Lummis Day Video: Chumash-Tataviam Tribal Member Ted Garcia Delivers Opening Prayer

Charles Fletcher Lummis' relationship with Native Americans is a source of some contention among the numerous historians who follow his vast legacy. So much so that this year's program for the sixth annual Lummis Day Celebration features an article by local historian Ann Walnum in which she defends Lummis as a respectful and intellectually driven curator of Native American artifacts.

"Lummis has been portrayed as a dilettante with an overactive sex life and looter of Indian artifacts," writes Walnum, a longtime educator and Mount Washington Association member. "In truth, Lummis had a vigorous intellect, ethics that placed a premium on truth as knowledge, a mission to educate and inform and a zest for adventure and action. The accusation of 'looting' could be aimed at the many hobbyists who indulged in digging and taking, or taking and selling. But, Lummis' times saw the establishment of scientific standards and accreditation in the field of archeology." 

Regardless of the debate over his history, Lummis has come to represent to many the idealized notion of Native Americans and white men living together harmoniously. More than 80 years after his death, Lummis Day is now a local celebration of multi-culturalism in Northeast Los Angeles.

In light of that celebration, this year's Lummis Day was commenced with a prayer delivered "for all of us" by Ted Garcia, a spiritual advisor for the Chumash-Tataviam Native American Tribe.