The Royal Road

 

From: Sogorea Te' Land Trust

Summer in Carmel Valley, CA

 Summer in Carmel Valley, CA

From: Carmel Valley Locals

The Sacred Village Site of Cappanay

 

The Esselen Tribe of Monterey County purchased 1,720 acres of oak savanna and grassland along Tularcitos Creek in Upper Carmel Valley, preventing the ancestral land's subdivision into luxury estates. The state-funded acquisition includes the sacred village site of Cappanay and protects critical wildlife habitat.

South- Central California Coast Steelhead

 

South-Central California Coast Steelhead are a key focus of the Rancho Cañada Floodplain Restoration Project. These threatened fish need connected river systems with diverse habitats to complete their lifecycle.

This project complements upstream fish passage improvements like the San Clemente Dam removal, helping recover this iconic species in the Carmel River watershed.

https://www.facebook.com/MPRegionalParkDistrict

Steelhead Trout in the Carmel River

 

Cappanay is one of the largest and farthest inland known Esselen village sites

 

The Esselen Tribe is poised to reclaim 1,720 acres of culturally and ecologically significant lands along Tularcitos Creek in the Upper Carmel Valley, Monterey County.

The property hosts oak savanna and riparian corridors and is home to sacred cultural sites including ancient village locations, bedrock mortars and traditional gathering areas.

Among these is “Cappanay”, one of the largest and farthest inland known Esselen village sites. In the Esselen language, Cappanay means “little tules,” referencing the native plants that once thrived along the creeks, vernal pools and wetlands among the rolling oak-covered hills.

From: Wildlands Conservancy

Carmel River April 2025

 

Rancho Cañada Floodplain Restoration Project

 

The Rancho Cañada Floodplain Restoration Project is an ambitious $38 million, multi-year initiative to restore a one-mile section of the Carmel River and rewild a former golf course, now part of Palo Corona Regional Park.

Carmel River State Beach lagoon

 

Carmel River Steelhead Association

Carmel River, December 2024

 

Esselen Language Territory from "California Indian Languages" Victor Golla, 2011

 

Master Ohlone basket weaver Linda Yamane taught herself the intricate and nearly extinct craft over 100 years after the last Rumsen basketmakers died.

One of her baskets required about 20,000 stitches, 1,200 handcrafted beads, and thousands of feathers. Her basket was completed in a ceremonial style that hadn’t been made in 250 years.

Linda Yamane weaving a twined work basket (photo by Neil Bennet)

Around the same time as beginning basketry, Yamane also discovered source materials for the Rumsen language, which she used to create a dictionary she now shares with individual community members, 85 years after the last fluent Rumsen speaker died.

Yamane wants to depict the ancestral villages of Achista, Tucutnut, Ishxenta, Echilat, and Shokronta.

“I want to reconstruct our five Rumsen villages and reconstruct them with our people as life was before the missions came,” Yamane said. 

From: HYPERALLERGIC
 

Piney Fire October 2024

 

From: Carmel Valley Locals

Piney Fire October, 2024

 

Photo from:https://www.facebook.com/WaltersLab

Tassajara Shrine

 

Tassajara Creek Canyon

For most of its history the Tassajara Creek canyon has been a sacred place of healing. Over thousands of years, many indigenous people seeking remedies for ailments of the body and spirit traveled to the area, knowing it was a place where shamans—those in deep reciprocity with the healing powers of the land and waters—resided and held ceremonies. 

Tassajara Zen Mountain Center

 

Tassajara Zen Mountain Center was the first to have men, women, and couples practicing together. Because nothing quite like this has ever been done before, many aspects of monastic life had to be determined. Whether to wear temple-type robes or American style clothes? Which ceremonies to adopt? How to arrange the living space? Kobun Chino Sensei and Dainin Katagiri Sensei (both of whom would later be called roshi) assisted Suzuki Roshi in helping the new students. A few other priests from Japan came later. 

Tassajara Zen Mountain Center opened on July 3, 1967

 

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, a Zen master from Japan, came to San Francisco in 1959. Suzuki Roshi wanted a place in the mountains where Zen students could follow traditional practice, including meditation, study, and daily life.  The opening day for Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, Zenshinji (the Japanese name) was on July 3, 1967.

La Mision del Gloriosisimo Patriarch San Jose

When this Mission was founded it was named "La Mision del Gloriosisimo Patriarch San Jose" in honor of St. Joseph.

Father President directed some of the escort to construct a large cross on the ground, and others to build in the open an enramada, of “bower of branches,” with an altar in its shelter, in preparation for the ceremony of founding the mission set for the next day.

“Very early in the morning,” the first day of the week, June 11, 1797, the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, the reverend Fathers, the Spanish soldiers, and the Loreto Indians assembled for the dedicatory ceremony.  The unusual stir in the camp, the ringing of the bell, the firing of the muskets, the smoke of the incense, the lighting of the Mass candles, the sight of the beautiful vestments of the priests – all attracted groups of [Indians] to the scene.

The Secularization Act of 1833

 
Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821. The California Missions continued to prosper under Mexican rule until the Secularization Act of 1833. What was left of Mission San Jose began to decline, and over time, the native populations were scattered. Very few were given their land, and many died of disease and starvation.