Exploration of Indigenous fire practices a ‘living land acknowledgment’
A Fowler Museum exhibition offers reflection and recovery after the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires and serves as an important gesture to native communities. “The overwhelming response to Fire Kinship, from Native communities and visitors seeking deeper understanding, especially in the wake of the recent wildfires, made it clear that this exhibition is more than a moment; it’s part of an ongoing dialogue,” museum director Silvia Forni said.
Read more about the exhibition from UCLA Newsroom
$2.2 million grant will sustain UCLA Law clinic’s impactful work with Native Nations
The funding — the latest contribution to the program from the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation— fuels UCLA Law’s work in producing new practitioners and scholars who work in Indian law or whose work intersects with issues involving tribal sovereignty.
Read more about School of Law’s Tribal Legal Development Clinic
Avian archetypes: Native American folklore’s most fascinating birds
Bruin alumnus Paul Apodaca’s legacy is clearly visible on campus: He is among the influential figures depicted in artist and professor Judith Baca’s mural “La Memoria de la Tierra” at Ackerman Union. The Bruin alumnus honors “the beauty, grace, power and wisdom of those who were here before us.”
Read more about the significance of birds in Native stories and cultures
Watch: Fire, Feminism and the Land
Lina Tejada, co-curator of Fire Kinship, reflects on key themes and works in the exhibition and its focus on Indigenous perspectives on fire, kinship and artistic traditions.
Watch the Lunch & Learn talk from the Fowler Museum
Q&A: Vicente Diaz on deepening engagement with Native communities
The Indigenous scholar is serving in an inaugural leadership role at UCLA’s American Indian Studies Center. Newsroom spoke with him about how his work has built an interdiscipline, or what Diaz sometimes calls an “anti-discipline,” founded on principles of accountability and relationship to Indigenous people, and why he resists distinguishing the power of academia from the power of Indigeneity.
Read more about Vicente Diaz from UCLA Newsroom
Mental health inequities observed across American Indian and Alaska Native subgroups in California
Using pooled data from the California Health Interview Survey for the years 2019–2023, the study goes further than previous research into American Indian and Alaska Native mental health outcomes to provide disaggregated data for three subgroups: those who identify as AIAN-alone (non-Latino), those who identify as both AIAN and Latino and those who identify as both AIAN and one or more other races. Data showed that many are struggling with day-to-day activities and not receiving care.
Learn more about the study by the Center for Health Policy Research
How California’s Indigenous tribes affect and are affected by policy issues in California
Many of the state’s most pressing policy questions — land use, cultural preservation, economic development — can’t be fully understood without Indigenous perspectives, and students in Eduardo Garcia’s California policy course at the Luskin School of Public Affairs had a chance earlier this month to hear directly from someone reshaping that policy landscape: Rudy Ortega Jr., president of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians.
Read more about Ortega’s visit from UCLA Newsroom
Native legal scholars discuss advancing tribal sovereignty after presidential transition
Key players in Indian Country and national politics joined the Native Nations Law and Policy Center at the School of Law to discuss the current political landscape in the U.S.
Read and watch more about the Native Nations Law & Policy Center’s webinar
Advancing health equity through culturally competent care
Satema Lopez’s research sits at the intersection of public health, social justice and advocacy for Indigenous communities.
Read more about and watch Satema Lopez’s undergraduate research project
Earth Day with Cahuilla artist Gerald Clarke
Featured in the Fire Kinship exhibition, Gerald Clarke discusses traditional ecological knowledge as the foundation for an Indigenous understanding of the world, our relationship to fire, and his artistic practice.
Watch the Lunch & Learn video from the Fowler Museum
Cultural expression in Indigenous art and design
Faculty experts, including Angela Riley and moderator Lauren van Schilfgaarde, discuss intangible cultural property and its relation to Tribes, the fashion industry, upcoming amendments to the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, and the growing conversation around cultural property rights at the United Nations.
