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Tongva

For other uses, see Tongva (disambiguation).

Tongva
Narcisa Higuera, photographed in 1905, was one of the last fluent Tongva speakers. An informant for ethnographer C. Hart Merriam, she was cited as the source of the widely used endonym Tongva.[1]
Total population
3,900+ self-identified descendants
Regions with significant populations
United States United States (California California)
Languages
English, Spanish, formerly Tongva
Religion
Indigenous religion, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Serrano, Kitanemuk, Tataviam, Vanyume

The Tongva (/ˈtɒŋvə/ TONG-və) are an Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately 4,000 square miles (10,000 km2).[1][2] In the precolonial era, the people lived in as many as 100 villages and primarily identified by their village rather than by a pan-tribal name.[3] During colonization, the Spanish referred to these people as Gabrieleño and Fernandeño,[a] names derived from the Spanish missions built on their land: Mission San Gabriel Arcángel and Mission San Fernando Rey de España.[b] Tongva is the most widely circulated endonym among the people, used by Narcisa Higuera in 1905 to refer to inhabitants in the vicinity of Mission San Gabriel.[4] Some people who identify as direct lineal descendants[5] of the people advocate the use of their ancestral name Kizh as an endonym.[6]

Along with the neighboring Chumash, the Tongva were the most influential people at the time of European encounter. They had developed an extensive trade network through te'aats (plank-built boats). Their food and material culture was based on an Indigenous worldview that positioned humans as one strand in a web of life (as expressed in their creation stories).[7][1][2][8] Over time, different communities came to speak distinct dialects of the Tongva language, part of the Takic subgroup of the Uto-Aztecan language family. There may have been five or more such languages (three on the southernmost Channel Islands and at least two on the mainland).[1]

European contact was first made in 1542 by Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, who was greeted at Santa Catalina by people in a canoe. The following day, Cabrillo and his men entered a large bay on the mainland, which they named Baya de los Fumos ("Bay of Smokes") because of the many smoke fires they saw there. The Indigenous people smoked their fish for preservation. This is commonly believed to be San Pedro Bay, near present-day San Pedro.[9]

The Gaspar de Portolá land expedition in 1769 resulted in the founding of Mission San Gabriel by Catholic missionary Junipero Serra in 1771. Under the mission system, the Spanish initiated an era of forced relocation and virtual enslavement of the peoples to secure their labor. In addition, the Native Americans were exposed to the Old World diseases endemic among the colonists.[10] As they lacked any acquired immunity, the Native Americans suffered epidemics with high mortality, leading to the rapid collapse of Tongva society and lifeways.[11]

They retaliated by way of resistance and rebellions, including an unsuccessful rebellion in 1785 by Nicolás José and female chief Toypurina.[1][3] In 1821, Mexico gained its independence from Spain and secularized the missions. They sold the mission lands, known as ranchos, to elite ranchers and forced the Tongva to assimilate.[12] Most became landless refugees during this time.[12]

In 1848, California was ceded to the United States following the Mexican-American War. The US government signed 18 treaties between 1851 and 1852 promising 8.5 million acres (3,400,000 ha) of land for reservations. However, these treaties were never ratified by the Senate.[13] The US had negotiated with people who did not represent the Tongva and had no authority to cede their land.[14] During the following occupation by Americans, many of the Tongva and other Indigenous peoples were targeted with arrest. Unable to pay fines, they were used as convict laborers in a system of legalized slavery to expand the city of Los Angeles for Anglo-American settlers, who became the new majority in the area by 1880.[12]

In the early 20th century, an extinction myth was purported about the Gabrieleño, who largely identified publicly as Mexican-American by this time.[neutrality is disputed] However, a close-knit community of the people remained in contact with one another between Tejon Pass and San Gabriel township into the 20th century.[10][15] Since 2006, four organizations have claimed to represent the people:

  • the Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe, known as the "hyphen" group from the hyphen in their name;[16]
  • the Gabrielino/Tongva Tribe, known as the "slash" group;[17]
  • the Kizh Nation (Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians);[18] and
  • the Gabrieleño/Tongva Tribal Council.[19]

Two of the groups, the hyphen and the slash group, were founded after a hostile split over the question of building an Indian casino.[20] In 1994, the state of California recognized the Gabrielino "as the aboriginal tribe of the Los Angeles Basin."[21] No organized group representing the Tongva has attained recognition as a tribe by the federal government.[13] The lack of federal recognition has prevented self-identified Tongva descendants from having control over Tongva ancestral remains, artifacts, and has left them without a land base in the Tongva traditional homeland.[22][23]

