It's Native American Heritage Month

Native Americans dancing used to be so beautiful in full regalia. Now we party nearly naked:

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White Indigenous tribes of Scandinavia (Sami)

Tell us more about Native American Heritage Month. National Native American Heritage Month celebrates the culture, contributions, and heritage of Indigenous populations called Native Americans or American-Indians.

In 1990 Pres. George H. W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November 1990 “National American Indian Heritage Month.”

Decolonize Your Diet (vegan recipes)

Similar proclamations, under variants on the name (including “Native American Heritage Month” and “National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month”) have been issued each year since 1994.

This month is a time to educate the public about Native American tribes, raise a general awareness about the unique challenges the Indigenous (First Nations) have faced, and to illuminate the ways in which tribal citizens have worked to conquer these challenges.

• Native American Heritage Month – LA County Library

Native American Food Sovereignty

Progressive plant based Native eating

In celebration of Native American Heritage Month, join the Los Angeles County Public Library in highlighting how Native communities are taking control over their food sources and production by revitalizing traditional, healthy [predominantly vegan], and localized food sources.

In this hands-on workshop, learn how to start a Salvia columbariae plant and explore its cultural uses among various Native groups. This event has multiple dates and locations throughout November. View events list below to find the program at the nearest location.

• Native American Food Sovereignty (LACL)

The Americas are home to many tribes

Tongva (Kizh) Cultural Classes

Main Altadena Library, burn scar, Los Angeles County

Altadena Library District

On Nov. 1st, 2025, we learned to make Cloth Medicine Bags with Councilwoman Neminski and Councilwoman Murillo of the Gabrielino/Tongva (Kizh) Nation, who taught the workshop for ages 10 and up.

Beaded Wire Wrap Bracelets Workshop

Saturday, Nov. 15, 2:00-4:00 pm: Councilwomen of the Gabrielino/Tongva (Kizh) Nation teach class for ages 8 and up.

Pine Needle Basket Medallion

Saturday, Nov. 12, 2:00-4:00 pm: Councilwomen teach class for ages 8 and up.

• Native American History Month Discussion, Thursday, November 20, 2025, 1:30 - 2:30pm - Programs — Altadena Library District

Southern California 20K years ago: Ice Age

The Ice Age secrets hiding beneath California

Native Californians and their kizh houses

(Voyager) June 7, 2025: CALIFORNIA. What’s hiding beneath California? This Ice Age deep-dive reveals fossils, lost megafauna (large animals), ancient humans (Natives), and the land before cities.

The paleobiota of the LA Tar Pits

Today, we journey back to a California few ever imagine, an ancient landscape buried beneath our cities, beaches, and freeways. Long before San Diego’s skyline rose or La Jolla’s cliffs drew surfers, this land was ruled by Columbian mammoths, saber-toothed cats, and early humans (pre-Clovis) who braved a world still shaped by ice. From submerged Kumeyaay village sites to fossil-filled tar pits and coastal cliffs hiding prehistoric secrets, this is the untold story of Ice Age California.

(Science) People first came to America by boat, not Beiring land bridge

• FREE San Diego "Top Must-See Spots" 👉 Voyager-eBooks

In this video

🔹 What San Diego, Los Angeles, and the Channel Islands such as Catalina looked like 20,000 years ago

🔹 The giants that once roamed the coast: mammoths, dire wolves, and saber-toothed cats

🔹 Human footprints on ancient shores — early seafarers, hunters, and toolmakers

🔹 How fossils found during construction projects and cliffside erosion are rewriting history

🔹 Why understanding the deep past matters in today’s changing world

Timecodes

• 0:00 Hidden beneath California
• 1:32 What California looked like 20,000 years ago
• 5:15 Giants of the Ice Age: mammoths, saber-tooth tigers, and more
• 9:15 Clues in unexpected places
• 12:24 Pioneers of the Ice Age: California’s first people
• 16:05 When the giants disappeared
• 19:36 Traces in today’s world
• 21:11 Outro and what comes next

Land of the Tongva became modern Los Angeles

ABOUT: In this episode, Armando from Voyager takes viewers deep beneath the surface of California — into a forgotten world shaped during the last Ice Age. From saber-toothed cats and Columbian mammoths to early human seafarers and ancient submerged villages, we uncover the astonishing history hidden under modern-day San Diego and beyond. This journey blends science, storytelling, and Indigenous memory to reveal a California most people never imagined. Whether into fossils, archeology, or just want to see California in a whole new light, this is a story that redefines the land beneath our feet.

