#Altadena Works

[olowan-waphiya]

Tribes welcome return of ancestral lands

Tuesday, February 14, 2023 By Kevin Abourezk, Indianz.Com Kimberly Morales Johnson can’t help but imagine the land that today is Los Angeles as her ancestors would have seen it centuries ago. The Tongva people used the canyons of the San Gabriel Mountains as trading routes with the indigenous people of the Mojave desert. Last year, the Tongva reclaimed land in Los Angeles for the first time in almost 200 years after being forced to give up their lands and having their federal status terminated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1950.

Sharon Alexander, a non-Native woman, donated a one-acre property in Altadena, California, to the Tongva after learning about the #LandBack movement during the 2016 Democratic National Convention and discovering that the Tongva were the original inhabitants of Los Angeles.

Johnson, vice president of the Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy, a nonprofit set up by the community to receive the land, said the tribe has big plans for the property. “It needs a lot of work, but we’re all dedicated to it,” she said.

In 2022, thousands of acres of private and public land in America were returned to the care of Native peoples. Many of these lands were returned to their original inhabitants, including the one-acre property in Los Angeles.

A website called the Decolonial Atlas created a “Land Back” map charting the locations of land returns that occurred last year. Other land returns that occurred last year include 40 acres around the Wounded Knee National Historic Landmark, the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre. The Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe bought the land for $500,000.

“It’s a small step towards healing and really making sure that we as a tribe are protecting our critical areas and assets,” Oglala Sioux Tribe President Kevin Killer told The Associated Press.

Although not a land return, the Biden administration last year signed an agreement giving five tribes – the Hopi, Navajo, Ute Mountain Ute, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, and Pueblo of Zuni – greater oversight of the 1.3-million acre Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.

Last year, the Rappahannock Tribe celebrated the return of more than 400 acres along the Rappahannock River that is home to a historic tribal village named Pissacoack and a four-mile stretch of white-colored cliffs.

“Your ancestors cherished these lands for many generations and despite centuries of land disputes and shifting policies, your connections to these cliffs and to this river remain unbroken,” Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said at an event celebrating the land return. One of the largest land returns last year involved the purchase of more than 28,000 acres by the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa Tribe in Minnesota.

The Conservation Fund, an environmental nonprofit, sold the land to the tribe after purchasing the land from a lumber manufacturer in 2020. Emilee Nelson, Minnesota associate state director of The Conservation Fund, said her organization bought the land from the PotlatchDeltic Corporation after the company decided to divest of much of its Minnesota land holdings. The Conservation Fund bought 72,000 acres from the company, including 28,000 acres that were within the Bois Forte Reservation. The Boise Fort Band lost the land following passage of the Dawes Act of 1887, which led to the allotment of the land to private landowners. “Where this land was located made a lot of sense for the tribe to own it,” Nelson said.

However, he said, tribes don’t always want to purchase land or even accept a land donation, especially if they don’t think they’ll be able to put it into federal trust status. He offered advice to those considering donating their land to a tribe. “If you want to make a donation, sell the land and make a donation,” he said.

As for the one-acre land donation to the Tongva, Kimberly Morales Johnson said the tribe plans to use the land to create a community center where it will be able to host cultural workshops and where Tongva people will be able to gather plants sacred to their people, including the acorns from the oak trees on the property.

“This is about self-determination and sovereignty,” she said. The tribe is also allowing a tribal artist to live on the land and take care of it, she said. The Tongva have also begun working to return Native plants to the property and remove invasive species.

“This whole LandBack movement is rooted in healing, and instead of looking at land as a commodity, we’re looking at it as a way to have a relationship with the land and with each other and bringing back our traditions, our language, our food, our culture,” she said.

[doggiedrawings]

Goodbye, heatwave

We've just been through a heatwave in Los Angeles with temperatures over 100 degrees. The air is smokey from wildfires to the north (Altadena) and south (Orange County ) of us. Meanwhile, my daily internet feed is full of unfunny memes about ethnic immigrants eating pet dogs and cats, the ongoing US-funded deaths and horrors in occupied Palestine, and what November will bring. I envy all creatives who can maintain focus and optimism!

Well, there is one thing I am looking forward to: My new book - Dogs of the World now has a cover, publication date, and can be preordered!

Meet more than 600 types of dogs in this captivating canine gallery, from the English Springer Spaniel and Moroccan Aïdi to the Thai Ridgeback and  New Guinea Singing Dog. Packed with fascinating tidbits and hundreds of illustrations, Dogs of the World also shines a welcome spotlight on the world's 85 percent of dogs who are no breed at all, including mutts and village dogs.

