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Environmentalists buy part of huge ranch at center of mining controversy in Santa Clara County$15.6 million deal for property south of Gilroy that is larger than San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park
Oct 28
1 min read
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The property also has substantial cultural significance. The Amah Mutsun tribal band and its supporters refer to it as part of Juristac, a roughly 30,000-acre area between Gilroy and San Juan Bautista that was the ancestral home of the Amah Mutsun people for 10,000 years before Spanish explorers arrived in California in the 1700s.
“It is a sacred landscape,” said Valentin Lopez, chairman of the tribal band. “What they are proposing would be like building a sand and gravel mine at the Vatican or Mecca or any other holy site in the world. Indigenous spirituality has never been recognized, respected or protected. But it should be recognized the same as other world religions.”
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