring. A coloring book aiming to encourage language learning, sharing of culture & truth in history. Focused on Language Revitalization of the Southern Santa Clara Territory – All of San Benito County and Northern areas of Monterey County.

We Are Not Animals by Martin Rizzo-Martinez

Foreword by Amah Mutsun Tribal Chair Valentin Lopez.

By examining historical records and drawing on oral histories and the work of anthropologists, archaeologists, ecologists, and psychologists, We Are Not Animals sets out to answer questions regarding who the Indigenous people in the Santa Cruz region were and how they survived through the nineteenth century. Between 1770 and 1900 the linguistically and culturally diverse Ohlone and Yokuts tribes adapted to and expressed themselves politically and culturally through three distinct colonial encounters with Spain, Mexico, and the United States. In We Are Not Animals Martin Rizzo-Martinez traces tribal, familial, and kinship networks through the missions’ chancery registry records to reveal stories of individuals and families and shows how ethnic and tribal differences and politics shaped strategies of survival within the diverse population that came to live at Mission Santa Cruz.

We Are Not Animals illuminates the stories of Indigenous individuals and families to reveal how Indigenous politics informed each of their choices within a context of immense loss and violent disruption.

Praise

“Deeply researched and fresh in conception, methodology, and breadth, We Are Not Animals is a major contribution to the study of Native California and the missions. . . . In a singular and exceptional way among historians, Martin Rizzo-Martinez identifies Native people by name, family, and tribe and he follows the survivors of the Amah Mutsun nation through the American genocide of the late nineteenth century.”—Lisbeth Haas, professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz
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“Rizzo-Martinez unearths Native voices from the archive to provide an overdue historical account of the Indigenous experience in Santa Cruz and surrounding region. By decentering colonial institutions like the missions and non-Native voices, Rizzo-Martinez effectively places Indigenous space and knowledge at the center of this study, a valuable model for future scholars of the Native experience in California.”—Yve Chavez (Tongva), assistant professor of history of art and visual culture at the University of California, Santa Cruz
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“Both heartbreaking and inspiring, We Are Not Animals is a history of destruction as well as of California Indian survival against great odds. Rizzo-Martinez has written a deeply researched study of Indigenous peoples in Santa Cruz and surrounding areas that improves our understanding of Native American experiences in California as a whole.”—Benjamin Madley, author of An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846–1873

Discovering Mission Santa Cruz

Learn about the fascinating history of the Santa Cruz Mission, the 12th of the 21 Spanish Missions in California. The content provided in this book, aligned to California state standards, will provide students with a greater insight into the story of Santa Cruz and California’s mission system. This book is filled with excellent primary source materials and visuals, including illustrations, paintings, and maps.

Available in English and in Spanish. 

Tending the Wild by M. Kat Anderson

John Muir was an early proponent of a view we still hold today—that much of California was pristine, untouched wilderness before the arrival of Europeans. But as this groundbreaking book demonstrates, what Muir was really seeing when he admired the grand vistas of Yosemite and the gold and purple flowers carpeting the Central Valley were the fertile gardens of the Sierra Miwok and Valley Yokuts Indians, modified and made productive by centuries of harvesting, tilling, sowing, pruning, and burning. Marvelously detailed and beautifully written, Tending the Wild is an unparalleled examination of Native American knowledge and uses of California’s natural resources that reshapes our understanding of native cultures and shows how we might begin to use their knowledge in our own conservation efforts.

M. Kat Anderson presents a wealth of information on native land management practices gleaned in part from interviews and correspondence with Native Americans who recall what their grandparents told them about how and when areas were burned, which plants were eaten and which were used for basketry, and how plants were tended. The complex picture that emerges from this and other historical source material dispels the hunter-gatherer stereotype long perpetuated in anthropological and historical literature. We come to see California’s indigenous people as active agents of environmental change and stewardship. Tending the Wild persuasively argues that this traditional ecological knowledge is essential if we are to successfully meet the challenge of living sustainably.

Flutes of Fire: Essays on California Indian Languages

By Leann Hinton

Before outsiders arrived, about 100 distinct Indian languages were spoken in California, many of them alive today. Each of these languages represents a unique way of understanding the world and expressing that understanding.

Flutes of Fire examines many different aspects of Indian languages: languages, such as Yana, in which men and women have markedly different ways of speaking; ingenious ways used in each language for counting. Hinton discusses how language can retain evidence of ancient migrations, and addresses what different groups are doing to keep languages alive and pass them down to the younger generations.

We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth

Edited by Dahr Jamail and Stan Rushworth

A powerful, intimate collection of conversations with Indigenous Americans on the climate crisis and the Earth’s future

“Mankind has a chance to change the direction of this movement, do a roundabout turn, and move in the direction of peace, harmony, and respect for land and life. The time is right now. Later will be too late.” —Hopi elder Thomas Banyacya, from the introduction

Although for a great many people, the human impact on the Earth—countless species becoming extinct, pandemics claiming millions of lives, and climate crisis causing worldwide social and environmental upheaval—was not apparent until recently, this is not the case for all people or cultures. For the Indigenous people of the world, radical alteration of the planet, and of life itself, is a story that is many generations long. They have had to adapt, to persevere, and to be courageous and resourceful in the face of genocide and destruction—and their experience has given them a unique understanding of civilizational devastation.

An innovative work of research and reportage, We Are the Middle of Forever places Indigenous voices at the center of conversations about today’s environmental crisis. The book draws on interviews with people from different North American Indigenous cultures and communities, generations, and geographic regions, who share their knowledge and experience, their questions, their observations, and their dreams of maintaining the best relationship possible to all of life. A welcome antidote to the despair arising from the climate crisis, We Are the Middle of Forever brings to the forefront the perspectives of those who have long been attuned to climate change and will be an indispensable aid to those looking for new and different ideas and responses to the challenges we face.

When the Mission Bells Rang by Dr. Judith Scott

This imagined fable is a great introduction to the California Mission era, and was written in consultation with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. It tells the story of the Council of the Animals, including a mountain lion, a hummingbird, a bear, and a sparrow, and their struggle against the Mission bells that have disrupted their habitat and way of life.

Dr. Judith Scott is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation. She is a retired Professor from the Education Department of the University of California, Santa Cruz where she taught literacy courses and multicultural children’s literature for over twenty years.

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Dr. Daisy Martin, Director of the University of California History and Civics Project:

Teachers, parents and students will want to read this book again and again. The story is engaging and dramatic and embeds powerful concepts such as community, agency, and resistance. It is an allegory of sorts–providing a developmentally appropriate way to learn and investigate the history of the Missions from a long-silenced indigenous perspective. And background knowledge! And Mutsun words! The possibilities for using this book in elementary classrooms abound.

Hannah Moreno, Amah Mutsun Tribal Band Member and 2nd grade teacher:

As Amah Mutsun, it is our moral duty to take care of Mother Earth and to honor all living things. When the Mission Bells Rang demonstrates our relationship with all living things through a story of teamwork and resilience. I really appreciate how this book incorporates our language and shares the history of the missions from an indigenous perspective.

Amah Mutsun Tribal Band Chair, Valentin Lopez:

When the Mission Bells Rang is a beautiful book written from the voice of our Mutsun animal relatives. It shows that, when the Catholic missions came to California, it was horribly disruptive to the indigenous peoples and our animal relatives. The book also shows the resilience that allows us to survive to this day.

Martin Rizzo-Martinez, author of We Are Not Animals:

Got my copy of this beautiful new children’s book, When the Mission Bells Rang, written in consultation w/ the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. Includes the Mutsun names of local animals & their reactions to the mission bells. (Twitter)