You'll learn about different dog types and their working roles, such as herding, livestock guarding, scent detection, dog sports, and companionship, and understand what terms like purebred and landrace mean. Trace the history of our modern dogs through a vibrantly visual timeline, and pick up insights on breed health risks, personality traits, and how breed ancestry DNA tests work.

Featuring adorable artwork and research vetted by dog history experts, behavior professionals, and veterinarians, Dogs of the World is a loving and accessible guide to the diversity of our canine companions.

​Dogs of the World: A Gallery of Pups from Purebreds to Mutts is Published by Ten Speed Press, Penguin Random House - April 01, 2025.

[This is a mockup of the book cover, not the actual book. Approved by my cat Shimmy!]

PREORDER LINKS: www.doggiedrawings.net/dogsoftheworldbook

I can't wait.

[impermanent-art]

‘Caballeros & Peacocks’

New work by Joshua Viers and Leanna Viers in Altadena.

[kooziegaragerepairaltadenaca]

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[kolajmag]

COLLAGE ON VIEW

Collage

at the Altadena Library in Altadena, California, USA through 30 October 2023. Juxtaposing the works of four artists who use paper and glue for their creation, “Collage” highlights the variety of results that can be obtained through this “simple” technique, based on different material sources, ways to proceed, and especially visions/inspirations. MORE

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Kolaj Magazine, a full color, print magazine, exists to show how the world of collage is rich, layered, and thick with complexity. By remixing history and culture, collage artists forge new thinking. To understand collage is to reshape one's thinking of art history and redefine the canon of visual culture that informs the present.

SUBSCRIBE | CURRENT ISSUE | GET A COPY

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[dasenergi]

I live on stolen Tongva land. The Tongva are a tribe without a home. The government stole 100% of their land, and since they don’t have any land — the government won’t recognize them as a tribe.

They now finally have one acre they can call home, to perform their ceremonies on.

3,500 years ago Uto-Aztecan-speaking peoples moved into coastal Southern California. These migrants either absorbed or pushed out the earlier Hokan-speaking inhabitants. These people became known as the Tongva tribe. The Tongva lived in about 100 villages throughout the greater Los Angeles County area and the islands off the coast. (Each village often had its own language.)

First European contact (by sea) was in 1542 by Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo.

The Gaspar de Portolá land expedition in 1769 resulted in the founding of Mission San Gabriel by Christian missionary Junipero Serra in 1771. The Tongva then became known as the Gabrieleños, when they were enslaved by the missions to work for them.

In 1821, Mexico gained its independence from Spain. They sold the mission lands, known as ranchos, to elite ranchers and forced the Tongva to assimilate. Most became landless refugees during this time.

In 1848, California was ceded to the United States following the Mexican-American War.

And now finally…. the Tongva have one-acre back.

[bewitchedbewilderedbisexual]

Hi! First thanks for your awesome 911 location guide. Sorry if I’m repeating information you know but did you notice we got Hen’s official address last night. It was on her paperwork. She’s in Altadena which makes sense because it’s near JPL and Caltech. I only noticed because I live in the area and recognized the street name.

Hi! Thanks so much for dropping by!

Yes, I did notice and you should’ve seen me cause I was this meme haha

I can’t wait to add it to my locations post (I would’ve done it by now but work has been…well…truly exhausting). There’s further information I’ve gathered for Buck’s place too, so I want to give it a full face lift, so to speak.

Fingers crossed to have it out this weekend!

(Also I do know this is a fictional world and what is distance and time against it, except for the fact that they are quite intentional in everything they do and when they show us real world markers and give us addresses for the characters, it piques my interest. And Buck still being the one we don’t have a solid address on doesn’t go without notice….)

[getittogetherk]

September 1, 2024

The first day of September, and a Sunday.

I'm not really sure why I haven't been journaling as much. I wonder if it's because life has calmed down somewhat. i currently have no crush, no awful work drama, and no dog to foster/dogsit.

this weekend (i'll start from yesterday) has been pretty chill but also pretty productive.

saturday, i met up with lana, sov, and matt k at a pickleball court in altadena. we were awful, me especially, but we had a good time playing pickleball. afterward, matt and i got brunch at a cute spot in altadena, and i went home for a bit before heading out again for volunteering at the VBA's, half poop patrol, and half socializing.