In 2008, more than 1,700 people identified as Tongva or claimed partial ancestry.[13] In 2013, it was reported that the four Tongva groups that have applied for federal recognition had more than 3,900 members in total.[24]

The Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy was established to campaign for the rematriation of Tongva homelands.[25] In 2022, a 1-acre site was returned to the conservancy in Altadena, which marked the first time the Tongva had land in Los Angeles County in 200 years.[25]

  1. ^ a b c d e Lepowsky, M. (2004). "Indian revolts and cargo cults: Ritual violence and revitalization in California and New Guinea". In Harkin, M. E. (ed.). Reassessing revitalization movements: Perspectives from North America and the Pacific Island. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. p. 51, note 1. ISBN 978-0-8032-2406-3. Archived from the original on November 3, 2013. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  2. ^ a b Strawther, Larry (2014). "The Basics". Seal Beach: A Brief History. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781625850355.
  3. ^ a b Dietler, John; Gibson, Heather; Vargas, Benjamin (2018). ""A Mourning Dirge Was Sung": Community and Remembrance at Mission San Gabriel". Forging Communities in Colonial Alta California. University of Arizona Press. ISBN 9780816538928.
  4. ^ Reassessing revitalization movements : perspectives from North America and the Pacific Islands. Michael Eugene Harkin, American Anthropological Association. Meeting. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 2004. p. 51. ISBN 0-585-49966-7. OCLC 54669648.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  5. ^ "KIZH Nation | Gabrieleño Band Of Mission Indians – KIZH Nation". gabrielenoindians.org. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  6. ^ "Kizh not tongva". 2018.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :13 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Helvarg, David (2016). The Golden Shore: California's Love Affair with the Sea. New World Library. pp. 20–22. ISBN 9781608684403.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference McCawley1996 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :17 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Castillo, E. D. (1994). "Gender status decline, resistance, and accommodation among female neophytes in the missions of California: A San Gabriel case study". American Indian Culture and Research Journal. 18 (1): 67–93. doi:10.17953/aicr.18.1.u861u35618852412. Archived from the original on August 20, 2013. Retrieved August 18, 2013.
  12. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference :6 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ a b c Oropeza, J.; Scott, J.; Yee, L.; Davis, M.; Karnette, B. (January 31, 2008). "Senate Bill No. 1134". California Legislative Information. Legislative Counsel of California. Archived from the original on October 20, 2013. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  14. ^ Heizer, Robert F. (1972). "The Eighteen Unratified Treaties of 1851–1852 Between the California Indians and the United States Government". SCVHistory.com. SCVTV. Archived from the original on December 26, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2019. Every group met with is listed as representing a "tribe". We do not know whether the Commissioners were aware of the true nature of the named groups which they were dealing with. George Gibbs who accompanied Redick McKee seemed to be conscious of the error that was being made in assuming that any named was a tribe (Gibbs 1853:110). We know today that most of the so-called tribes were nothing more than villages. We can also assume that men listed as "chiefs" were just as likely not to be chiefs, or at least tribelet heads who are called chiefs by anthropologists. Further, since land was owned in common, even chiefs had no authority to cede tribelet or village lands.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference :8 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ "Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe – A California Indian Tribe historically known as San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians". gabrielinotribe.org. Archived from the original on May 31, 2017. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  17. ^ "Gabrieliño/Tongva Nation Tribal Council". Archived from the original on April 20, 2017. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  18. ^ "Gabrieleño Indians". gabrielenoindians.org. Archived from the original on 9 June 2017. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
  19. ^ "Gabrieleño/Tongva Tribal Council of San Gabriel". Archived from the original on September 23, 2001. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  20. ^ "Battle over a casino plan divides Gabrielino Indians" Los Angeles Times (November 26, 2006)
  21. ^ "Bill Number: AJR 96". ca.gov. August 11, 1994. Archived from the original on July 13, 2020. Retrieved July 13, 2020.
  22. ^ Loewe, Ronald (2016). Of sacred lands and strip malls : the battle for Puvungna. Lanham, MD. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-7591-2162-1. OCLC 950751182.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  23. ^ "Survey of park to determine burial-ground limits". Orange County Register. October 9, 2013. Retrieved December 21, 2022.
  24. ^ Gold, Lauren (June 3, 2013). "Mission Impossible: Native San Gabriel Valley tribes seek U.S. recognition". San Gabriel Valley Tribune. Archived from the original on August 8, 2020. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
  25. ^ a b Valdez, Jonah (October 10, 2022). "After nearly 200 years, the Tongva community has land in Los Angeles County". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 3, 2023.


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