The Tongva Living History Garden began in 2012, with the collaboration of Barbara Drake, Scott Scoggins, and students from the Native American Summer Pipeline to College Program. Hosted at the Chaffey Community Cultural Center, the Tongva Living History Garden has evolved over the years with input from many community members, students, and visiting groups. 

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Created with the intention of serving as an educational space to teach the history of California's land, people, and plants, the Tongva Living History Garden is a continuing project that has grown rapidly in the past several years. Standing out as an exemplary and unique model for land-based pedagogy, the Garden hosts many student groups and community members and exposes them to the many stories that can be told simply through the plants that both are native to California and were brought here. Four sections of the Garden lead us through the stages of land, people, and ecological colonization. 

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The Tongva Era Garden (pre-colonization--1771), is marked with three sections: Native Food, Basketry, and Medicine. A California Scrub Oak greets us to the Garden, and through it is not yet mature, in several years it will produce acorns for harvest. The division of the Tongva Era Garden into sub-sections is fundamentally an unnecessary touch, and--as Barbara and other visiting indigenous community members often point out--nearly all native plants can be used interchangeably as medicine, food, and craft. None-the-less, the separate sub-sections helps to guide us through a clearer understanding of the uses and history of the plants contained in each garden box. 

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The Spanish Mission Era Garden (1771--1834), tells the story of the first plants brought to California with the Spanish Invasion. Mission grapes, fig, and  pomegranate adorn the Northern slope of the Garden, providing a dramatic backdrop for the entire space. 

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The Spanish Rancho Era Garden (1834--1882), contains all the seasonal vegetables of the Garden. The plants help provide a context for the telling of the story of the Rancho Era, the forced labor of indigenous people from the surrounding area on large farms, and the relocation of plants and people through California. 

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The Pioneer Citrus Era Garden (1882--present day), brings us to the present chapter in California's plant story. With a diverse array of citrus tree varieties, the Pioneer Citrus Era Garden wraps around the Chaffey Community Cultural Center and provides a seemingly endless bounty of lemons, oranges, limes, and kumquats. 

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The development of the Tongva Living History Garden has been largely a collaborative community project, that has involved so many people. Barbara Drake has been a constant inspiration and leading force in opening the space to fulfill its educational potential. A local Tongva Elder and culture keeper, Barbara is involved in numerous collectives and projects in Southern California. Barbara is also a co-founder of the local Chia Cafe Collective, which works with California native plants and indigenous practices to create native recipes with plants such as nettles and chia. A compilation of recipes that use plants growing in the Tongva Living History Garden can be found on our Recipes from California Native Plants page.Barbara has been featured in the KCET Tending the Wild series, in a personal interview that talks about the preservation of native plants. Beyond her involvement in the regional indigenous community, Barbara is endlessly generous with her time and knowledge and can be found at cultural and educational events throughout Southern California beyond the fences of the Tongva Living History Garden.

 

Furthermore, collaboration with the Claremont Colleges has been facilitated in large part by Scott Scoggins and the Community Engagement Center . As the Director of Native American Summer Programs and the Assistant Director of Native American Initiative, Scott is tireless in his outreach to the indigenous communities not only of California but also in Canada and other states. He currently works closely on the Native Youth to College program, which connects Native American youth to higher education opportunities that enable them to take on leadership roles within their tribal communities. On-going collaborations with the Claremont Colleges and the Tongva Living History Garden include the Ne-sook Garden at the Pomona College Organic Farm, and the California Native Plant Food Practices course coordinated by Joe Parker at Pitzer College. 

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Most recently, the Tongva Living History Garden has become a space for student engagement and learning. Spring 2017 saw the introduction of the Native Cooking and Medicine workshop series--a bi-weekly workshop taught by Barbara Drake and organized with the help of spring intern Liyanna Sadowsky and Scott Scoggins. Students gained hands-on experience helping care for the plants in the Garden, plant new seasonal vegetables in the Rancho Era Garden, and learned from Barbara the medicinal, culinary, and spiritual properties of the native plants. Please visit the video gallery for a more intimate look into the Native Cooking and Medicine workshop series! 

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As a community partnership that bridges worlds and tells the story of California through an ethnobotanical lens, the Tongva Living History Garden has brought invaluable knowledge and richness to those who visit. For more information on how to get involved with the Tongva Living History Garden, organized tours, school visits, and more, please contact tongvalivinghistorygarden@gmail.com 

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