This morning church was out of session as it's Labor Day weekend and i met up at the VBAs again, this time to join the "Happy Tails" hike, where I carried water bottles, filled doggy water bowls, and scooped up 4 large poops. it was nice to be out hiking, taking in some Burbank views, chatting with people, and seeing how happy the dogs were to be out of the kennel.

the rest of today has so far been pretty chill. I did some dishes, took out some trash and recycling, put up the new blinds and threw out the old ones, and took out some of marilyn's yard waste. i also watched some Brooklyn 99, which has been really funny and I've found myself on two separate occasions literally booming with laughter, even though i only half-watch as I play dumb games on my phone at the same time.

other things that have brought me a sense of joy/peace: listening to music i liked earlier. a newfound "discovery" and appreciation of kim gun mo. back to listening to The Read podcast and during a walk, which I haven't taken in a long time. reading. currently reading Love in the Time of Cholera and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective people alternately.

i just feel calmer, less desperate. i'm not texting grace y constantly to see how she is, in a sense, to see how "we" are. i don't go to BJ's as often to drink and stare at the waitress who i will never date or have anything to do with. i eat fewer pounds of pasta at one time, and today, i've eaten on fruit and am planning on eating another. i've also been very recently watching less Youtube, whereas before i watched for literal hours a day and would fall asleep to it, mostly the "downfalls" of celebrities, whether real or of the youtube/tiktok variety.

this friday-monday i'll be going to portland with lana, and my birthday will be later in the month. i have currently no plans but will likely get sushi with lana, and treat myself to a massage, especially as my left shoulder has been especially stiff.

things feel weird with lorena, grace y, and especially ant, and i'm just about completely estranged from grace h at this point, but it's fine. it's not pulling at me today, although it was about two days ago. i'm trying to separate myself a bit from my feelings, and trying to have it have less of an affect on me.

tomorrow is the labor day holiday. i'm supposed to take a morning walk with my mom, and then LD will come over with her dog and we'll make firestarters for camping and then hang out for a bit, as kaelynn is likely out of town, having just started a job that puts her every week in san francisco.

on occasional i also read a book about Borderline Personality disorder to learn more about it and hopefully pick up some tools to not let it control me.

things i want to look into more in lieu of endless youtube: pickleball: rules and techniques yelp: engaging enough to get 2024 elite status things to do in portland

hoping this feeling lasts.

[dennistamayo]

I didn’t let hand-drawn animation die for good

With Snipple Animation in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines being the main animation studio for my future projects, I will use 8 additional animation studios. Double Plus Productions & Renegade Animation in Glendale, California, Creative Capers Entertainment in Altadena, California, Studio Yotta in Vancouver, Washington, Tonic DNA in Montreal, Canada, Yowza! Animation in Toronto, Canada, Titmouse, Inc. in Vancouver, Canada & Brazen Animation in Richardson, Texas. Oh! & one more thing, Toon City in Manila don’t do overseas animation work for Cartoon Network shows ether.

[sidewalkstamps]

L. Glenn Switzer Contractor 1930 (Photo taken April 29, 2024 on Glenalbyn Dr. & Glenmuir Ave.)

According to the Los Angeles Times, L. Glenn Switzer died at the age of 96 on July 11, 1990, so he was born in either 1894 or 1893. He started "the first ready-mix concrete company in Southern California" in Pasadena in 1930. The company, Transit Mixed Concrete Co., worked "at construction sites throughout Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Imperial counties," in addition to manufacturing concrete blocks and panels. He was a Quaker and was "president of the national Conference of Quaker Men" in 1954" ("L. Glenn Switzer; Formed Ready-Mix Concrete Firm." Los Angeles Times, July 22, 1990.

In 1941, L. Glenn Switzer was the manager of Transit Mixed Concrete Co. They had multiple locations including 1000 North La Brea in Los Angeles, 3492 E Foothill Blvd. in Pasadena, and 780 Union Pacific Place, which doesn't currently exist but I think may be in Commerce, CA (Los Angeles City Directory 1941, Los Angeles City Directory Co., 1941).

In an advertisement in 1945, Transit Mixed Concrete Co described themselves as "Pioneers of Transit-Mixed Concrete in Southern California" (Southwest Builder and Contractor, Volume 106, F. W. Dodge Company, 1945).

According to Switzer v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, United States Tax Court, June 30, 1953, 20 T.C. 759 (U.S.T.C. 1953), L. Glenn Switzer and Howard A. Switzer were partners in the company in 1944-45. Their respective wives were Ida H. and Florence M. Apparently they didn't commit fraud with intent to evade tax, but the husbands were deficient due to negligence.

