Indian Canyon
The Great-Grandson of the Last Mutsun Full-Blooded Member Seeks to Reconnect Tribe with Its Ancestral Land
On a sunlit day in late June, a crowd gathers at Indian Canyon in California’s Gabilan Range for the 27th Annual Storytelling Gathering. Amid the cottonwoods and sycamores, a legacy of Indigenous preservation unfolds. This unique stretch of land is the only remaining Indigenous-owned property in the region, and serves as a refuge for ceremony and reconnection, led by artist and educator Kanyon Sayers-Roods. But it is Anthony Mondragon, great-grandson of Ascencion Solorsano—the last full-blooded Mutsun tribe member—who is on a quest to preserve his tribe’s history and establish a physical home for the Mutsun people. Mondragon, a Seaside resident, is not an academic or activist by trade, but he is driven by his deep connection to his great-grandmother’s legacy. Solorsano, who passed in 1930,...