• San Diego • What's hiding under San Diego?
• Los Angeles • What’s hiding under Los Angeles streets?

YouTube: @voyagerhq • Instagram: voyagerclips • TikTok: voyagerhq • Website: voyagertraveltips.com. QUESTIONS: Have a question about Southern California or video topic requests? Drop it in the comments. #IceAgeCalifornia #PrehistoricCalifornia #CaliforniaHistory #AncientCalifornia #HiddenHistory.

20,000 years later in Trump's America

(ABC News, AU) From American Dream to Nightmare: Inside LA Protests | Lauren Day, 7.30

(OnScene TV) LAPD makes mass arrest on Day 5 of ICE raid protests

• Armando, Voyager, June 7, 2025; Xochitl, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

LA's Tongva Tribe and the Eaton Fire

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(lafirejustice.com)

A community conversation featuring prominent Tongva (Kizh, Gabrieleno) tribal members will take place on April 23, 2025, to foster understanding and solidarity with indigenous communities in Altadena, a burned-out community in the foothills of Los Angeles County.

• Panel was live streamed, but event is not listed in the Altadena Library Calendar of Events; it will be posted if available.
• Tongva leaders to share cultural knowledge at community dialogue (Altadena-Now)

The “Let’s Talk, Let’s Listen Community Series: Conversation with Tongva Women” event will bring together indigenous leaders to discuss tribal history, land rights, and recovery efforts following the Eaton Fire.

The dialogue is on Wednesday, April 23, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Altadena Library, located at 600 E. Mariposa St. in Altadena. It is free to attend.

The event features two distinguished panelists from the Gabrieleno Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, daughter Samantha MJ Yang, an indigenous scientist and cultural preservationist, and mother Kimberly Morales Johnson, tribal secretary and Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian commissioner.

From the Ground Up: How Tongva traditions utilize California native plants

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Tongva Joan of Arc of California: Toypurina

John Williams, executive director of The Center for Restorative Justice (formerly the Center for Racial Reconciliation), moderates the discussion. Williams brings decades of experience creating what he describes as “a soft place for hard conversations” where individuals and communities can explore “the multifaceted and destructive narratives of race and racism within the American context with the hope of authentic reconciliation.” More:

• Tongva Leaders to Share Cultural Knowledge at Community Dialogue (Pasadena Now)
  

(Altadena Now) ...The event is organized by several community organizations, including Pasadenans Organizing for Progress (POP!), the Pasadena Community Job Center, the Clergy Community Coalition, and The Center for Restorative Justice.

This conversation continues the work of addressing historical injustices while building more equitable futures for indigenous communities in Southern California, particularly in light of recent challenges like the Eaton Fire. More

• 2025 Eaton Fire Emergency Resources — Altadena Library District
• Tongva.land
• POP PASADENANS - Home
• Pasadena Community Job Center
• Altadena Library on YouTube
• Altadena Revealed: Reflections of People & Place (#2 The History and Legacy of Altadena's Black Community with speakers Steven McCall, Carrie Chasteen, and Veronica Jones, Friday, April 25, 7:00-9:00 pm, Altadena Main Library, 600 E. Mariposa St., $10 donation requested)
• Gabrielino/Tongva Nation: First Aboriginal People of Los Angeles
• Tongva at Altadena Library
• California Trial Lawyers | Bridgford Law
• Pasadena Now, April 18, 2025; Dhr. Seven, Xochitl, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

"The Shaman" (poem)

Tibetan Bon Shamanism: Instruments of Power | by Hermes Astrology | Medium

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THE SHAMAN

Plant uses (Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society)

The shaman climbed the mountain, gathered sacred flowering herbs and berries along the way -- Datura moonflowers, toloache, Brugmansia angel's-trumpets, Salvia apiana kasiile sage, toyon, holly -- until delirium overwhelmed him with lurid and ecstatic visions of hell and heaven. Then he returned to the human world.