We learn from Find a Grave that L. was Lewis. He was born in Iowa in on June 26, 1894 and died in L.A. County on July 11, 1990. He is buried in Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum in Altadena, CA. His wife, Ida, was born in Iowa and they married on December 29, 1915 in Marshall, Iowa. They had at least two sons (Elmo Glenn, Eugene Lewis) and one daughter (Mayme Elizabeth). She lived in Pasadena in the 1940 and 1950 censuses. She died on October 18, 1987 and was also buried in Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum in Altadena, CA.

Howard Allison Switzer was Lewis's brother (they also had four other siblings: Elias Claire, Gladys Lucile, Richard Kent, and Florence Eliza) and co-founder. He was born on July 30 or 31, 1908 in Ladora, Iowa and died on January 7, 1997 in Los Angeles, CA. He is also buried at Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum in Altadena, CA (Find a Grave). Their parents were Richard Martin Switzer and Carrie Estella Lewis. (The photo above is Howard in the 1920s, probably in Long Beach, CA, and was submitted to Find a Grave by 'jmb'.) According to his obituary in the Los Angeles Times, he had moved to Long Beach, CA in 1920 with his parents and sister. "He joined his father and older brother in their concrete contracting company after graduating from Long Beach High School." This company was a predecessor to Transit Mix Concrete Company, which, according to the same obituary, was "credited with using the first concrete mixer trucks, which prepare the concrete to be poured once it gets to the job site" (January 9, 1997). Howard moved to Pasadena in 1932 and married Florence.

She lived to 105 and had lived her whole life in Pasadena, CA! They had four sons: Forrest, Roy, Marshall, and Norman. She was "known as Flossie to most of her friends." ("Florence Switzer Obituary," Pasadena Star-News).

Other sources:

The Tax Fortnighter Annual, Fallon Publications, 1954

[finishinglinepress]

NEW FROM FINISHING LINE PRESS: In the Mourning Grove by Susan Auerbach

On SALE now! Pre-order Price Guarantee: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/in-the-mourning-grove-by-susan-auerbach/

In the Mourning Grove is a collection of #poems in the key of #grief that will resonate with anyone who has experienced #loss. From a young girl’s yearning for siblings to a middle-aged mother’s lament for her adult child, the poems bring lyricism, music, and spirituality to moments of heightened emotion. The first half of the book consists of poignant elegies to and about the poet’s son, Noah, who died by #suicide at age 21. The second half explores a range of sorrows, from parents’ divorce and early deaths to various losses of innocence and the passing of a beloved pet. The book is a life-affirming beacon and companion for the grief that many of us carry, an invitation to venture without fear into—and beyond—the mourning grove.

Susan Auerbach is a retired professor of education who returned in midlife to her first love of creative writing. Her poems have appeared in Spillway, Gyroscope Review, Greensboro Review, and other journals, as well as in her memoir, I’ll Write Your Name on Every Beach: A Mother’s Quest for Comfort, Courage & Clarity After Suicide Loss (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2017). She blogs at afterachildssuicide.blogspot.com and lives in Altadena, California, with her husband, dog, and chickens.

PRAISE FOR In the Mourning Grove by Susan Auerbach

Susan Auerbach’s debut collection shows us a poet who has faced unthinkable loss yet manages to distill grief into stunning poems, making each line count. We witness the great sorrow that the dual suicides of son and father imprint but also see the love and joy in remembering their lives. These moving, complex poems teach us about heartbreak and resilience and guide us as we seek to understand the unfathomable: How do you go on from this? The work is unflinching and gorgeous, the read a full-body experience leaving us hungering for more.

—Carla Rachel Sameth, Co-Poet Laureate of Altadena, CA, 2023 Poet Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets, & author of Secondary Inspections

In the Mourning Grove is both a memoir and a collection of elegies. Grieving the loss of her 21-year-old son to suicide, Susan Auerbach also revisits the losses of her youth. She crafts such vivid and visceral poems that a film director could easily recreate them. The breezy opening poem, “anytime miss wish,’’ so tangibly revisits moments with her son—on the couch watching Japanese films together, buying him his “favorite sopping lasts-all-day/ chicken burrito at Lucky Boy”—that the pivot that follows is like an elevator drop. Using rhythm and sound the way a painter uses color, Auerbach threads the book with recurring sensory memories. In “Vanishing Act,” she describes inhaling her son’s old T-shirts, “still thick with thrift-store musk,/ smoke, sweat. What is the half-life/ of a young man’s funk?” When some people bury a loved one after a suicide, they bury memories and mementos of their loved one’s life. This brave and loving book highlights how important it is to continue to celebrate and find solace in their lives.

