City officials and the the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians celebrated the winter solstice on Dec. 21. (photo courtesy of LADWP)

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians on Dec. 21 co-hosted a winter solstice community wellness gathering at Chatsworth Nature Preserve to celebrate the official first day of winter and to honor and remember those who have died due to COVID-19.

“I am grateful to the Fernandeño Tataviam and Chumash Tribal leaders for bringing us together today to honor those we’ve lost and reaffirm our ties to this place and to each other,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said. “All of us share in the trauma of the last nearly two years, but as we mark the shortest day of the year, we know that spring is up ahead, and we will emerge stronger than before.”

Hundreds of community members attended the event at the city’s only nature preserve. Fernandeño Tataviam and Chumash Native American welcoming songs were performed, and attendees participated in a prayer circle.

“As First Peoples, my Tribe is not unfamiliar with pandemic outbreaks in our homelands,” said Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians’ Tribal President Rudy Ortega Jr. “Two-hundred years ago, my great-great grandmother Maria and hundreds of Tribal members lost their lives in a pandemic, and today, we’ve lost more of our loved ones to COVID-19. In their honor, we gather together on our ancestral village of Jucjauyanga to celebrate our winter solstice and pray for the good health, wellness and spirit our communities.”

The property is closed to the public to preserve habitat on the site, so the event provided the community a rare opportunity to view unique wildlife, plants and trees around Chatsworth Nature Preserve.

Speakers also included Los Angeles City Council President Pro Tempore Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, 13th District.

The LADWP-owned property originally served as the site of a reservoir put into service in 1919 and fed by the San Fernando Reservoir.

Because the reservoir dam was built without mechanical compaction of the soil, it was deemed seismically vulnerable and removed from service in 1972. In 1997, the Los Angeles City Council renamed the Chatsworth Reservoir as the Chatsworth Nature Preserve, establishing the city’s first and only nature preserve.