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CoP: Data Science: Native Land Attribution #45

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@ryanmswan

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Project Name: Native Land Attribution

Volunteer Opportunity: Data Analyst to Figure out the total list of native lands that LA County occupies.

The eventual use will be a presentation and a video like this tribute

Who to communicate your interest to

  • Slack channel link: #data-science
  • Slack name of person to contact in the channel: Abe Khaleghi

Resources:
LA County zip and city list
Native Land lookup
Geospatial Data Analysis: GeoPandas, QGIS/ArcGIS

Activity

  1. ryanmswan commented on Jul 16, 2021

    @ryanmswan
    Author
  2. ExperimentsInHonesty commented on Sep 9, 2021

    @ExperimentsInHonesty
    Member

    @ryanmswan Here is the history of the communication in the Data Science channel

    Bonnie Apr 28th at 10:27 AM
    @channel if there is anyone looking for a quick Data project, we could use some help on this today: https://github.com/hackforla/data-science/projects/2#card-60044906
    30 replies

    Jude Calvillo 4 months ago
    Hey @bonnie. Good to meet you. I haven't contributed in quite some time but saw this and thought it'd be a fun quickie. I haven't personally touched APIs in a while (part of this is trying to get back in the code, overall), but are we sure that the Native-land.ca API is working? I keep getting 403 errors upon calling it. That's really the final step in what I just made.

    Jude Calvillo 4 months ago
    https://github.com/judecalvillo/native-land-attribution

    judecalvillo/native-land-attribution
    Quickie project for Hack for LA
    Last updated
    a minute ago
    https://github.com/judecalvillo/native-land-attribution|judecalvillo/native-land-attributionjudecalvillo/native-land-attribution | Apr 28th | Added by GitHub (Legacy)

    Albert Ulysses 4 months ago
    @jude Calvillo yes it works, I tested it with Postman on my local machine yesterday and re-ran it just now. I would double check your headers if you're calling it from a script. 403 forbidden can also be a typo issue, maybe you've typed it wrong and the end point isn't public. (edited)
    👍
    1

    Albert Ulysses 4 months ago
    What are you using to make the call? If you have a python script I can take a quick look at it. I didn't see anything on Github (edited)

    Jude Calvillo 4 months ago
    @Albert Ulysses ok, I'll check again, but I used the path on the website, then tried multiple methods of adding the query, to no avail. I'm using R.

    Albert Ulysses 4 months ago
    can you send the error message?

    Albert Ulysses 4 months ago
    then also, send the endpoints - maybe I can test those

    Jude Calvillo 4 months ago
    I just used what's on the site/documentation. Example: https://native-land.ca/api/index.php?maps=territories&position=42.553080,-86.473389

    Albert Ulysses 4 months ago
    hmm can you send the error you're getting? I just copied that and it works.

    Albert Ulysses 4 months ago
    Screenshot from 2021-04-29 10-47-22

    Jude Calvillo 4 months ago
    Yeah, when you go straight browser, it works. 403 error. I'm currently mobile, so can't get the full response right now but will send a little later this afternoon.

    Albert Ulysses 4 months ago
    I'm not using a browser, I'm using postman. I also tested it using curl on my terminal. I think the issue is in your headers. Probably isn't giving some information and the native-land api is denying anything that looks too much like a bot.

    Jude Calvillo 4 months ago
    Ok, I thought that might be a possibility, but what info would I need to add to header? -- Also, I REALLY gotta stop making my requests from the Ukraine. :-/

    Albert Ulysses 4 months ago
    oh. lol can't tell if that's joke, but yeah making api calls from outside of the US is problematic. I have someone on our team in Australlia and he can't do some of his scraping for us because he has an internatioal ip (edited)

    Jude Calvillo 4 months ago
    Oh, totally a joke. Sorry. 😁 I'll try experimenting with various header combos later today. Thanks again, @Albert Ulysses!

    Albert Ulysses 4 months ago
    sure no problem, if you still have problems with it later, I can possibly make the calls for you.
    👍
    1

    Jude Calvillo 4 months ago
    @Albert Ulysses, got it to work! Looks like I needed to add a user-agent header. 😕 -- Thanks. I'll wrap up and post later today. Have a good one!
    👍
    1

    Albert Ulysses 4 months ago
    cool, glad to hear

    Jude Calvillo 4 months ago
    Oh, can you or @bonnie confirm: For the project in question, are you only looking for which lands are being occupied, or are you looking for their geometry as well?

