Signal Tribune Your Weekly Community Newspaper
VOL. XLIII NO. 29 CRIME
INSIDE: Long Beach Youth Chorus kicks off season with string of events see page 6
Serving Bixby Knolls, California Heights, Los Cerritos, Wrigley and Signal Hill
Friday, July 16, 2021
COMMUNITY
Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune
The statue of Martin Luther King Jr. at MLK Park on July 15, 2021. After being vandalized with a swastika and SS bolts on July 2, 2021, the City has repaired security cameras and is offering a reward for information about the culprit.
City offering $8,000 reward for information about vandalism of Martin Luther King Jr. statue
Mother and daughter from Gabrieleno/ Tongva tribe fight to save their sacred plant from American consumerism Kristen Farrah Naeem
Emma DiMaggio
N Staff Writer
Managing Editor
The City of Long Beach is offering an $8,000 reward for anyone with information that could lead to the identification and conviction of whoever is responsible for the recent vandalism of the Martin Luther King Jr. statue at MLK Park. “This was absolutely both a racist, horrible, disgusting act on our Martin Luther King statue in King Park,” Mayor Robert Garcia said. “This is especially offensive and hurtful to the Black community and to all those that respect and love Dr. King’s message that resonates not just in our community but across the country and the world.” The Anti-Defamation League offered an initial $3,000 reward for information. The Long Beach City Council boosted the reward by an additional $5,000 from general funds at its Tuesday, July 13 meeting. “This is one of the steps we’re taking to demonstrate the seriousness of this act,” said Councilmember Suely Saro, who proposed the fund allocation. see MLK STATUE page 9
ext time you smell the scent of burning sage, think about who’s burning it and where they got it from. Tightly-wound bundles of the dried plant have become an innocuous sight in smoke shops and at booths lining the Venice Beach boardwalk. But consumerism has never been what the Native American tradition of burning sage is about. “We sage to […] clean up the energy around us and to help us have good thoughts, and the smoke carries all of that impurity up to the Creator,” Kimberly Morales Johnson of the Gabrieleno/Tongva tribe said. This plant has been used for spiritual cleansing by Native American tribes in what is now known as California for generations. But its recent popularity in American capitalist culture is devastating the species. “White sage is a California plant that the Southern California tribes use as part of like cleansing rituals, and is a very integral part of the culture. And because of that—that history and that identity the plant has—it’s been taken by the larger culture in general, the larger mass media, and you can buy it at places like Whole Foods and stuff like that,” Jason Steinhauser, a horticulture student at Long Beach City College, said
Kristen Farrah Naeem | Signal Tribune — Courtesy Kimberly Morales Johnson
(Top) A Tongva elder lets sage smoke blow across four acres that are soon to be restored and opened to the public. (Bottom) Confiscated white sage that hasn’t been damaged by mold is salvaged and wrapped into bundles by Kimberly Morales Johnson and her daughter.
Cultural appropriation and commodification
The recent interest in white sage divorces the use of the plant from its origins, as do the many depictions of burning white sage that appear in popular culture. “We’ve noticed within the past three to five years that, you know, it’s everywhere. It’s in movies, it’s in ‘Grace and Frankie.’ It’s on Instagram. There was a see WHITE SAGE page 8