—Kita Shantiris, author of What Snakes Want, aka Kita S. Curry, PhD, former CEO of Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services, Los Angeles

Please share/repost #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #read #poems #literature #poetry #grief #suicide #loss #recovery

[lboogie1906]

Mayor Aja Brown (born April 17, 1982) served as the youngest mayor of Compton, California.

She was born in Altadena, California to Brenda Jackson. She attended John Muir High School in Pasadena and was elected president of her senior class. She graduated from USC, where she received a BA in Public Policy, Urban Planning, and Development. She received her MA in Urban Planning with a concentration in Economic Development from USC’s Price School of Public Policy.

She became involved in public service, working as an economic development analyst with the city of Gardena. She began working as an urban planner in Inglewood and worked in Compton as a project manager in Compton’s Redevelopment Agency.

In June 2013, she was elected the youngest mayor in Compton’s history. She tackled many of Compton’s social problems, such as gang activity and human sex trafficking. She worked to eliminate hourly motel rentals, which largely promoted sex work and trafficking in the city. She created Compton Empowered, an organization that tackles gang issues by offering employment opportunities and empowering former gang members to restore their neighborhoods and promote peace. Her efforts have contributed to a 50 percent decrease in homicides between 2014 and 2015, and have reduced the unemployment rate from 50 percent in July 2013 to 9 percent in December 2015.

In June 2017, she was reelected to a second four-year term as mayor. She is married to Van Brown, a petrochemical safety manager. They have one daughter. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[impermanent-art]

New work by Cleon Peterson in Altadena for Pasadena Murals and the Unincorporated Mural Project.

[ajcabalu]

We celebrated Pride in 2023 by painting a couple of petite rainbows on the ground at the Altadena (CA) Senior Center. Thanks to Councilman Nic Arnzen and Liz Espinoza (giving me mad sassy side eye in the first pic) for organizing us, and thanks to my enthusiastic apprentice painter, Tianle Su! A group had already painted a crosswalk in ROYGBIV when we arrived in the early morning, and we worked alongside a group of sweet and great artists like Heather Hilliard Bond @hhbarts and Teresa Chandradibya @tchandradibya

There was also a fantastic art exhibit of the LGBTQ artist, Tony de Carlo inside the center as well. Super inspirational.

I kinda wanna do this image again, BUT REAL BIG. Let’s see if they have us come back.

Teresa Chandradibya and niece art.

[spacenutspod]

A team of engineers prepares to integrate TRIDENT – short for The Regolith Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain – into the belly of NASA’s first robotic Moon rover, VIPER – short for the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover. NASA/Bill Stafford A team of engineers prepares to integrate TRIDENT – short for The Regolith Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain – into the belly of NASA’s first robotic Moon rover, VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover).  TRIDENT, designed and developed by engineers at Honeybee Robotics in Altadena, California, is the fourth and final science instrument to be installed into VIPER. NASA engineers have already successfully integrated VIPER’s three other science instruments into the rover. These include: the MSOLO (Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations), NIRVSS (Near-Infrared Volatiles Spectrometer System), and NSS (Neutron Spectrometer System).  Shortly after TRIDENT was integrated in the clean room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the team also successfully tested its ability to power on, release the locks that hold the drill in place during launch, extend to its full depth of more than three feet (one meter), perform percussive drilling, and return to its stowed position inside the rover. TRIDENT will dig up soil from below the lunar surface using a rotary percussive drill – meaning it both spins to cut into the ground and hammers to fragment hard material for more energy-efficient drilling. In addition to being able to measure the strength and compactedness of the lunar soil, the drill also carries a temperature sensor to take readings below the surface. VIPER will launch to the Moon aboard Astrobotic’s Griffin lunar lander on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. It will reach its destination at Mons Mouton near the Moon’s South Pole. Scientists will work with these four instruments to better understand the origin of water and other resources on the Moon, which could support human exploration as part of NASA’s Artemis campaign.

[croc-odette]

About a year ago, a woman donated her late grandparent's house and property in Altadena to the Tongva tribe, and very recently several acres of land were entrusted to the Tongva and Acjachemen tribes in Bolsa Chica wetlands as the first land back initiative to happen in Orange County, as part of a development agreement. The Tongva and Acjachemen are state-recognized tribes of Los Angeles and Orange County, but are not yet federally recognized.

“We’d like to provide emergency housing for folks. We would like to have a place where we can grow and process our own Native foods and make them available to elders so they know where to get them,” Johnson said.

Despite all the work still needed, it does not take much stretch of the imagination to envision tribal gatherings, ceremonies, and other events there. It will be a wonderful place for children to run around and make memories in."