    Albert Ulysses 4 months ago
    I think there is a separate thread where she wrote what her expectations were. I'll @ you
    👍
    1

    Jude Calvillo 4 months ago
    Repo updated and ending w/resultant file for just lands and languages per zip. But I can create another dataset for geos, if necessary: https://github.com/judecalvillo/native-land-attribution

    judecalvillo/native-land-attribution
    Quickie project for Hack for LA
    Last updated
    6 minutes ago
    https://github.com/judecalvillo/native-land-attribution|judecalvillo/native-land-attributionjudecalvillo/native-land-attribution | Apr 28th | Added by GitHub (Legacy)

    Albert Ulysses 4 months ago
    hey @jude Calvillo did you submit the project ?

    Jude Calvillo 4 months ago
    Oh, I don't know of the protocols, @Albert Ulysses, but if someone can point me in the right direction, I'd be happy to do what's required. I just saw the call for help and thought it'd be a great opportunity to reacquaint myself with hands on coding.

    Albert Ulysses 4 months ago
    I think @bonnie wanted it submitted to this: https://www.tribute.co/nac-land-acknowledgements/?name=National&email=nac%40codefora[…]utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=website&utm_source=sendgrid.com
    with a list for la county. Then potentially also move it to the hackforla website. I would double check the original thread!

    TributeTribute
    Tribute for NAC Land Acknowledgements - Code for America Summit
    We're creating a video montage (or "Tribute") for NAC Land Acknowledgements and want you to join us. It will only take you a minute to record your video and you can do it from any device. Click on the link to learn more and submit your video. Thanks! (34 kB)
    https://www.tribute.co/nac-land-acknowledgements/?name=National&email=nac%40codeforamerica.org&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=website&utm_source=sendgrid.com

    Jude Calvillo 4 months ago
    Oh, shoot. I'm visiting family right now. I'll look for the original thread in the morning, if that's ok.
    👍
    1

    Bonnie 4 months ago
    @jude Calvillo At the present moment I am just looking for the list of tribes for LA county so I can make a tribute video.

    Jude Calvillo 4 months ago
    @bonnie, LMK if this does the trick for you... https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judecalvillo/native-land-attribution/master/dat/los-angeles-county_native-american-lands.csv

    Bonnie 4 months ago
    @jude Calvillo yes, that’s awesome. Can I get a list of all the tribes without dupes?
    👍
    1

    Jude Calvillo 4 months ago
    @bonnie sure. I can do that before bed. In the meantime, you might want to try opening this up in Excel, then simply selecting the "native _territories" column and going to Data > Text to Columns in the menu, then creating a field with a formula for UNIQUE(... and selecting the resultant cells from the previous step. That should give you the uniques after parsing them out. -- I'd totally do that for you, but I'm currently picking someone up from the airport. Hope you're having a nice weekend.

    Jude Calvillo 4 months ago
    @bonnie here ya' go: Chumash, Tongva, Kizh, Micqanaqa’n, Fernandeño Tataviam, Acjachemen (Juaneño), Payómkawichum (Luiseño), Yuhaviatam/Maarenga’yam (Serrano), Kitanemuk
    ❤️
    1

  3. added
    feature: missingthis tags is mutually exclusive with project: missing. Please use the correct label
    size: 2ptCan be done in 7-12 hours
    and removed
    feature: missingthis tags is mutually exclusive with project: missing. Please use the correct label
    on Nov 2, 2021
  4. added
    project: missingthis tags is mutually exclusive with feature: missing. Please use the correct label
    on Nov 5, 2021
  5. ExperimentsInHonesty commented on Nov 19, 2021

    @ExperimentsInHonesty
  6. 107 remaining items

  7. self-assigned this
    on Apr 28, 2026
  8. moved this from Prioritized Backlog to In progress (actively working) in CoP: Data Science: Project Boardon Apr 28, 2026
  9. removed their assignment
    on Apr 28, 2026
  10. moved this from In progress (actively working) to Prioritized Backlog in CoP: Data Science: Project Boardon Apr 28, 2026
  11. added
    size: 5ptCan be done in 19-30 hours
    and removed
    size: 2ptCan be done in 7-12 hours
    on Jun 9, 2026
  12. hshe55 commented on Jun 15, 2026

    @hshe55
    1. Progress: I will be at a work conference all week, so haven't been able to pick this up just yet
    2. Blockers: N/A
    3. Availability: A few hours
    4. ETA: 2-3 weeks
    5. Pictures (if necessary): N/A
  13. hshe55 commented on Jun 23, 2026

    @hshe55

    @chinaexpert1

    1. Progress: Just got back from a work trip, so only now have had time to review what has currently been done, and how to move forward.

