Mapping Indigenous LA

“Mapping Indigenous LA” is a digital project created with ArcGIS which is a mapping software created by Esri. This project provides a map of Los Angeles and tells us the lost stories and history of the Native Americans. The tribes that are included are the Gabrielino/Tongva and Tatavian. The Native Americans were forced out West by governmental policies instilled by the colonist.

The main site has three links to separate sites. The first is introducing the tribes that the project will be covering and describes what the goal of the project is, which is to give us a detailed visual map of the indigenous people who lived on the land before. A map of LA doesn’t tell a story about its people who resided there first.

The picture on the left is the home site of the project. The two icons are links that send you to two different story maps. The first provides us with the mapping of indigenous LA and the second link is the history of Fernandeno Tataviam map. Both story maps offer an interactive and user friendly interface that provides us with links to other sites further explaining aspects, pictures, interviews with Native American historians, etc. The sites are well organized providing us with the writing on the left side and the pictures or videos on the right. The interface answers all of you questions for you as you read. For example, if you didn’t know what a “reed watercraft” was all you need to do is click on the word or phrase and a picture pops up on he right! 

The project accelerates the humanities in the way of organizing indigenous Los Angeles, remembering the Native Americans that are often forgotten and telling the story of Los Angeles before it became the city we know today. It is easily accessible to anyone and it has all the information right there and if it does not it send you to a site that explains the topic deeper. This project gave me ideas for how I want my digital project to turn out. I am hoping for well organized site that is easy to follow and easy to get access to.

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