Native Plant Nursery & Model Native American Village

Instead of the Hollywood sign and palm trees, the location of 2028 Olympic events in the Sepulveda Basin presents Los Angeles with an opportunity to celebrate its Indigenous peoples and the land on which it sits. Alan Salazar, a Tataviam and Chumash Tribal Elder and Julia Samaniego, a native plant expert and member of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians will be responsible for the Native Plant Nursery and the Model Native American Village. Salazar is widely known as a traditional story teller and an authority of Indigenous knowledge and traditions and Samaniego is co-manager of the native plant nursery for the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing.

Salazar and Samaniego share the same bloodline as the Tataviam Tribal leadership whose ancestors Francisco Papabubaba & Paula Cayo, and the families of two other Native Americans, jointly received the Rancho Encino land grant on July 24, 1845.** This area of 4,460 acres encompasses what we know today as the Sepulveda Basin.

These two initiatives will be in place prior to the Olympics and remain as permanent installations.

** NOTE: This land grant, and how it was unjustly confiscated, is referenced in the FTBMI website and supported in a publicly available letter issued in 2016 by the Office of Federal Acknowledgement (OFA) within the US Department of the Interior – in response to an ongoing petition from the FTBMI for Federal Recognition.

The Native American model village, located on a highpoint overlooking Bull Creek with a path leading from a sweat lodge to the water’s edge, will feature a series of traditional dwellings and meeting grounds – to provide visitors with a glimpse of what life was like for the inhabitants of the Sepulveda Basin in pre-colonial times.

The Native plant nursery will be a 50 foot wide strip of land set up for different types of plant propagation and a wide variety of micro climates - full sun, shade, ample water, little water. It will feature Native plant species that were found in the Sepulveda Basin in pre-colonial times and used for food, medicine, baskets, reed canoes and other essentials of life; using soil enriched with Indigenous microbiota to support a wide range of varieties.

Also part of Phase One for the Olympics will be a Native American Food Concession created by Indigenous chef, Claudia Serrato. It will feature a pop-up offering a range of Indigenous “fast foods”, including plant based and meat & fish dishes – a “taste of place” reflecting locally available ingredients and cuisine prepared by the Indigenous communities of Los Angeles, before colonization. Serrato is an acclaimed culinary anthropologist and a professor of Indigenous ethnic studies. For many years, she has been actively involved in the Native food justice and sovereignty movement, cooking alongside other Indigenous chefs at cultural food gatherings, summits and pop-ups throughout North America.