Saving Native American LA: "Hahamongna"

Ashley Wells, Xochitl, Seven, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; SaveHahamongna.org; TongvaTribe.net; Andre Coleman (PasadenaWeekly.com, Jan. 2, 2014)

Mountain watershed north of Los Angeles's tangled freeways (SaveHahamongva.org

Tongva of Los Angeles, Chumash of Malibu, Acjachemem of Orange County (tongvatribe.net)

 

JPL, waterway (swartzentrover.com)

DEVIL'S GATE - In the Pasadena foothills (Los Angeles County), there is a dam placed above the world-famous Rose Bowl. 

This is sacred First Nations (the Tongva, the original inhabitants of L.A.) land known as Xaxaamonga. It was taken over by an imperial army long ago, and that military force built a jet propulsion and skunk works laboratory (JPL) affiliated with nearby Caltech University.

Chris Nyerges in Hahamongna (latimes.com)

The Hahamongna basin was once a great meeting place, a periodic city set up as the site of great gatherings of Native Americans from what is now the Los Angeles metropolitan basin, its eroding foothills, crowded coastal zone (particularly Malibu), Catalina (part of the Channel Islands), and modern Orange County.

That is all to be destroyed.

 

Angeles Nat'l Forest foothills, JPL (SH)

A new plan aims to remove the land and truck it away in the name of "sediment clean-up." At an estimated cost of $70 million, the Hahamongna Watershed Park will more or less cease to exist as a natural habitat. No tree or vegetation will be left standing. In its place concrete, dirt, and rubble will remind local hikers of what was once pre-European-invasion life in the area.

The original inhabitants, the Tongva tribe of the Los Angeles basin (tongvatribe.net)

 

Save Hahamongna!

LA County Flood Control District's EIR

Hahamongna is a rare spot in the Arroyo Seco at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains where the natural watershed meets the urban plain. Periodically, flash floods roar into this basin. Bounded on the north by the mountains and an ominous Jet Propulsion Lab, on the south by Devil's Gate Dam, Hahamongna contains five unique habitat zones that only exist in alluvial canyons near the mountains as well as wildlife (birds, hawks, lions, deer, foxes, toads, bobcats). Most sites like this in Southern California have already been destroyed. Can we afford let Hahamongna go the way of other lost environmental treasures in Southern California. LATEST NEWS

The trucks are coming: 200,000 double-bed, diesel-spewing, street-clogging machines will cause noise, dust, and air pollution, destroying precious habitat (savehahamongna.org).

 

Scraping the Bottom

André Coleman

Hahamongna trees (SH)

City officials and local residents join forces against sediment removal plans for Devil’s Gate Dam. Pasadena officials opposed to a five-year, $70-million sediment clean-up of Devil’s Gate Dam in Hahamongna Watershed Park, which they say could increase health risks and negatively impact local traffic, are making their feelings known in a letter to L.A. County officials pushing the controversial project. County Public Works Department officials want to remove up to 4-million cubic yards of sediment and build up around Devil’s Gate Dam, located in the southern portion of the park, but the excavation would also force workers to remove trees and vegetation in the area. More

Buddhist nomads of India (photos)

Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; photographer Dietmar Temps (flickr.com)

Nomadic Buddhist children in Himalayan Ladakh, India (DietmarTemps/flickr.com)

Lamayuru monastery under a full moon, Ladakh, Himalayas (dietmartemps.com)

  

Changtang in Ladakh (Buddhist India in the Himalayas) is the home of the Changpa nomads, a semi-nomadic Tibetan ethnic group.

When the nomadic children grow older, they are lucky to get the chance to attend school, usually a year-around boarding school. Their parents would welcome the opportunity of a better life afforded by the education.

Although their elders are proud of their traditions, they realize that the new generation will probably not follow the difficult nomadic life once they have an easier option. Childhood education opens up the possibility of a job in the capital of Leh or other cities in Ladakh, the "rooftop of the world."

• PHOTO GALLERY

On the one hand from the viewpoint of a tourist it is, of course, a bit sad that the traditions of the nomadic people might disappear entirely in the future. But it is completely understandable that nomads might also like to participate in the educational system to get a fair share of a growing economy.

On the other hand, there is almost no industry in Ladakh, other than the tourist industry. Many of the youth work in the sprawling tourism business in their early 20s. But the season in Ladakh, perched high in the Himalayas, is very short. The tourism industry cannot offer all of the people good jobs to earn enough money to raise a family.

When I asked young people about their dreams, I often got the answer of dreams of office jobs in public administration. Only a desperate few would consider going into the military, which has a presence in Ladakh as India attempts to fend off China to the north and Pakistan to the west.

Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir, northern India

The days when a family's youngest son inevitably started life as a Buddhist novice (samanera) in a local monastery (gompa) are over. These are interesting developments in Ladakh, in general, not only for the nomadic children of Changtang. More