The Triumphant Return of the AMLT Youth Stewardship Summer Camp

By Lisa Carrier, AMLT Director of Operations

From July 16-22, 2023, the AMLT Tribal Home in Bonny Doon came alive with the energy and enthusiasm of young Tribal members, family chaperones, and AMLT staff who gathered for the first in-person Youth Stewardship Summer Camp since 2019. This was also the first Youth Stewardship Summer Camp to be hosted at the AMLT Tribal Home, and it attracted the largest turnout yet, with more than 42 participants between ages 5 and 17, and an average daily attendance of 80 campers and their family members, Youth Native Steward Interns, and supporting AMLT staff. 

This year’s camp was also special in that its curriculum and activities were developed, organized, and facilitated by a team that was almost entirely Mutsun. This team was led by Tribal members Lisa Carrier, AMLT’s Director of Operations, and Hannah Moreno, an elementary school teacher who served as Camp Coordinator; and it brought together a diverse group from the Tribal community ranging from Elders to Native Stewards to college students and other members who took on various leadership roles to make sure the Camp was a success. 

Programming for the 7-day and 6-night camp focused on Mutsun stewardship; traditional culture in our everyday life; the importance of our coastal and river water ways, plants, and animals; and our Native foods. With twenty 6-person tents, a dining-activity area with a talking circle, rooms for elders, a full kitchen, and outdoor movies, we created a complete Camp Village at the AMLT Tribal Home. The kids got to explore our native plant meadow, lay under the Santa Cruz Mountain stars at night, and learn about family lineage connections and our ancestors. 

Camp kicked off with a team-building exercise that divided campers into groups organized by this year’s theme of “Central California Coast Birds”. Campers worked in their teams to draw and color their bird symbol on a flag and to learn about each bird’s key characteristics, cultural significance and Mutsun names. The groups then spent time educating each other about these details. All of the birds picked are regularly seen at the Bonny Doon Tribal Home, including the aareh, the Great Blue Heron!

Day after day was packed with field trips and on-site activities. One day took campers to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where they used their Mutsun-focused field guides to learn about tide-pool ecology and marine mammals. Through displays and videos in the Aquarium, campers also learned about our ancestors’ important roles in recent regional history as workers on Cannery Row and as “Rosie the Riveters” during World War II. Other days involved an educational scavenger hunt at Davenport Beach and a rich set of activities at Elkhorn Slough. These activities included a naturalist-led boat tour of the slough to observe its wildlife, and a set of tailored educational activities hosted by staff of the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, with whom AMLT is collaborating on stewardship activities. Campers also spent a day learning about Mutsun ethnobotany and AMLT’s Native Plant Program through a visit to the Program’s base of operations at Cascade Ranch and adjoining Pie Ranch and associated plant gathering activities.

Time at the Tribal Home in Bonny Doon brought opportunities to learn and sing Tribal songs, to practice Mutsun language, and to gather together with Tribal Chairman Valentin Lopez for evening circles focused on Mutsun history and values. Other on-site activities highlighted using art to foster emotional connections and personal expressions related to aspects of Mutsun culture and the camp curriculum. Campers were guided by Elders, Stewards, and other Tribal members as they personalized regalia boxes and special bags for plant gathering, made medicine pouches and miniature tule boats, and pressed their favorite flowers and plants to save in a keepsake frame. 

On one of the last days of Camp, campers gathered various nuts, berries and greens to contribute to our Native Foods table, a dinner of delicious tastings of chinquapin, elderberry, acorn soup, rabbit stew, seaweed, wild boar, and elderberry hazelnut bars that the kids made from scratch. We drank manzanita berry cider and elderberry tea and gave thanks to the bounty and beauty that our native plants provide.

Teenage participants spent much of the week in hands-on learning related to media and communications approaches. This included documenting camp activities with state-of-the-art digital cameras and video equipment and developing their story-telling skills. Teens also participated in an afternoon activity focused on developing personal vision boards and hearing life lessons and reflections on career choices and life planning from their elders.  All participants were encouraged to use custom camp journals to document what they learned and the memories they made. These journals also served as “yearbooks” where campers could share comments and details with cousins both old and new to support remaining connected once camp concluded.

The 2023 Youth Stewardship Summer Camp was a wonderful experience for campers and staff alike. Camp was a big effort, but in the words of Yolanda Maciorski, teacher and Tribal Member, “It was so gratifying to see the kids mesmerized and so engaged in every aspect of learning their culture. It was worth every minute”.

AMLT is grateful to all of our supporters for making the AMLT Youth Stewardship Summer Camp possible, and especially the California State Coastal Conservancy Explore the Coast Grant Program. To make a contribution to support summer camp in 2024, please click here!