Mural at 118 Winston St.
by Tongva artist River Garza

This mural (re)maps Los Angeles and depicts traditional village sites that remain known throughout the city.
Kuruvungna Springs Foundation
These springs are located on University High School grounds, just a mile and a half from UCLA campus. This location is important to the history of Los Angeles, and a place that can stimulate teaching and research on Indigenous stewardship. It is a place which opens itself up to hold various Indigenous events from Before Columbus yearly event commemorating Indigenous survival, youth dancing, and the spirit run. It has survived to this day through cooperation between LAUSD and Gabrielino/Tongva stewardship. See our Story Map for the rich history of this place!
Exiled NDNZ
Community consultant Pamela Peters (Navajo) documents the legacy of the 1950’s Relocation and Termination policies in Los Angeles in her projects. As someone who moved from Denetah to LA, she is interested in the many roads that bring American Indians to Los Angeles.
All images are copyrighted © 2014 Pamela J. Peters.
Comunidad de San Bartolome Quialana
The San Bartolome Quialana community from the Oaxacan district of Tlacolula in the 2nd Annual Los Angeles Calenda, 2015.
Untitled Flax Weaving (Phormium Tenax)
This art piece was made by Karl Leonard (e Arawa, Ngati Awa and Ngati Raukawa) from Aotearoa and commissioned by Michele Erai (Maori) who now resides in LA. The piece commemorates the 2014 exhibition, Maori Cloaks, Maori Voices, at the Fowler Museum at UCLA and is an expression of cross-community relationships, as well as a way to mark Indigenous space at UCLA by reminding us of the lands we are on. The three panels are joined together and may be separated, representing the relationship that was forged through collaboration at UCLA between Gender Studies, the Gabrielino/Tongva communities, and the Fowler Museum.
Tongva Sandpainting
This photo by Craig Torres is taken at the site of Tongva creation, Puvungna.
Not A Cornfield by Lauren Bon and Metabolic Studio
“Not a Cornfield transformed an abandoned rail yard in Downtown Los Angeles into a 32-acre cornfield for one agricultural cycle. The work, Bon’s first metabolic sculpture, began almost a decade of remediation of this iconic yet neglected site, the last remaining undeveloped land of the native Tongva and Gabrieleno people and the site of the Zanja Madre, or mother ditch, that linked the LA River to the first Spanish settlement in Los Angeles.” As Olivia Chumacero states about Yagna, “To have a place in any city that is outside that is available [and] accessible for us to do ceremony is paramount to our continued way of life, our cultural way of life.”
Oaxaca Heritage Month

Visit our Story Maps

Uncovering multiple layers of indigenous Los Angeles through digital storytelling & oral history with community leaders, youth and elders from indigenous communities throughout the city.

UPDATE!!!
The Indigenous CO-PIs and Wendy Teeter have agreed to archive the project given the recent admission of Maylei Blackwell that she is not Cherokee and willfully did not follow up on family stories. Professor Blackwell primarily worked with the Latin American Indigenous Diaspora map. We regret any harm that came to the communities we have worked with over the years. Our Indigenous collaborators are an important part of this research and we tried to our best to keep their voices and wishes in the project mapping. The voices of community members are important in these maps, So for now we will keep the project up until we consult with our community collaborators about their wishes given Dr. Blackwell’s admission.

David Deis, Cartographer; Cindi Alvitre, Essayist from LAtitudes: An Angeleno’s Atlas (2015, Heyday)

Mapping Indigenous LA

Place-Making Through Digital Storytelling

A map of Los Angeles does not tell the story of its people. In a megalopolis like Los Angeles, this is a story that is often invisible to policy makers and even the city’s notion of itself as a global crossroads. This story includes layered, sedimented cultural geographies of Indigenous Los Angeles that includes the Gabrielino/Tongva and Tataviam who struggle for recognition of their sacred spaces and recognition as a nations, American Indians who were removed from their lands and displaced through governmental policies of settler colonialism, and indigenous diasporas from Latin America and Oceania where people have been displaced by militarism, neoliberal economic policies, and overlapping colonial histories. When we consider Pacific Islander and Latin American Indigenous Diasporas, Los Angeles has the largest indigenous population of any city in the US. While many would argue that there is not one Los Angeles but multiple LAs, what is less known is that there are multiple indigenous LAs whose histories are layered into the fabric of the city.

Click on the map to the left to view our story maps.

Featured Story Maps

Perspectives on a selection of Gabrieleño/Tongva Places

Fernandeño Tataviam

AIS and AISC at UCLA acknowledge the Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (Los Angeles basin, So. Channel Islands) and are grateful to have the opportunity to work for the taraaxatom (indigenous peoples) in this place. As a land grant institution, we pay our respects to Honuukvetam (Ancestors),’Ahiihirom (Elders), and ‘eyoohiinkem (our relatives/relations) past, present and emerging.

All material should be attributed to Author(s) of Individual Maps, Mapping Indigenous LA, Los Angeles: CA, Date of Map Publication.

Mail to: UCLA American Indian Studies Center
3220 Campbell Hall, Box 951548
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1548
Mail Code: 154802

E-mail: mappingindigenousla@gmail.com

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Mural at 118 Winston St.

Kuruvungna Springs Foundation

Exiled NDNZ

Comunidad de San Bartolome Quialana

Untitled Flax Weaving (Phormium Tenax)

Tongva Sandpainting

Not A Cornfield by Lauren Bon and Metabolic Studio

Oaxaca Heritage Month

Visit our Story Maps

Mapping Indigenous LA

Featured Story Maps

Perspectives on a selection of Gabrieleño/Tongva Places

Fernandeño Tataviam

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