A thousand years ago, the Gabrielino / Tongva tribe inhabited the area now occupied by LMU student residences. The first memorial anywhere to these “People of the Earth” was dedicated in 2000 as a fitting complement to the present-day dwellings. Visitors can gaze out over the Pacific Ocean and towards the Santa Monica Mountains as did Native Americans before them. Low stone benches surround a dolphin-motif pavement circle that is, in turn, bordered by explanatory plaques and shrubs and other plants that have long been native to this area, thereby encouraging thoughts of past, present and future to come readily to mind and heart.