New report examines L.A.’s native landscapes
A report explores L.A.’s landscapes through the eyes of Indigenous people.
By CALEB KIM
The final report of a 2020-2023 historical ecology study, titled “Mapping Los Angeles Landscape History: The Indigenous Landscape,” was published Oct. 9, in which USC Professor Philip Ethington was involved as an editor and principal investigator.
Ethington, a professor of history, political science and spatial sciences, was one of two editors for the study, along with UCLA adjunct professor of environment and sustainability Travis Longcore.
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In the study, researchers examined the historic landscape of L.A. from the perspective of Indigenous people prior to the arrival of European settlers. The study emphasizes the critical need to first explore the historical landscape of a region before shaping an understanding of the modern landscape.
“As projects emerge to protect, restore, and enhance natural landscape in the Los Angeles region, attention turns to the historical landscape for understanding, inspiration, and context,” the editors wrote in the study’s executive summary. “This landscape and region cannot be understood without listening to the stories of Indigenous people who managed this land and thrived for thousands of years.”
A team of geographers, historians and biologists collaborated with representatives from three Indigenous tribes from areas of L.A. County: Chumash, Tataviam and Gabrieleño (Kizh) for the study. The team investigated the natural features of six village areas around the city prior to European arrival.
As a result of the investigation, the team was able to produce detailed maps and descriptions of the city’s natural environment, as well as tools to understand its influence on the modern era of the region.
“The purpose of the study is to create a reliable mapping of the natural ecology, the indigenous ecology, as it would have functioned before urbanization because so much of it now is covered by urbanization,” Ethington said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “For the purposes of both sustainability and restoration, there’s a great deal of interest in knowing what this landscape should be.”
The published final report is the second stage of a study that initially began five years ago. The first stage involved only three USC professors and a few graduate students, but Ethington quickly realized the need for a larger team.
“Reconstructing in detail the indigenous landscape, the native landscape for all of Los Angeles was just too difficult for a small team,” Ethington said. “So we applied for a larger grant and we included three [additional] campuses, each with their own specialty.”
The three added campuses were UCLA, Cal State Northridge, and Cal State Long Beach.
The final report of the study is funded by the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, which supports social science research in L.A. County through grants and fellowships.
In addition to his role as an editor, Ethington also served as principal investigator of the study. In this position, he coordinated the collaboration between all schools and tribes involved in the final report.
In the study, Ethington uses the term indigenous landscape synonymously with the term natural environment.
“When we see the natural environment, there’s a reason why we call it the indigenous landscape and that’s because Indigenous people managed the landscape for thousands of years,” Ethington said.
Ethington said because there’s no way to understand the natural environment without the existence of human beings, the indigenous landscape prior to the disruption caused by Spanish settlement becomes the standard for the natural environment.
“It’s really impossible to know the landscape without knowing the Indigenous,” Ethington said.
Beyond informing our knowledge of the landscape, the collaboration with Indigenous scholars also brought forth awareness of Indigenous tragedies.
“This urbanization is a conquest urbanization [that] displaced the Indigenous people from their villages and their lands. There’s a great deal of tragedy and injustice in the expropriation of the [Indigenous],” Ethington said.
Kiyan Zamanian, a senior majoring in Spanish, stressed the importance of recognizing the indigenous origins of the land that USC and L.A. were built upon.
“We are on native land,” Zamanian said. “And I think it’s important that everyone around us realizes that this is native land.”
Elliot Koo, a freshman majoring in American popular culture, also values the study’s recognition of the native origins of L.A..
“It’s good that we are giving representation as well as looking into the history of our local community,” Koo said. “It’s very important to respect the previous inhabitants of where we currently reside.”
Zamanian said amplifying Indigenous voices is important from a diversity aspect, especially at an institution like USC where students come from various backgrounds and identities.
“It’s awesome to just hear from other cultures, and other backgrounds and to get input from different experiences,” Zamanian said.
