This Land Ain't My Land: My Trip To The Antelope Valley Indian Museum

It's important to know whose home you're living in. Having lived in the Payahuunadü-- also known as the Owens Valley-- and the Great Basin region of the US nearly all my life, I have had at least some understanding of who the Indigenous people of my homeland were and are. Since moving to the Antelope Valley, north of Los Angeles, I've found that, aside from strip malls and housing tracts, the history of the place focuses almost entirely on aerospace and a tiny bit on agriculture and the interstate highway system, but Native history doesn't get a lot of focus. That's why I wanted to check out the Antelope Valley Indian Museum State Historic Site, on the far east side of Lancaster, north of the town of Lake Los Angeles.

The museum

My wife Stephanie and I headed out on a windy Saturday in mid-May, which happened to be the first day they had been open since the pandemic began. Driving up the dirt road toward the museum, which is a kind of cool but out-of-place Tudor style building stuck out in the middle of flat desert and rocky buttes, I realized there were murals painted on the building of Native inspired designs. After getting the go-ahead from the ranger in the gift shop, we entered and paid the $3 each to check out the exhibits. 

The building was constructed in the 1930s as a summer home by an artist and amateur architect named Howard Arden Edwards, who collected art and artifacts from the Southwest and Great Basin regions. The building and his collection later became a museum, and in the 80s and 90s became a California State Historic Site. There are displays of native plant species that Indigenous people had historically harvested, examples of baskets, pottery, and other artwork from tribes throughout the Great Basin region, and maps showing the names of tribal locations and historic trade routes through the region. 

the barn along the nature trail 

There's also a short nature walk around the museum that showcases historic buildings, examples of natural formations in the landscape, and information about the ecosystem that surrounds the place. I appreciated the informational packet calling out the development to the south of the museum as an example of being mindful of our choices in how "we use (or abuse)" the land we live in. After doubling back to the gift shop to get some books on desert plants and the tribes of the area, Stephanie and I made our way back west toward home.

While the experience of learning more about the local Indigenous people was worthwhile, I can't help but think about how much colonial sentiment the collections at the museum has; I doubt there was any sort of consent from tribal entities about "collecting" these cultural items back in the 30s, and though it's good to have some cultural reference for the peoples who have lived in California and the Great Basin for thousands of years, it's important to remember that they're still around and not just the "primitive people" described by an American Southwest fanboy from the last century. 

Take Vasquez Rocks State Park, between Palmdale and Santa Clarita off the 14 Freeway. It's known for its film history and for being a hideout for bandits during the wild west days of California. While that's interesting and all, I don't often hear about the small group of people who inhabited the area for a couple thousand years that had their own unique culture separate from the surrounding tribal entities, or how Spanish colonization wiped them out and sought to do the same to the Indigenous peoples in general. History has largely written off Native America as being a thing of the past, but with organizations like Indigenous Women Hike and others there's more focus on setting injustices of the past and present right instead of treating Indigenous people as mystical relics of history. 

I'm glad that the exhibits acknowledge the sweeping generalizations about tribal culture in the Southwest are antiquated, but it's important to remember that a lot of the artifacts on display were brought into the Kitanimuk lands from abroad. To better understand and respect the places we live we should focus on and acknowledge the people who were here before us, and those connected to those roots today. I still believe the Antelope Valley Indian Museum is worth checking out if you're willing to make the drive, but be sure to check your colonizer mindset at the door.