Tongva Culture Tour, Summer 2005 (Takwish)

Word spread of him. People asked, "Is it true, as they say, that you have seen hell?"

"I have."

"What's it like?"

"It's hideous, ironic, horror beyond imagination," the shaman winced to relive, nearly blinded by his recollection:

When do we eat? - We're eaten.

"There's food everywhere, but no one eats, and drink aplenty, but no one drinks. There are long wooden spoons with which to partake, but their bodies have only tiny appendages for arms, too short to bring such elongated spoons up to their shriveled lips. Parched slaver forms ashes in their mouths, and bodies waste away. Struggle as they might, everything goes to wrack and ruin. They bellow in agony."

The people shrank away, with growing acreage dedicated to burying their discarded surplus, collapsing under smoldering heaps of trash.

Forced conversion (Museum of the SFV)

"And heaven?" asked the hopeful. "Is it true, as they say, that you have seen heaven?"

"I have."

"And what's it like?" they pleaded.

"Heaven," the shaman revealed, "is exactly the same."

"What!?" cried the people. "The same? Surely that is no heaven!"

How they faced one another.

"There is one difference," the shaman went on to explain.

"In heaven, there is an abundance of food and drink, long wooden spoons, and bodies with tiny appendages too short to bring these utensils up to their mouths. But the beings there, without hesitation, use the long spoons to feed one another.

"There is no want. No request goes unanswered, no desire unfulfilled. Acts of kindness overflow as do the spoons. Spoon fed and cared for, there are continuous cries of gratitude and rejoicing as beings fall over one another to be the first to give.

Time to eat? - For us? - No, for them.

"There is food, and they eat. There is drink, and they drink, and they relish their bounty and diversity. They care for one another, nourish one another, thank one another. The sweetness of their caresses, gentleness of their words, and kindness of their eyes," the shaman wept to recall, "make the place so beautiful that I only wish I could show one world to the other."

Part III: The First Americans—culture and time of change (smbasblog.com)

• Seven (poem), Ashley Wells (ed.), CC Liu (graphic design), Wisdom Quarterly

Indigenous Peoples' Day Party (10/19)

We're still here even after our language was made illegal to speak
and our sustainable way of life was destroyed to assimilate us.

Party: Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024, 11:00 am-4:00 pm, Jerry Moss Plaza, The Music Center, DTLA

"Native American Day" in Berkeley, California, became the first Indigenous Peoples Day.

We're here to conquer, so get in line and wait for welfare checks, and say, "Thank you, sir."

Native American foods on Indigenous Peoples' Day: Three Sisters of amaranth, beans, squash

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The Music Center presents: The Chapter House Indigenous Peoples' Day Party

Native American blended beauty (Fiiliia)

Celebrate Los Angeles’ Indigenous communities on October 19th, 2024, at Jerry Moss Plaza at The Music Center. FREE.

The Music Center’s programming arm, TMC Arts, in partnership with The Chapter House, create a space on two Saturdays in October for cultural affirmation and joy among the county’s Indigenous communities.

We were the guardians of this land.

The goal is to foster greater awareness, respect, and understanding of the ongoing cultural contributions of Indigenous people among Los Angeles County residents.

These events are by and for Indigenous Peoples. ALL are welcome to join in.

Coinciding with Grand Ave Arts: All Access, one of L.A.’s longest-running, FREE open house experiences for arts and culture exploration in Downtown Los Angeles, The Music Center will host a live drumming performance, live DJ sets, art workshops as well as the return of the marketplace — on Jerry Moss Plaza at The Music Center.

