The City Is Native Land (Present)

What happens when we stop imagining cities as separate from Indigenous land?In Episode 4 of Reclaiming Our Stories: Voices of Indigenous Peoples of California, host Victorio L. Shaw speaks with Cindi Alvitre (Tongva) and Corrina Gould (Lisjan Ohlone) about Native presence, belonging, and responsibility within urban California.Together, they challenge the assumption that Indigenous identity exists only in rural or historically distant spaces. Instead, they reflect on cities as layered homelands—places where Native communities continue to live, organize, teach, create ceremony, sustain kinship, and practice care.The episode explores migration, relocation, urban Native community-building, cultural continuity, and the everyday labor that sustains Indigenous life in cities. Through reflections on Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Sacramento, and beyond, listeners are invited to recognize the city itself as Native land.An artistic interlude woven through the episode offers space for reflection through sound, rhythm, and movement—allowing the city to speak in another register.This conversation is ultimately an invitation toward accountability: to place, to community, and to the layered histories that continue beneath streets, neighborhoods, and gathering spaces across California.Listener TakeawaysIndigenous presence in cities is ongoing, rooted, and deeply connected to land, culture, and community.Urban Native communities continue practices of care through ceremony, organizing, education, language work, and mutual support.Recognizing cities as Native land changes how we understand belonging, responsibility, and place.Reflection QuestionKnowing the city you live in is Native land, how does that change the way you move, gather, or show care for that place?Music Featured in This Episode“Hu l-molmoloq’iwaš – The ancestors.” Composed by Deborah L. Sanchez. Featured during the artistic interlude reflecting movement, gathering, and the rhythms of urban Indigenous life.AcknowledgementsReclaiming Our Stories: Voices of Indigenous Peoples of California is made possible with support from The 11th Hour Project and Weingart Foundation.Reclaiming Our Stories is a part of By the People: Conversations Beyond 250. By the People: Conversations Beyond 250 is a series of community-driven programs created by humanities councils in collaboration with local partners. The initiative was developed by the Federation of State Humanities Councils and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.