Tongva

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Tongva
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 (

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

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 the 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

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,

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

San Gabriel township into the 20th century.[10][15]
Since 2006, four organizations have claimed to represent the people:

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 the Tongva from having control over their ancestral remains, artifacts, and has left them without a land base in their traditional homelands.[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]

Geography

Southern California tribal territories

Tongva territories border those of numerous other tribes in the region. The historical Tongva lands made up what is now called "the coastal region of Los Angeles County, the northwest portion of Orange County and off-lying islands."[26] In 1962 Curator Bernice Johnson, of Southwest Museum, asserted that the northern boundary was somewhere between Topanga and Malibu (perhaps the vicinity of Malibu Creek) and the southern boundary was Orange County's Aliso Creek.[26]

Name

Tongva

A bench with the name Tongva on it.

The word Tongva was coined by

C. Hart Merriam in 1905[27] from numerous informants. These included Mrs. James Rosemyre (née Narcisa Higuera) (Gabrileño), who lived around Fort Tejon, near Bakersfield.[28][29][1] Merriam's orthography makes it clear that the endonym would be pronounced /ˈtɒŋv/, TONG-vay.[30]

Some descendants prefer the endonym Kizh, which they argue is an earlier and more historically accurate name that was well documented by records of the Smithsonian Institution,[31] Congress,[32] the Catholic Church,[33] the San Gabriel Mission,[34] and other historical scholars.[35]

Gabrieleño

The Spanish referred to the indigenous peoples surrounding Mission San Gabriel as the Gabrieleño. This was not their autonym, or their name for themselves. Because of historical uses, the term is part of every official tribe's name in this area, spelled either as "Gabrieleño" or "Gabrielino."[36][37][38]

Because tribal groups have disagreed about appropriate use of the term Tongva, they have adopted Gabrieleño as a mediating term. For example, when Debra Martin, a city council member from Pomona, led a project in 2017 to dedicate wooden statues in local Ganesha Park to the Indigenous people of the area, they disagreed over which name, Tongva or Kizh, should be used on the dedication plaque. Tribal officials tentatively agreed to use the term Gabrieleño.[39]

The Act of September 21, 1968, introduced this concept of the affiliation of an applicant's ancestors in order to exclude certain individuals from receiving a share of the award to the “Indians of California” who chose to receive a share of any awards to certain tribes in California that had splintered off from the generic group. The members or ancestors of the petitioning group were not affected by the exclusion in the Act. Individuals with lineal or collateral descent from an Indian tribe who resided in California in 1852, would, if not excluded by the provisions of the Act of 1968, remain on the list of the “Indians of California.” To comply with the Act, the Secretary of Interior would have to collect information about the group affiliation of an applicant's Indian ancestors. That information would be used to identify applicants who could share in another award. The group affiliation of an applicant's ancestors was thus a basis for exclusion from, but not a requirement for inclusion on, the judgment roll. The act of 1968 stated that the Secretary of the Interior would distribute an equal share of the award to the individuals on the judgment roll “regardless of group affiliation.”[40]

History

Before the mission period

Photograph of a Mission Indian (Gabrieleño) woman filling a granary with acorns, c.1898

Many lines of evidence suggest that the Tongva are descended from Uto-Aztecan-speaking peoples who originated in what is now Nevada, and moved southwest into coastal Southern California 3,500 years ago. According to a model proposed by archaeologist Mark Q. Sutton, these migrants either absorbed or pushed out the earlier Hokan-speaking inhabitants.[41][42] By 500 AD, one source estimates the Tongva may have come to occupy all the lands now associated with them, although this is unclear and contested among scholars.[41]

In 1811, the priests of Mission San Gabriel recorded at least four languages; Kokomcar, Guiguitamcar, Corbonamga, and Sibanga. During the same time, three languages were recorded in Mission San Fernando.[43][44][45][46]

Prior to

Cucamonga, etc.) For example, individuals from Yaanga were known as Yaangavit among the people (in mission records, they were recorded as Yabit).[3][12] The Tongva lived in as many as one hundred villages.[2] One or two clans would usually constitute a village, which was the center of Tongva life.[3]

The Tongva spoke a language of the

Luiseño-Juaneño on one hand, and the Tongva-Serrano on the other, at about 2,000 years ago. (This is comparable to the differentiation of the Romance languages of Europe).[47] The division of the Tongva/Serrano group into the separate Tongva and Serrano peoples is more recent, and may have been influenced by Spanish missionary activity
.

The majority of Tongva territory was located in what has been referred to as the

web of life. Humans, along with plants, animals, and the land were in a reciprocal relationship of mutual respect and care, which is evident in their creation stories.[7] The Tongva understand time as nonlinear and there is constant communication with ancestors.[48]

On October 7, 1542, an exploratory expedition led by Spanish explorer

Colonization and the mission period (1769–1834)

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