    2. Blockers/questions:
    I noticed the Native Land territories aren't time-stamped. I assume that the previous dev (@jrquibin) was trying to overlay or map separate dated layers (from treaties) on top of the static map he built? I want to confirm what would be the best treaty data to compile for this task, is it this api that was mentioned: https://native-land.ca?

    From my understanding @jrquibin ’s vision was something like:

    • pull treaty polygons from Native Land API
    • add dates
    • supplement with historical events from NAHC/scholarly sources
    • wire into ArcGIS time slider
      Does that sound accurate and complete?

    There is an open question about what additional data sources we may need to supplement the timeline such as NAHC.

    1. Availability: 2-3 hours
    2. ETA: 3-4 weeks
    3. Pictures (if necessary):
  14. moved this from Prioritized Backlog to In progress (actively working) in CoP: Data Science: Project Boardon Jun 23, 2026
  15. hshe55 commented on Jun 29, 2026

    @hshe55
    1. Progress: Reviewed the current approach and did some research into promising data sources. There is a lot out there, but for now, I am focusing only on data sources that are already in a directly parsable format, such as APIs, GeoJSON, feature layers, searchable databases, or downloadable GIS/tabular data, so we can avoid OCR or manual document parsing. If we find this insufficient, we can progress to performing additional data mining beyond an initial MVP.

    Some of the best data sources so far that I've looked at:

    • Native Land API/GeoJSON layers - useful as a baseline geometry source because the data is already exposed in machine-readable map formats and can be pulled directly into a prototype.
      https://api-docs.native-land.ca/

    • USFS Tribal Lands Ceded to the United States - a public GIS dataset published by the U.S. Forest Service that maps historic tribal land cessions in the United States. A strong candidate for the main time-enabled treaty/cession layer because it already has structured polygons and treaty-related date information.
      https://data-usfs.hub.arcgis.com/datasets/usfs::tribal-lands-ceded-to-the-united-states-feature-layer/about

    • Gabrielino/Tongva ArcGIS map layer - This is a published online web map that shows Gabrielino/Tongva villages, sites, tribal regions, and other California Native landmarks. Useful because the Native Land API and USFS dataset are broad, while this gives us locally relevant mapped places in the LA area.
      https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=83109d371e194bff8a817d0cb5520092%2F1000#overview

    • ECPP (Early California Population Project) database - a public historical database transcribed from California mission sacramental records between 1769 and 1850. It already has a searchable database and could be used to add temporal evidence for mapped places, though could not be used as a primary geometry source.
      https://ecpp.ucr.edu/ecpp/app/user/view/search

    • USGS GNIS - the federal standard database for domestic geographic names in the U.S. maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey. Could be useful for standardizing place names, coordinates, and modern geographic references when joining multiple datasets.
      https://www.usgs.gov/us-board-on-geographic-names/download-gnis-data

    1. Blockers: The main constraint is just a lack of free time on my part right now!
    2. Availability: Unfortunately, the next few weeks will be busy with personal commitments and family visiting for the summer, so I want to be transparent that I likely won’t be able to work on this in any meaningful capacity until at least August.
    3. ETA: 4 weeks
    4. Pictures (if necessary): None
  16. chinaexpert1 commented on Aug 18, 2026

    @chinaexpert1
    Member

    Please provide update @hshe55 are you coming back to HfLA?

    Instructions
    1. Progress: "What is the current status of your project? What have you completed and what is left to do?"
    2. Blockers: "Difficulties or errors encountered."
    3. Availability: "How much time will you have this week to work on this issue?"
    4. ETA: "When do you expect this issue to be completed?"
    5. Pictures (if necessary): "Add any pictures that will help illustrate what you are working on."

    You can use this template

    1. Progress: 
    2. Blockers: 
    3. Availability:
    4. ETA:
    5. Pictures (if necessary): 
    
  17. hshe55 commented on Aug 18, 2026

    @hshe55

    Hi @chinaexpert1, thanks for following up. Regrettably, I need to withdraw from this project and Hack for LA, please accept my sincerest apologies, but life has gotten the better of me and I underestimated the spare time I'd have to contribute meaningfully to this project. I hope some of my initial research can still be useful to others who continue this work, and I'm grateful for the chance to have been involved, even briefly. Thanks again.

  18. removed their assignment
    on Aug 18, 2026
  19. moved this from In progress (actively working) to Prioritized Backlog in CoP: Data Science: Project Boardon Aug 25, 2026
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