Saturday, May 18 2024 was a day of celebration for the Tongva Nation and for the people of Los Angeles, as the newly-restored Kuruvungna Springs Cultural Center was unveiled to the public with ceremonies of prayer, smudging, music and dancing. The festivities were the culmination of a multi-generational effort of the Tongva, known also as Gabrieleno Indians, to rescue this historically important cultural and natural site on the grounds of University High School.
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| They defied my attempts to photograph them, but native arroyo chub fish are now stocked in the pools. |
When I last visited the site, on Easter Sunday of 2019, it was neglected and dilapidated, lacking native plants, and gloomily overrun by invasive weeds. It was also badly misinterpreted by numerous but erroneous bronze plaques set up over the years by well-meaning, misguided University High students and staff. I saw yesterday that all that has changed. Kuruvungna Springs is now a beautiful, inviting, informative and inspiring oasis with a palpable Tongva presence.
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| The new kiij at Kuruvungna |
[For "before" photos, click the post below on my old blog, the Valley Village View, from 2019. It untangles the history of the springs, and how they came to be dubbed the "Tears of Saint Monica;" and how the springs gave the name to the Sepulveda family's Rancho Santa Monica y San Vicente, as well as the adjacent Rancho Boca de Santa Monica of the Reyes family, and eventually to the City, Mountains, Bay and Freeway of Santa Monica.]
The man most responsible for this remarkable transformation is Bob Ramirez, a Gabrieleno architect, landscape designer and current President of the non-profit Kuruvungna Springs Trust. A true visionary, as well as a charismatic and effective community organizer, Ramirez set out in 2019 to break the cycles of inertia and neglect that plagued the site by bringing together stakeholders from diverse Tongva communities, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the LA City Council, and the Sawtelle Neighborhood Council. (One can only imagine the red tape he had to cut!)
Ramirez then forged alliances with the UCLA Center for Native American Studies, and with the Theodore Payne Foundation for Native Plants, as well as Descanso Gardens, to provide the volunteers and horticultural expertise that have turned Kuruvungna into a beautiful native garden. [I missed out on joining the Descanso cohort in planting the gardens last December due to Covid, but I hope these photos of the plants, now grown-in, honors the efforts of my colleagues Frank Obregon and Autumn Ayers.]
I was lucky to arrive to the celebration early enough to be greeted by Mr. Ramirez, and he graciously showed me around the new installations.
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| Spring water from the pools now irrigates the whole site, including a handsome new stand of California fan palms, Washingtonia filifera, our only native palm tree. |
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| Tules and rushes, used in basketry and in construction of the kiij |
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Arroyo lupine, Lupinus succulentus, nestles under a California sycamore sapling, Platanus racemosa: . Freshly-planted toyon, Heteromeles arbutifolia, is coming into bloom behind the bed of fireweed, Chamaenerion angustifolium. Both species are important food sources for local wildlife, as well as for traditional Native American cuisine and medicine:  |
One of the most inspiring aspects of the new garden is how well it is curated. Most of the plants have display signs that give the common name, the Linnaean bi-nomial, and also the Native American name for the species, when it is known: |
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| Vegetable beds host corn, squash, and other Native American crops. |
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| Ellie recited a poem about the connections of Native young people with the land and Spirits. |
Tongva hospitality fed the assembled crowd with absolutely delicious Native American dishes, including herbed turkey meatballs, and pictured, fruit with blackberry sauce, nopalita tacos filled with pumpkin-seed puree, and corn-silk iced tea.