Performances by:

Full Circle Indigenous Planning + Design (ABC)

• DJ Brian Frejo; Hale & Company Drum Group; Native Voices in residence with Center Theatre Group; comedians and storytellers: Joey Clift, Solange Aguilar and Gigi Modrich

Marketplace Vendors:

• Solange Aguilar, Joolie Fiveash, Sierra Edd, and Tekenya Sanchez

Art Workshops:

Native American march (photo by Dulcey Lima)

• Coloring with Blue Bird Flour design outlines with The Chapter House; block printing workshop with meztli projects; “Tovaa'ngar - Toongvey Tribal Ancestral Lands” workshop with Virginia Carmelo; Ethical Sage Harvesting workshop with Nolan Eskeets

Artwork by:

• Mercedes Dorame

Let us know you're coming: The Chapter House Indigenous Peoples' Day Party RSVP (typeform.com).

• More: Music Center | Indigenous Peoples' Day Party
• Teepee vs. log cabin: Native American identity in US

“All the Real Indians Died Off”: And 20 Other Myths About Native Americans

21 myths about American Indians debunked

Authors Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker have 4.7 out of 5 stars with 380 ratings. This book is part of: Myths Made in America (a series of nine books).

This book unpacks the 21 most common myths and misconceptions about Native Americans.

In this enlightening book, scholars and activists Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker tackle a wide range of myths about Native American culture and history that have misinformed generations.

Tracing how these ideas evolved, and drawing from history, the authors disrupt long-held and enduring myths such as:

• 

  The classic history explainer

  “Columbus discovered America”
• “Thanksgiving proves the Indians welcomed Pilgrims”
• “Indians were savage and warlike”
• “Europeans brought civilization to backward Indians”
• “The United States did not have a policy of genocide”
• “Sports mascots honor Native Americans”
• “Most Indians are on government welfare”
• “Indian casinos make them all rich”
• “Indians are naturally predisposed to alcohol”

We set the record straight for everyone to know

Each chapter deftly shows how these myths are rooted in the fears and prejudice of invading European settlers and in the larger political agendas of a settler colonial state aimed at acquiring Indigenous land and tied to narratives of erasure and disappearance.

Accessibly written and revelatory, “All the Real Indians Died Off” challenges readers to rethink what they have been taught about Native Americans and history. More

Giants lived on Catalina Island, L.A.

The Giants of Catalina Island | Prehistoric Mysteries on California's Channel Islands

(MegalithomaniaUK) This is a new documentary exploring the mysteries of Santa Catalina Island (Pimu) 25 miles from the mainland beach in coastal San Pedro, Los Angeles County.

• Santa Catalina Island (California)

Los Angeles' Channel Islands have turned up hundreds of controversial discoveries; not only thousands of giant skeletons (over 8 feet long), but a prehistoric stone circle, incredibly ancient carbon dating, and evidence of historic red and blond-haired white islanders.

Thousands of giant skeletons, Indian artifacts, and evidence of occupation going back as far as 9,000 years have been scientifically recorded on the islands, with human occupation possibly dating as far back as 30,000 years before the present.

The story is intriguing and controversial, and it stars amateur archeologist Ralph Glidden and his bizarre museum of bones and artifacts on Catalina Island. But a few years before that, a German naturalist got the story going in 1913.

• Avalon, California (city)
• The Island of the Blue Dolphins, where lived "Karana" (forced to convert in Ventura and christened "Juana Maria" before her untimely death at the hands of her meddling captors/saviors), is based on a very real Channel Island named San Nicolas Island 25 miles farther out from Catalina
• The Nicoleños in Los Angeles: Documenting the Fate of the Lone Woman's Community

Dr. A. W. Furstenan unearthed an 8-foot skeleton with artifacts such as mortar and pestles and arrow heads on Catalina. He was told of a legend while in Mexico of a giant and noble race that lived on the island that existed long before the white man (European arrival) and had since vanished.

The film features Hugh Newman and Jim Vieira, authors of Giants on Record, ancient symbolism researcher Jj Ainsworth and Native American islander Mason Sanchez Lassos, a member of the Tongva/Gabrielino Tribe.

