Envisioning a Healthier Urban Way of Living: Indigenous Sovereignty in Los Angeles and Beyond

This past spring, I found myself in the back of an Uber on my way to my friend’s apartment. I was travelling from my apartment that I share with two other roommates on the Westside of Los Angeles to my friend’s coveted single bedroom apartment in Silver Lake. Now, if you have lived in LA longer than three months, you know there is a great debate (or rather, many great debates) about the geographical terminology of the expansive city’s neighbourhoods. You should also know that calling Silver Lake the “Eastside” would meet you with something just short of a public flogging. But nevertheless, it is quite a trek from the Westside—anywhere from 45 minutes to over an hour depending on the traffic.

As I sat in the back of this Uber, contemplating the love I must have for my friend to spend $60 and an hour in traffic to visit her, my driver interrupts my train of thought to make small talk.

“So, what do you do for work?” he asks.

I look away from the window and meet his eyes in the rearview mirror. “I’m a lawyer,” I responded.

“Oh, really? What type of law do you practise?”

“Federal Indian law and tribal law.” I smile as I say this, but embrace myself for his response, as I know the reaction to my field can be met anywhere from genuine curiosity to incredible ignorance, such as why do tribes “get to own all the casinos” and why don’t Native people “have to pay taxes.” Luckily, he seemed enthusiastic.

 “Wow, really?! Are you Native American, then?”

I decide it best not to debate my preferred term for my Indigenous identity and just nod yes, to which he responds sincerely, “I’ve never met a Native American in Los Angeles before!”

I am not trying to demonise this driver. This interaction is really an illustration of a much deeper issue: the fact that Indigenous peoples in Los Angeles have been systemically erased.

“When considering Pacific Islander and Latin American Indigenous Diasporas, Los Angeles has the largest Indigenous population of any city in the United States.”

Yet, many residents do not know this, or of the fact that LA both sits on Indigenous territory it has sought to destroy and that this city thrives in part because of the Indigenous peoples they seek to erase. This Uber driver believes he has not met a Native person in LA because Native people have been methodically erased from Los Angeles history and current.

Indigenous LA: Past and Present

UCLA and Comunidades Indígenas en liderazgo (CIELO) came together to create Mapping Indigenous LA: a website that explores place-making in Los Angeles through digital storytelling. It explores the past of different Indigenous communities and how they have shaped Los Angeles, despite settlers’ best attempt to eradicate them and build on top of their communities. The homepage states,

“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.”

As I rode through multiple neighbourhoods in Los Angeles as an Uber passenger—from the Westside towards the Eastside—I found myself thinking about what this city must have looked like before colonisation. I often have this thought when I find myself in large urban spaces. This Mapping Indigenous LA project helps to restore our memory of what an Indigenous LA looked like in the past, as well as how Indigenous LA both past and present has shaped the city that we love today.

The project explains how a map of LA does not adequately tell the story of its people, because there is a hidden story that is “often invisible to policy makers and even the city’s notion of itself.” It goes on to say that 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.”

There is so much more to LA than defining what is and isn’t the Eastside. Rather, there are rich histories from Indigenous peoples who make up the city—both the traditional caretakers of the land and those who have migrated here. Still today do Indigenous people make LA what it is now, helping to create its image as a vibrant and diverse city.

The Cost of Indigenous Erasure for U.S. Cities

When thinking about what cities must have looked like prior to their colonisation, I also imagine what they might have looked like now had they not been colonised. In this process, I mourn all that has been lost through colonisation—loss of ecosystem, loss of community, loss of knowledge, loss of systems of care.

The cost of erasing Indigenous peoples in Los Angeles does not just affect Native people living in the city, but everyone who lives in LA. As you explore the maps in Mapping Indigenous LA, you read the stories about how much has been lost to settler colonialism: losses of “land, animals, water, access, and all that has been important to the people up through the present.” We see how these things have impacted current LA, as we suffer from continuous droughts and high levels of ozone pollution and smog that is linked to higher rates of asthma, respiratory problems, and cancer risk. Of course, the consequences of these ecological failures most prominently affect low-income communities and communities of colour.

