INTRODUCTION Before the Spanish invasion of the region, what’s now California enjoyed the highest human population density north of what is today Mexico. Today, Los Angeles is home to more people of Native ancestry than any other metropolitan area in the US, a population which includes peoples indigenous to Southern California as well as people … Continue reading No Enclave — Chumash Los Angeles
Tag: Native America
In praise of the papoose – Happy Native American Heritage Month!
The term "papoose" in English refers to both young Native American children and their cradle board carriers. The word come to English from the Narragansett term papoòs. As evinced by the following historical photographs, cradle board carriers were once popular not just within the Alqonquin nation but throughout much of indigenous North America and maybe beyond. I don't … Continue reading In praise of the papoose – Happy Native American Heritage Month!
Ray Mala – Hollywood’s First Native American Star
Ray Mala was an Inupiat actor born in Candle, Alaska on December 27th, 1906. In 1925 Mala made his way to Edendale and got a job as a cameraman with Fox Film Corporation, which relocated the following year to Movietone City, in modern Century City. In 1932, Mala was featured as an actor in Edwin … Continue reading Ray Mala – Hollywood’s First Native American Star
Red Wing and Young Deer, the First Couple of Native American Silent Film
Cast and Crew Members at Inceville in Santa Monica, circa 1915 Before the emergence of Hollywood and the studio system, moviemaking was something of a free-for-all, open to anyone that could afford it. In the US, that privileged group was almost exclusively white and male. Roles for minorities were usually crudely stereotypical, minor, and liable … Continue reading Red Wing and Young Deer, the First Couple of Native American Silent Film
November is Native American Heritage Month
NATIONAL AMERICAN INDIAN HERITAGE MONTH The first American Indian Day was celebrated in May 1916 in New York. Back in 1990, President George H.W. Bush named November National American Indian Heritage Month. The purpose of the observance is to highlight the roles America's aboriginal peoples have played in the country's history. It's kind of interesting. … Continue reading November is Native American Heritage Month
Eric Brightwell 