Get the book or Kindle at Amazon US amzn.to/1MrVH5, Amazon UK amzn.to/1OxghHM, and other outlets. #giantsonrecord. Support us on Patreon: megalithomania

• Megalithomania (YouTube, March 31, 2020); Xochitl, Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterlly

Survival Skills for Self-Reliance (C. Nyerges)

Christopher Nyerges, School of Self-Reliance, 11/23/23; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Survival Skills and Self Reliance with nature guide Christopher Nyerges

(Adventurers' Club) Streamed live 9/29/22: Nature guide Christopher Nyerges was always interested in living in nature. He was fascinated with people like the Native Americans and Amish who actually did it. After high school, he moved to his grandfather's farm in Ohio and continued his botanical and mycological (mushroom) studies.

He was concerned about the fate of Western culture and believed that we all needed to get back to basics by learning how to make and fix things, how to grow food, and how to employ natural healing techniques. He began teaching wild food and survival skills in 1974 and has taught over 40,000 students.

During this presentation, he shows some of the plants that can provide nutrition and shares some healing methods that are as old as ancient Greek Hippocrates. He is an advocate of frugality and simplicity, making do with less. Not everyone agrees with his approach, but he proves it's possible to survive anywhere. He teaches bushcraft skills to the public through the School of Self-Reliance.

A Native Thanksgiving in LA (Tongva/Kizh)

Xochitl, Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Modern Native American Kizh/Tongva "invisibly" living in Los Angeles County

Tongva: E'kwa'shem means "We are still here"

(Santa Monica History Museum) Join us for a look inside the museum's permanent gallery to explore the history of the original inhabitants of Tongavaar (now Los Angeles) the Tongva (now Kizh) people.

"All the Real Indians Died Off": 20 Myths

Not a Nation of Immigrants (R. Dunbar-Ortiz)

Indigenous Peoples' History US

On Thursday, Nov. 23, 2023, at the Los Angeles Thanksgiving Vegan Potluck Picnic, a Native American speaker from Wisdom Quarterly will kick off the festivities with a traditional acknowledgement of the unceded land in honor of the Indigenous people still here. As Prof. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz writes, Native Americans are still here. The slow genocide has not yet succeeded in exterminating the original inhabitants. In fact, Los Angeles (Tongavaar) is home to more Indians and tribes than any other place in the country. They may blend in among the Latinx, sharing surnames from the time they were forcibly relocated to the south before their return to find themselves dispossessed of the land. "We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us." There was no Mexican American border to cross. That came after the exodus to save our lives from the bounty put on scalps by the newly formed Los Angeles City Council, when whites from Europe were free to kill men, women, and children to depopulate the land to make way for the USA's settler colonial project. It's a shocking history.

• VIDEO: Narratives, Tongva Traditions by the LA River (Friends of the Los Angeles River)
• Website: SantaMonicaHistory.org, Instagram: @SantaMonicaHistoryMuseum, Twitter: @SMHistoryMuseum, Facebook: santamonicahistorymuseum
• #SantaMonica #California #History #Tongva #Indigenous #SantaMonicaHistory #SantaMonicaHistoryMuseum
• Fruit pouches recalled due to US lead poisoning
• Archaeologists open the fabled tomb of Jesus for first time in hundreds of years (or at least the tomb discovered and rebuilt to be a worship site)
• Nothing's wrong if it's funny: Black comedy to cope

The Second: Race, Guns in Fatally Unequal America

LA is transforming its concrete river: Here's why

(Circle of the Earth) 8/26/22: Desertification - Reforestation - Sustainability projects - Greening projects 🔔 Everyone probably knows the Los Angeles River from Hollywood movie scenes. The film Grease has probably the most well-known scene filmed in the river basin. Everyone knows the unforgettable drag race between Danny and Leo that took place between the 1st and 7th street bridges. But the river has its downside, too. For years, it was a drainage ditch along most of its 51-mile length, and large parts have been covered in concrete. The river became heavily polluted from agricultural and urban runoff over the last century, negatively impacting both residents' health and the environment. People living in the area were overly exposed to pollutants and didn't have much access to green space. This shows how Los Angeles residents have been transforming the LA River by using natural-based solutions to restore the watershed, improving the lives of ten million county residents by increasing biodiversity and improving water security. #greencity #megacity #walkablecity