Though colonisation sought to completely erase Indigenous Knowledges and ways of being, it was only successful in part. Native people have continued to sustain much of the Knowledges that they have about how to create and maintain healthy living by passing these understandings and practices down from previous generations and by creating new Knowledges adapted to the ever changing landscape of their ancestral territories, including adapting to urban living.

Indigenous Peoples best know how to caretake the lands in which they came from. This has always been a fact, but recently this inherent knowledge found in Indigenous communities has been called “Traditional Ecological Knowledge” (TEK). Specifically, TEK refers to the ongoing accumulation of knowledge, practice, and belief about relationships between living beings that is acquired by Native people. This knowledge includes ecology, spirituality, human and animal relationships, and more. TEK has been proven to better create and sustain healthy ecology and communities, including healthy urban communities. Ecologists are just beginning to realise how much knowledge was lost during colonisation, and more importantly, how much is to be gained from the knowledge Indigenous Peoples still carry.

Despite ongoing settler colonialism and active limitation of Indigenous presence and voice in governance, we see the ways that Indigenous Peoples have continued to maintain their Knowledges of what healthy living looks like, including in urban spaces.

Despite ongoing settler colonialism and active limitation of Indigenous presence and voice in governance, we see the ways that Indigenous Peoples have continued to maintain their Knowledges of what healthy living looks like, including in urban spaces.

For example, Tongva and Tataviam relationships with the land of Los Angeles are continually reaffirmed through ceremony and inter-tribal gatherings such as powwows. As such, through their unique relationship with the land and the knowledge that comes with it, they have traditional and modern knowledge that can best assist healthy urban living in Los Angeles.

Healthier Urban Living Through Indigenous Sovereignty

The erasure of Indigenous Peoples in metropolises such as Los Angeles is detrimental to the entire city and those who live in it, but it will take more than just the acknowledgement of Native peoples’ existence to restore the harm that has been caused. There must be a restoration of Indigenous sovereignty in order to heal urban spaces.

To restore Indigenous sovereignty means that there must be an honouring of Indigenous Knowledge, and a prioritisation of their voice in decision making in ecological and urban planning, public health, and all aspects of urban living. One framework in which to establish tribal sovereignty is described as “Land Back.”

The nonprofit NDN Collective describes Land Back as “a political framework that allows us to deepen our relationships across the field of organising movements working towards true collective liberation.” Land Back is not necessarily about returning land back to Indigenous Peoples, though that is a part of it, but is about a reclamation of everything that was stolen from Native peoples, including language, ceremony, education, housing, kinship, and governance.

To practise Land Back—and thus tribal sovereignty—in urban spaces such as Los Angeles is to allow Indigenous peoples to govern our own ancestral territories.

To practise Land Back—and thus tribal sovereignty—in urban spaces such as Los Angeles is to allow Indigenous peoples to govern our own ancestral territories.

It is to prioritise our knowledge and practices in urban planning, because we know how best to create and maintain healthy living on our land. In doing this, we can reach a more healthy urban living for Los Angeles and beyond.

Nearing the end of my Uber ride, after I allowed myself space to grieve the loss of Indigenous Knowledge and practices, I remembered, too, what knowledge has been gained in our resilience and resistance against settler colonialism. I am lucky to be a part of a large and vibrant Indigenous community in LA. And though the city has tried to erase us, I know of the large presence we have in Los Angeles. It is an undeniable one that has shaped the city into what it is today, even if not everyone knows of it. But I know that we will be known, if not because Los Angeles acknowledges our presence and worth, it will be because we will make ourselves known. I have hope in our generation and in generations to come, that we will force our seat at the table in urban planning and in imagining a healthier way of urban living—one that will save us all. It is in LA’s best interest to let us do so.