Category: history
Amah Mutsun Reclaim Land Stewardship Through Land Trust
Through the Amah Mutsun Land Trust, the tribe is regaining it’s role as stewards and tenders of the lands traditionally occupied. “Creator gave us the responsibility to take care of Mother Earth and all living things,” said Valentin Lopez, tribal chairman. “We have to find a way to live up to that responsibility.” Santa Cruz Sentinel Read more…
California Indians Demand Cruelty to Ancestors Be Disclosed as California Mission Foundation Tries to Declare El Camino Real a UNESCO World Heritage Site
A proposal by the California Mission Foundation to have the state’s famed El Camino Real route declared a UNESCO Heritage Site is being bitterly opposed by state Indians who said it would only “honor and glorify the brutal conquest” of Indian lands. “Our tribe and many other California Tribes impacted by the California Mission system Read more…
AlJazeera Television Report on the Canonization of Junipero Serra
Some argue that California’s native peoples voluntarily joined the Spanish Missions founded by Junipero Serra in the 18th Century. “Not true,” Valentin Lopez of the Amah Mutsun told AlJazeera Television. “That’s why they had soldiers with them, to capture the Indians.” https://vimeo.com/140805432
“We are Stunned” Lopez Tells CNN
“We are stunned and we are in disbelief,” Valentin Lopez told CNN after the canonization of Junipero Serra in Sept. 23, 2015 in Washington, DC.
Native Americans Make Last Ditch Plea to Stop Serra Canonization
Native American activists and advocates met Tuesday, Sept. 22, in Washington, D.C., for one last-ditch effort to draw attention to their objection over the canonization of 18th-century Franciscan friar Junípero Serra. Read details in the National Catholic Reporter
Letter to Pope Francis, Sept. 2015
In a letter to Pope Francis outlining the reasons the Amah Mutson people oppose the canonization of Junipero Serra, Tribal ChairmanValentin Lopez says “Undoubtedly what puzzles and hurts us most is how the Catholic Church has ignored the humanity of our ancestors.” Read: Letter to the Pope Sept 2015
Call In: Valentin Lopez in a Discussion of Serra’s Canonization
Public Radio Station KALW featured Aman Mutsun Tribal Chairman Valentin Lopez in a discussion of the issues surrounding Junipero Serra during the program Call In on Sept. 14, 2015. Listen at http://kalw.org/term/elias-castillo#stream/0
How Tarnished is Serra’s Halo?
A report written by Vinnie Rotondaro in the National Catholic Reporter explores the controversy surrounding Junipero Serra
Writings of Junipero Serra 1773
Serra Gate: A Fabrication of a Saint By Christine Grabowski, Ph.D. There is a scurrilous fabrication being disseminated by the Catholic Church regarding Junípero Serra, the missionary whom Pope Francis intends to canonize on September 23, 2015.The attached file is the English translation from a book published by Antonine Tibesar, “Writings of Junipero Serra,” Vol. 1, Published Read more…
Tribal Chairmen’s Assn. Letter Opposing Serra Canonization
The Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Association, in an August 2015 letter to Pope Francis, opposes the canonization of the Franciscan Friar Junipero Serra. Fr. Serra was responsible for founding and building, by means of the forced labor of our Native ancestors, nine of the twenty-one Spanish Catholic missions that were eventually built on the traditional Read more…
Is America’s New Saint More of a Sinner?
The Amah Mutsun opposition to canonizing Junipero Serra is part of story reported by Public Radio International, a nonprofit orgaization whose content attracts nearly 19 million people around the world each month. “We’ve asked The Pope to work with our tribal members to begin a healing process. And we have not heard back from him,” Valentin Lopez, chairman Read more…
Association of Tribal Governments Letter Opposing Serra Sainthood
The California Association of Tribal Governments has written a letter to Richard Garcia, Bishop of the Diocese of Monterey, Ca., “with our hope and prayers that someone with influence within the Catholic Church may advise his Holiness Pope Francis to reevaluate his decision to canonize Friar Junipero Serra,” and asking for a meeting to reevaluate Read more…
Letter to Pope Francis Re: The Doctrine of Christian Discovery
New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends has ssent a letter to Pope Francis asking him to repudiate and rescind the Doctrine of Christian Discovery promulgated by predecessor popes. In addition to achieving its stated goal, the letter supports the Amah Mutsun effort to call attention to the inhuman way that the Read more…
Letter to Gov. Jerry Brown August, 2015
August 31, 2015 Office of Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. c/o State Capitol. Suite 1173 Sacramento, CA 95814 Re: Open Letter Regarding the Canonization and symbolism of Junipero Serra YOU MAY SIGN A PETITION ON THIS REQUEST TO GOV, JERRY BROWN AT CHANGE.ORG Dear Governor Brown, My name is Valentin Lopez and Read more…
Tribal Psychiatrist Says Serra Canonization Will Deepen ‘Soul Wound’
“For the most part, California Indians have never healed from the treatment their ancestors endured in the missions, and making Junipero Serra a saint is going to make it even harder for healing to occur,” psychologist Donna Schindler told former Franciscan friar Mark Day. In an article published in La Prensa San Diego Day explores Read more…
Petition California Gov. Jerry Brown to Oppose Canonizing Junipero Serra
Please go to Change.org to sign our petition urging California Gov. Jerry Brown to acknowledge the dark history of Serra’s missions and oppose the canonization of Junipero Serra. The petition also urges Brown to encourage the Legislature to take meaningful action to include accurate accounts of what Indians endured at the missions in school curriculae and state Read more…
California’s Saint, and a Church’s Sins
An opinion piece by New York Times writer Lawrence Downes describes opposition to the canonization of Junipero Serra. The piece quotes Valentin Lopez, chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band: “How can Pope Francis and the Catholic Church speak or act with moral authority when they know that they have mistreated the indigenous people?” and the Read more…
Far from Human and Scarcely Civilized
Letters written by California Mission founder Junipero Serra and one of his successors, Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, help create context for the attitude of leaders of the missions toward Indians. Told by church officials to allow Indians to “change their location” and “journey from place to place,” Lasuén protests that this would never work for Read more…
Letter fro Steven Newcomb to Gov. Jerry Brown
Steven Newcomb, author and co-foundeer of the Indigenous Law Institute, challenges California Gov. Jerry Brown to oppose canonization of Junipero Serra. Earlier the governor called Serra “one of the innovators and pioneers of California” in a letter July, 2015. Letter from Steven Newcomb to Gov. Brown
The Impact of Colonization on Native California Societies
By 1769 the Spanish had had nearly two and a half centuries of experience in dealing with American Indians, and were therefore prepared for managing the California Indians who had nothing worth taking, and who fell in that class of people called “Barbarians.” Spanish Indian policy was at heart that of the obligation to civilize Read more…
Pope Overlooks Cultural Genocide in Canonizing Junipero Serra
Critics say that Pope Francis, who recently called attention to the 1915 genocide against Armenians by the Ottoman Empire, has a blind spot when it comes to the brutal Spanish conquest of the Americas. After the announcement that Junipero Serra, founder of California’s missions, would be canonized in September, 2015, Vatican officials argued that Serra Read more…