Mapping Indigenous LA: Placemaking Through Digital Storytelling

A map of Los Angeles does not tell the story of its people. This story includes layered, sedimented cultural geographies of indigenous Los Angeles that includes the Tongva and Tataviam who struggle for recognition of their sacred spaces, American Indians who were removed from their lands and displaced through governmental policies of settler colonialism. 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 city’s fabric. In a megalopolis like Los Angeles, these Indigenous stories are often invisible to residents, policymakers, and even the city’s notion of itself.