The Native American Garden is a 20,000 square-foot area in the upper mall outside the Highland Union Building, or HUB next to Pierce Hall. The vision for the Native American Garden is to provide a learning and living garden that will honor the land’s original inhabitants.
The project was planned in collaboration with a working group that included campus leadership, staff, faculty, student, and Indigenous community representatives who came together to review the concepts and designs to bring the vision to light. The garden was designed by landscape architects at the firm Jones and Jones, known for their work on the National Museum of the American Indian, on the National Mall in Washington D.C.
The garden features a variety of trees, plants, and vegetation native to the region and its tribes — the Cahuilla, Tongva, Luiseño, and Serrano peoples. It includes varieties such as chaparral, oak, sage scrub, palo verde, and desert vegetation.