Editorial, Eastern Group Publications, August 3, 2006:

Time for LA to Save the Southwest Museum

Several decades ago there were efforts to transfer the Southwest Museum's artifacts and exhibits to another museum.

At that time, the excuse for the removal of the museum's possessions was that the museum had been severely damaged by an earthquake and it would cost $25 million for repairs, which the museum did not have. Here we go again.

It always amazes us how willing the City of Los Angeles is to destroy history and cultural institutions to suit powerful entities’ ideas of not only what is historically appropriate to their eyes, but also to satisfy their desires to dictate where the appropriate locations are for displaying the community’s rich heritage and culture to the rest of the world. And as we have painfully come to realize, the so-called appropriate spots are rarely in working class neighborhoods or in our ethnic communities.

Although they don’t say it outright, they believe the monied crowd, the “true” patrons of the arts are unwilling, perhaps a little afraid, to venture into these communities that are for the most part foreign to their cultural sensibilities, or where they want to spend their leisure time and dollars.

Northeast Los Angeles has an assortment of historic locations, among them Heritage Square and the Lummis Adobe, and of course, the historically significant and irreplaceable Southwest Museum.

But it seems the City of Los Angeles is willing to break up this complex of culture and history rather than contribute to and legislate that the Southwest Museum be preserved and improved, and its collections of native American artwork and artifacts be kept in tact at the museum site atop Mt. Washington.

City officials, so willing to fork over taxpayer revenue to help private for-profit development all over the city, should pony up the funds needed to insure future generations of Angelenos will have the opportunity to study the history of the American Indians at the Southwest Museum, a location just as much a city icon as the Griffith Park Observatory and the Hollywood sign.