Native Angelenos have found a home in this new community center

On a sweltering July afternoon in Echo Park, Miranda Due approached a table filled with three different flavored syrups and an assortment of toppings: diced pickles, powdered Kool-Aid and gummy bears. Behind her, Dria Yellowhair pulled a glass filled with crushed ice from a cooler and asked Due what flavor she wanted. When she asked for blueberry, Yellowhair doused the ice with fluorescent blue syrup and loaded the treat with a generous dollop of each topping.

This was Due's first piccadilly, a delicacy whose origins are debated, but which date back to the Navajothe Tohono O'odham reservation, or the Hopi people MonacoWherever they came from, they exploded The recipe for Yellowhair, which became popular on the Navajo reservation in 2018, is Diné (the word Navajo use to identify themselves), and she grew up in Downey but has family on the reservation and visits frequently. She was introducing the sweet treat to visitors at a new Native American community center and exhibit space called Chapter House.

After taking a bite, Due contemplated the taste.

“It’s sweet, a little sour and salty from the pickles,” she said. “It’s a nice combination of all the flavors. It’s fantastic.”

Due, 31, is Cherokee and a member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma. The nonprofit worker, who lived in Los Angeles for five years before moving to Tulsa, couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit the Chapter House on her recent visit to California.

The teal building sits on a noisy stretch of Glendale Boulevard, just off the 2 Freeway. Its front room houses the center’s summer art exhibit, “Diary of a Native Femme(nist)” by artist Kimberly Robertson. But it’s the building’s quiet, shaded outdoor space in the back where most of the community’s gatherings take place. On the day I visited, about a dozen Native Angelenos were comparing the colors of their tongues, freshly dyed blue and red by their Piccadilly syrup, as music from Native bands like Redbone and The Halluci Nation drowned out the cityscape. A group of toddlers waved bubble wands and ran circles around a child-size, Barbie-pink Cybertruck.

An exhibition will open at The Chapter House on May 6. The quiet, shaded outdoor space at the back of the building is where most community gatherings take place.

(Anthony Chase in winter)

A group photo from the opening of The Chapter House’s most recent art exhibition, “Diary of a Native Femme(nist),” featuring artist Kimberly Robertson, center, and The Chapter House founder Emma Robbins (Diné), right.

(Anthony Chase in winter)

“I went to school here for a while and I always had hopes of finding more community,” Due said. “I think it really came alive when I left the city.”

Almost 400,000 people In Los Angeles County, the majority of residents identify as part American Indian or Alaska Native, according to the 2020 census. That makes it one of the bigger Urban indigenous populations of the nation.

Despite this, Chapter House founder Emma Robbins (Diné) says there are very few places for Indigenous people to gather socially in the city. The Gabrielino/Tongva people, the original people of Los Angeles, are not yet a federally recognized tribe and therefore do not have a nearby reservation that can function as a centralized hub.

Before the Chapter House opened, Native Angelenos were seen at a handful of annual events at the Autry Museum of the American West, such as the Powwow Organized by the nonprofit United American Indian Involvement, UAII also provides social services for the urban Native population, and community members sometimes ran into acquaintances while waiting for a doctor’s appointment at the clinic. But events at Autry were too infrequent to foster a sense of belonging. And Robbins said others found it too awkward to connect in the UAII waiting room.

While UAII also offers community programming for families, youth, and seniors, there are not as many events geared toward young Native creatives. To fill this void, Robbins sought to create an informal, artistic community space with year-round programming.

Robbins, who grew up on the Navajo Reservation, which spans Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, founded The Chapter House virtually in 2020. There, the center of social life takes place in so-called chapter houses, community centers unique to the Navajo Nation. Here, people distribute food and water, facilitate public meetings, view art, experience cultural celebrations, host parties and conduct funerals. There are 110 chapter houses spread across the reservation, and Robbins jokes that the Los Angeles Chapter House, which opened its physical space in the fall of 2023, is the 111th.

“What I’m familiar with is the Navajo reservations,” Robbins said. “But I think working with Native Californians, specifically the Tongva and Chumash people in the area, is really important because even though we’re Navajo- or Diné-led, it’s important to include all Native people.”

Emma Robbins points to a town on the Navajo Nation map during the community's “Update Day” to help touch up the space.

(Michael Blackshire/Los Angeles Times)

“We’re all unique and we’re all from different tribes, different nations, but we all longed for a space to come together, recharge and heal,” Robbins said. “We also brought things to our community that we historically might not have had access to, like art exhibits, yoga classes or even good Wi-Fi,” Robbins said.

Robbins founded Chapter House on four pillars: wellness, community, art and nature. In addition to frequent social gatherings in Piccadilly, they have hosted events such as a Métis (Michif) finger-weaving lesson, plant medicine workshops, screenings of new seasons of Netflix’s Indigenous-themed animated children’s show “Spirit Rangers,” and a drag story hour with Landa Lakes (Chickasaw) and Lady Shug (Diné).

Joey Clift, a comedian and television writer from Cowlitz, first discovered Chapter House in July 2023 through a bolo tie-making workshop, which helped him transform a handmade beaded Garfield medallion made by a Cree bead artisan. Heather's Sweetgrassinto something I could use.

He said the Chapter House reminded him of a past era of 1930s Hollywood that had read aboutwhere the Native American Art Store across the street from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre was the unofficial hangout for Native American actors like Jim Thorpe, a member of the Sac and Fox Nation and Olympic gold medalist turned Western star. Until Cowlitz found the Chapter House, he could only dream of these spaces of the past. Cowlitz would join the community center’s board of directors, hoping to reignite the fledgling Native American creative scene.

“I think there are a lot of really good spaces for older people in Los Angeles to engage and practice culture,” said Clift, 40. “But I don’t feel like there are a lot of spaces for millennials and Native Zoomers. That’s something that really excited me about Chapter House. It’s for all ages, but it really feels like it’s aware of the great artistic advancements that Native people are making now.”

Alyssa Muske, right, looks at instructions for building a cabinet while getting help from Pinon “Pinny” Robbins, left, during community “Upgrade Day.”

(Michael Blackshire/Los Angeles Times)

A visitor views “Diary of a Native Femm(nista),” an art exhibition by Kimberly Robertson that opened at Chapter House on May 4.

(Anthony Chase in winter)

The space is also helping indigenous youth connect with their culture for the first time. Burgundy Trejo Phoenix, a Yaqui actress who voices a character named Squash on “Spirit Rangers,” first connected with Chapter House when the Season 4 finale of the children’s show was screened in April. She immediately felt accepted by the community, even though she was not raised with its Yaqui traditions.

“I feel like I don’t have to try to be something I’m not,” Phoenix said. “We all support each other, inspire each other, and help each other.”

Through promoting events at UAII, on Instagram, and through word of mouth, Chapter House is building a loyal following. Their events, which are always free and open to the public, regularly draw about 20 to 25 people, but 200 packed the venue for the La La Land Back Tour drag show they co-hosted last November. While most people in attendance identify as Indigenous, Robbins emphasizes that Chapter House welcomes allies, too.

“This is definitely an Indigenous space, created by Indigenous people for Indigenous people,” Robbins said. “We want people to come and learn and experience what it feels like when we come together and build this beautiful Indigenous future.”