Welcome, teachers. This page contains resources and activities for students regarding Juristac, Amah Mutsun history, and related subjects. There are two sets of materials available.
Below you will find six lesson plans in PDF format that are tailored to a high school learning level. Although these materials were developed with high school standards in mind, they can easily be adapted for use in many different grade levels and instructional settings.
There are also seven “mini lessons” designed for use by upper elementary-aged students. These PowerPoint-based lessons provide engaging activities and can serve as an introduction to the issues surrounding Juristac for readers of any learning level.
We invite and encourage your feedback and stories of classroom experiences while teaching with these materials. Please contact us by email at curriculum [at] protectjuristac.org.
Juristac curriculum: Activities and study guides
The following activities and exercises are aligned with the English Language Arts (ELA) and History/Social Studies Common Core State Standards. In these activities, you will find opportunities to engage your students in meaningful research into local history, reflective discussion, critical thinking, and persuasive writing. We have prepared a Standards Alignment Guide (PDF, 3 pages) that provides a detailed list of standards aligned with the activities and a chart outlining which standards are covered by each assignment.
- Introduction to the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band’s Campaign to Protect Juristac (PDF, 3 pages)
- Discussion Guide: Protect Juristac Speaking Event (PDF, 3 pages)
- Mapping Your Location on Tribal Territories (PDF, 7 pages)
- Persuasive Writing Through Letters to the Editor (PDF, 5 pages)
- Voices from the Walk for Juristac (PDF, 12 pages)
- Colonization and Land Tenure at Juristac (PDF, 11 pages)
- Stewardship from the Amah Mutsun Perspective (PDF, 3 pages)
Amah Mutsun Youth Walk for Juristac MINI-LESSON Slideshows
Learn more about the Amah Mutsun and Juristac through these seven engaging multi-media slideshow-based lessons that follow the route of the Youth Walk for Juristac.
- Lesson 1: The Amah Mutsun and Juristac
- Lesson 2: Mission San Juan Bautista
- Lesson 3: Agriculture and Amah Mutsun Traditional Foods
- Lesson 4: Ascención & the Confluence
- Lesson 5: Wildlife of Juristac
- Lesson 6: The Proposed Mine
- Lesson 7: Amah Mutsun Land Stewardship
Additional resources for educators
This list will be expanded periodically. Email us if you are looking for resources around a particular topic related to Juristac or the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band that you are not finding here.
Selected videos
- Amah Mutsun Tribal Chairman Valentin Lopez’s Perspective on Juristac by Stanford Journalism—3 minutes, 2020.
- Juristac: A short film by Ariel Bobbett— 4 minutes, 2018.
- Here and Now— by Bay Area Open Space Council, 2015. 18 minutes. Documents the work of the Amah Mutsun Land Trust and Tribal Stewardship Corps.
- Excavating the past; Improving the future— UC Berkeley, 2018. 4 minutes. Portrays ongoing collaboration between the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and UC Berkeley archaeologists and anthropologists.
- UMUNHUM by Plus M Productions, 2017. 11 minutes. Featuring the story of the return of the Amah Mutsun to their sacred mountain in Santa Clara County, Mt Umunhum.
- Beyond Recognition: “A film exploring the quest to preserve one’s culture and homeland in a society bent on erasing them”—featuring one of the Amah Mutsun’s neighboring tribes, the Confederated Villages of Lisjan. 25 minutes, 2014. Available via streaming and DVD.
- Telling the Truth About California Missions, Classroom Edition (featuring Valentin Lopez, Elias Castillo, Mark Day)
- Videos from December 2018 Protect Juristac panel in Morgan Hill
- Additional videos on this Protect Juristac YouTube playlist
Wildlife corridors / landscape linkages
- Stuart Weiss presentation on wildlife impacts of the proposed Sargent Quarry (Dec. 2018 video)
- Bay Area Critical Linkages Map
- Critical Linkages: Bay Area and Beyond (Report – 50mb PDF):
- Santa Clara Valley Habitat Plan
Amah Mutsun and Ohlone
- Rekindling The Old Ways: The Amah Mutsun and the Recovery of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (Bay Nature article)
- Contemporary Ohlone History (article)
- Ohlone/Costanoan Indians of the San Francisco Peninsula and their Neighbors, Yesterday and Today— by Randall Milliken, Laurence H. Shoup, and Beverly R. Ortiz. National Park Service, 2009. Individual chapter PDFs on NPS website
- “No Somos Animales”: Indigenous Resistance and Perseverance in Nineteenth Century Santa Cruz— by Martin Adam Rizzo. Unpublished dissertation, September 2006.
- Justice for Juristac: Using International and Comparative Law to Protect Indigenous Lands— article in the Santa Clara Journal of International Law (2020)
- Mutsun-English English-Mutsun Dictionary, mutsun-inkiS inkiS-mutsun riica pappel— full 677 page PDF of dictionary available for free download.
- The Case of California’s Amah Mutsun by E. Richard Hart, published in the journal Western Legal History, 2003 — a scholarly review of the legal history of the dispossession of Mutsun people from their ancestral lands, with a focus on the case of Rancho Juristac (Sargent Ranch)
- An Eco-Archaeological Study of Late Holocene Indigenous Foodways and Landscape Management Practices at Quiroste Valley Cultural Preserve, San Mateo County, California
- Ohlone elders and youth speak: Restoring a California Legacy
Related curriculum resources
- Standing on Sacred Ground film series teaching resources from the Berkeley-based Sacred Land Film Project: Teacher’s Guides and Discussion Guides
- California’s First Mass Incarceration System: Franciscan Missions, California Indians, and Penal Servitude, 1769–1836. Benjamin Madley, 2019 (34 pages)
- California Indian History Curriculum Coalition (CIHCC) resource list
- Run4Salmon 4th Grade Curriculum
- The East Bay Regional Park District’s Native Peoples Map Brochure by District Naturalist Beverly R. Ortiz
Distance instruction tips for educators
- Zoom: Getting Started With Breakout Rooms (within a Zoom class or meeting)
- Canvas Conferences (BigBlueButton) support: How to create and manage breakout rooms | How to share a YouTube video within a conference
- Blackboard Collaborate: How to use Breakout Groups
- D2L: Breakout Rooms overview
- Zoom 101 for Teachers
- Tips & Tricks for Teachers Educating on Zoom (2 page PDF from Zoom)