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.

Today, we head out with the forester. Do any trees have to be cut down or planted? Are there any animals in the forest that weren’t there before? Is the forest clean or did someone dump trash? Is there a walk in the dark on the program? The forester keeps an eye on all of that and protects nature.

For ages 4 and up.

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

Life as we know it evolved with fire; there is no us without it.

With lyrical text grounded in the latest research, this picture book shares the primal connection between all living things and fire. Children will grasp that fire is basic and powerful; that it has the capability to both destroy and create; that everything they know in the world has evolved with fire.

There is comfort in understanding the natural processes taking place all around us. By learning the story of fire and how it has changed this planet, this book also addresses the question: Can people adapt to an increasingly fire-prone environment? This answer is: Yes. Because we always have. While fire is to be respected, with proper care and thoughtful planning, it can be a benefit to Earth. We can learn from the past to help create our future. Through understanding, we will thrive.

Ages: 4-8, 1-2 Grade Level

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.

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.