Virginia Carmelo, a third-generation Orange County resident, waited on the steps of Anaheim City Hall on Monday afternoon, Oct. 13, to celebrate with the city’s sixth annual Indigenous Peoples’ Day .

While she waited, her children and grandchildren were completing a prayer walk from the Anaheim Coves Lincoln Trailhead to City Hall — a 5-kilometer trek honoring the Gabrielino-Tongva Nation and indigenous culture and history.

Alongside her, a crowd of a hundred or so community members wielded signs and cameras, cheering in support of the walkers and the occasion they were commemorating.

“It’s just a recognition of all the native people, the ancestors, and to celebrate our day,” Carmelo said.

Present-day Orange County’s early inhabitants were the Tongva and Acjachemen people hundreds of

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