Community Resources
Native Narratives: Tongva Traditions
Observe tradition being passed from one generation to the next as we see the LA River through the eyes of its original people, the Tongva. In searching for tule reed to construct a doll we learn about the ways Tongva people relied upon the River and how they paid respects to nature.
Tule and Its Many Gifts
Natural History Museum Los Angeles County
In this final installment of L.A. at Play: Dolls & Figurines, Morales Johnson graciously shares her ancestral knowledge on the making and meaning of traditional tule dolls. Click here to watch Morales Johnson explain her timeless connection to the city and lands of Los Angeles and the role of tule dolls in her culture.
From the Ground Up: How Tongva Traditions Utilize California Native Plants (video)
Maloof Teens interview members of California's Gabrielino Tongva community about history and culture represented by native plants on view in the Maloof Discovery Garden. Project was supported in part with a grant from California Humanities.
The Aqueduct Between Us is a five-part radical oral history documentary that aims to educate the people of Los Angeles about the history of water theft and urban development from an Indigenous perspective. The erasure of indigenous voices within the Los Angeles water narrative has been a perpetual social and environmental injustice that infringes upon the sovereignty of tribal communities in and around Los Angeles since the completion of the 233-mile-long Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913. The city of Los Angeles and the Owens Valley have been intrinsically and physically linked by the Los Angeles Aqueduct and the detrimental environmental impact that it has had upon both areas. This documentary uplifts a variety of tribal community experts from Tovaangar and Payahuunadü (Owens Valley). Topics covered in the series include an introduction of each tribal community, their lifestyle precontract, and post-contact, shared colonial struggles, contemporary environmental injustice issues, and conservation/wealth disparities in Los Angeles, and concludes with ways for people to become better water allies.
Presentation by Ethnobotanist our Tongva Land Return Coordinator Samantha Morales Johnson
Native Land Acknowledgements are not the Same as Land Back
Article by Wallace Cleaves and Charles Sepulveda
Watch: Giving Shuumi
Interactive Workshop for foundations
How can cities meaningfully support Indigenous communities?
Four Tongva leaders discuss how Los Angeles and other cities can more actively and meaningfully support Indigenous communities in this panel discussion organized by the 3rd LA Series at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Though many institutions have adopted Indigenous land acknowledgement policies in recent years, native leaders frequently caution that these statements risk ringing hollow if they are not backed by a larger commitment to reparative work, land conservancy and co-management, and land return -- among other goals.
