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Juristac Event at Luna Gallery in San Juan Bautista
It’s springtime, and orange poppies, purple lupine, and red paintbrush flowers color the hillsides at Juristac, a pristine hillside landscape in northern San Benito County and Southern Santa Clara County.
In honor of Earth Day, the Luna Gallery in San Juan Bautista is hosting an informational evening about the history and future of Juristac.
Who and What: Speakers from the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band will speak to the public about Juristac’s cultural, spiritual, and ecological importance for Indigenous people. This event accompanies the photo exhibit “Contemporary Indigenous Voices of California’s South Coast Range,” on display at Luna Gallery 3/15-4/27.
Where: Luna Gallery, 107 B The Alameda Ave., San Juan Bautista, CA 95045
When: Saturday, April 19, 2025, from 5:00-7:00 p.m.
Why: The pristine landscape of Juristac is threatened by a proposed open pit mine.
Located in the southern foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains where the Pajaro and San Benito rivers meet, Juristac is a landscape of grassy hillsides dotted with ancient oak trees, sycamore woodlands, and natural tar springs found nowhere else in our region. Overhead, raptors such as White-tailed Kites and Golden Eagles soar. At night time, mountain lions, coyotes, and badgers roam. This landscape is ecologically important as one of the last remaining undeveloped corridors of land where wildlife can migrate between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Diablo Range.
Juristac also holds deep significance for the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, whose ancestors conducted religious ceremonies here for thousands of years. These traditions were disrupted during the Spanish conquest, as many Mutsun people were forcibly taken from Juristac to California’s missions. Juristac is among the last undeveloped sacred Amah Mutsun sites.
Juristac’s current owners propose building an open-pit sand-and-gravel mine, which would devastate 400 acres of this land. The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band has partnered with Green Foothills and other environmental organizations to try to stop a mining permit from being issued.