Threatened Park Land Once Was the Indians’
This letter is regarding your Oct. 7 article on the threatened sale of parkland in Los Liones Canyon. The Gabrielino/Tongva tribe were once stewards of the whole Los Angeles Basin. Los Liones Canyon has special historic and religious value to us. This area has lived in our oral histories as a special place, and archeological evidence supports this oral tradition.
Donald Murphy, director of State Parks, has been a friend to native Americans since his ranger days. We have formally requested that we be included in planning the restoration of this parcel. The environmentalists who are seeking to implement the State Park General Plan at this site are working with us to create there a vest pocket vestige of what we once had in great abundance.
We, as a people, have had a philosophy of living in harmony with nature. We never took more from the land than the land could regenerate naturally. This is an important lesson we can teach the people of Los Angeles.
This park must be preserved for the Gabrielino/Tongva tribe and for all the people of California. Please people, don’t sell state parkland for development.
ANGIE DORAME BEHRNS
Los Angeles
Behrns is vice president of the Gabrielino/Tongva Springs Foundation.
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