On October 13, 2019, Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell and the Los Angeles City-County Native American Indian Commission (NAIC) planned the 2nd annual Indigenous Peoples Day celebration at Los Angeles City Hall on the traditional village of yaanga.

Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians citizens and members of leadership on stage at the 2nd Annual Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration at downtown Los Angeles. October 13, 2019. Photo courtesy of Timothy Ryan Ornelas.

The Yaavitam are known as the first people of this ancestral and unceded territory we know as downtown Los Angeles. Today, Yaavetam descendants are citizens of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians or the Gabrielino Tongva Band of Mission Indians. Both the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians and the Gabrielino Band of Mission Indians provided the opening invocations.

“It’s a proud day to be Indigenous..And a day to celebrate our culture. And to tell the world that we exist,” said Tribal President Rudy Ortega, who is also a commissioner for the NAIC.