Descendants of the first people of the Los Angeles Basin did not own land for nearly 200 years.
Two years ago, a 1-acre plot of land in suburban Altadena was covered with oak trees and shrubs. First land Tongwa returned to the people. They finally got space to host traditional festivals, community gatherings and other events.
The Jan. 7 fire in the mountains near Eaton Canyon had burned more than 14,000 acres as of Friday, causing significant property damage, including the destruction of an old stone house and a garage on the property.
However, the losses would have been much worse had it not been for the indigenous practices practiced on the land. Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa ProtectionA non-profit organization dedicated to restoring and protecting the land and cultural heritage of the Tongwa people in the LA area.
Wallace Cleaves, chairman of the conservancy's board, credits traditional stewardship practices — including the removal of 97 fire-prone eucalyptus trees — with reducing the impact of wildfires.

Wallace Cleaves, head of the Tongwa Taraxat Baxawxa Conservancy, credits traditional stewardship practices — including the removal of 97 fire-vulnerable eucalyptus trees — for reducing the impact of wildfires.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
“We believe that the work we've done to remove invasive and endangered species on the property can mitigate the damage, and it's more likely that the native plants there will recover and not suffer as much,” he said.
For thousands of years, the Tongva people thrived in the San Gabriel Mountains. Its valleys provided abundant food and served as trade routes between distant indigenous communities. But in the early 20th century, after being displaced and enslaved by successive waves of settlers — Spaniards, Mexicans and white Americans — the Tongva lost their ancestral homeland in Southern California.
Without federal recognition or reservations, they sought to return available land to themselves through the “Land Back” movement, wrote Cleaves and Conservancy Board member Charles Sepulveda. In a 2021 article for Bloomberg.
“We need a place to gather our food, medicine and sacred plants without fear of the arbitrary controls of a land management system that now mismanages the land enough to burn it endlessly,” they wrote. “We need a place where we can gather and renew ourselves, our culture and our community.”
The 1-acre property that now provides a renewed connection to the Tongva people is owned by Sharon Alexander, whose family built a Spanish ranch-style home on the wooded parcel in 1931. Alexander, who used the house as a rental, transferred the land. In 2022 after learning of its ancestral importance to the people of Tongwa.
Since then, the Tongwa community has worked to restore land in accordance with traditional ecological knowledge and develop properties to support community gatherings.
In addition to removing the eucalyptus trees, they planted 50 full-grown oak trees and removed tons of old firewood and other debris, Cleaves said. Cultural burnout Another traditional land stewardship practice, but Tongwa has not yet been able to implement it on the property due to permit requirements.
“It is our duty to be good stewards of the land, plants and animals in our care,” Cleaves said. “So a lot of our effort went into restoring as much native habitat as we could.”
Cleaves was unable to visit the land as wildfires roared through Eaton Canyon and destroyed large areas of Altadena. But based on publicly available photos, he believes the farmhouse on the property is relatively intact. No one lives on the property, he said.
And while some oak trees are charred, many still have green leaves, he said. The oak is one of the sacred plants of the Tongwa people; Its acorns are a staple in traditional cuisine.
“We know our oak, we know it's very resilient,” he said. “We hope that most of the oak trees will recover from this and continue to be healthy and part of our community there.”
A bobcat, coyotes and bears also visited the land, he said. He did not know how they behaved.
Cleaves said he hoped the Tongwa people would be able to return to the property for the festivities later this year.
“When we think about tribal-led approaches like cultural burning or other indigenous stewardship, that helps mitigate and build resilience against climate change,” he said. Nina FontanaA research scientist at UC Davis focused on Native land stewardship.

Two years ago, this 1-acre property in Altadena became the first parcel of ancestral land returned to the Tongwa people in nearly 200 years.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
As the Los Angeles area begins to recover and rebuild from the devastating fires in Altadena and Pacific Palisades, it's important for state and federal agencies to work with indigenous communities to incorporate the indigenous experience, Fontana said. He said practices like cultural burning are place-specific, developed around a specific landscape and ecosystem.
“It's important to listen to Indigenous voices and understand that the knowledge that communities hold is thousands and thousands of years of knowledge,” he said. “I think listening to that knowledge and allowing it to be implemented is really the key to the future of wildfire.”
This article is part of The Times. Equity Reporting Initiative, Funded by James Irvine FoundationTo examine the challenges faced by low-income workers and the efforts being made to address them California's Economic Divide.