View source for Tongva

{{Short description|Indigenous people of the Los Angeles Basin and Channel Islands in California}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = Tongva
| native_name      = 
| native_name_lang = 
| image            = Tongva woman.jpg
| caption          = Narcisa Higuera, photographed in 1905, was one of the last fluent [[Tongva language|Tongva]] speakers. An informant for ethnographer [[C. Hart Merriam]], she was cited as the source of the widely used [[endonym]] ''Tongva''.<ref name="Harkin2004" />
| popplace         = {{Flagicon|United States}} United States ({{Flagicon|California}} [[California]])
| population       = 3,900+ self-identified descendants
| languages        = [[English language|English]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], formerly [[Tongva language|Tongva]]
| religions        = Indigenous religion, Christianity
| related          = [[Serrano people|Serrano]], [[Kitanemuk]], [[Tataviam]], [[Vanyume]]
}}
The '''Tongva''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|ɒ|ŋ|v|ə}} {{respell|TONG|və}}) are an [[Indigenous peoples of California|Indigenous people of California]] from the [[Los Angeles Basin]] and the [[Channel Islands of California|Southern Channel Islands]], an area covering approximately {{convert|4000|sqmi}}.<ref name="Harkin2004">{{cite book |editor1-first=M. E. |editor1-last=Harkin |editor1-link=Michael E. Harkin |title=Reassessing revitalization movements: Perspectives from North America and the Pacific Island |last1=Lepowsky |first1=M. |chapter=Indian revolts and cargo cults: Ritual violence and revitalization in California and New Guinea |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ygqnKla4-wIC&pg=PA51 |year=2004 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |location=Lincoln |isbn=978-0-8032-2406-3 |page=51, note 1 |access-date=19 August 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131103114039/http://muse.jhu.edu/books/9780803203884 |archive-date=3 November 2013 }}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Strawther|first=Larry|title=Seal Beach: A Brief History|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=2014|isbn=9781625850355|chapter=The Basics}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|last1=Dietler|first1=John|title=Forging Communities in Colonial Alta California|last2=Gibson|first2=Heather|last3=Vargas|first3=Benjamin|publisher=University of Arizona Press|year=2018|isbn=9780816538928|chapter='A Mourning Dirge Was Sung': Community and Remembrance at Mission San Gabriel}}</ref> During [[colonization]], the Spanish referred to these people as '''Gabrieleño''' and '''Fernandeño''',{{efn|Alternate spellings include ''Gabrielino'' and ''Fernardino''.}} names derived from the [[Spanish missions in California|Spanish missions]] built on their land: [[Mission San Gabriel Arcángel]] and [[Mission San Fernando Rey de España]].{{efn|The Spanish did not always differentiate among communities or ethnic groups. For example, the Spanish referred to both the Tongva in the [[San Fernando Valley]] and the nearby [[Tataviam people]], who spoke [[Tataviam language|a different language]], as "Fernandeño," because they were covered by that mission.}} ''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.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Reassessing revitalization movements : perspectives from North America and the Pacific Islands |date=2004 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |others=Michael Eugene Harkin, American Anthropological Association. Meeting |isbn=0-585-49966-7 |location=Lincoln |pages=51 |oclc=54669648}}</ref> Some people who identify as direct [[lineal descendant]]s<ref>{{Cite web |title=KIZH Nation &#124; Gabrieleño Band Of Mission Indians  |url=https://gabrielenoindians.org/ |access-date=March 13, 2023 |website=gabrielenoindians.org}}</ref> of the people advocate the use of their ancestral name ''[[Kizh]]'' as an [[Endonym and exonym|endonym]].<ref>{{cite web |year=2018 |title=Kizh not tongva |url=https://archive.org/details/kizh-not-tongva-9-27-17-1}}</ref>

The Tongva, along with neighboring groups such as the [[Chumash people|Chumash]], played an important role in the cultural and economic dynamics of the region at the time of [[European colonization of the Americas|European]] encounter. They had developed an extensive [[trade network]] through ''[[te'aat]]s'' (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|creation stories]]).<ref name=":13" /><ref name="Harkin2004" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":06">{{Cite book|last=Helvarg|first=David|title=The Golden Shore: California's Love Affair with the Sea|publisher=New World Library|year=2016|isbn=9781608684403|pages=20–22}}</ref> Over time, different communities came to speak distinct dialects of the [[Tongva language]], part of the [[Takic languages|Takic]] subgroup of the [[Uto-Aztecan languages|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).<ref name="Harkin2004" />

European contact was first made in 1542 by Spanish explorer [[Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo|Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo]], who was greeted at [[Santa Catalina Island (California)|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 (California)|San Pedro Bay]], near present-day [[San Pedro, Los Angeles|San Pedro]].<ref name="McCawley1996" />

The [[Gaspar de Portolá]] land expedition in 1769 resulted in the founding of Mission San Gabriel by [[Catholic]] missionary [[Junípero Serra|Junipero Serra]] in 1771. Under the mission system, the Spanish initiated an era of [[Population transfer|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.<ref name=":17" /> As they lacked any acquired immunity, the Native Americans suffered epidemics with high mortality, leading to [[Population of Native California|the rapid collapse]] of Tongva society and [[lifeway]]s.<ref name="Castillo1994">{{cite journal |last=Castillo |first=E. D. |author-link=Ed Castillo |year=1994 |title=Gender status decline, resistance, and accommodation among female neophytes in the missions of California: A San Gabriel case study |journal=American Indian Culture and Research Journal |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=67–93 |doi= 10.17953/aicr.18.1.u861u35618852412|doi-broken-date=September 21, 2025 |url=http://aisc.metapress.com/content/u861u35618852412/ |access-date=18 August 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130820061312/http://aisc.metapress.com/content/u861u35618852412/ |archive-date=20 August 2013 }}</ref>

They retaliated by way of resistance and rebellions, including an unsuccessful rebellion in 1785 by Nicolás José and female chief [[Toypurina]].<ref name="Harkin2004" /><ref name=":4" /> In 1821, [[Mexican War of Independence|Mexico gained its independence]] from [[Spanish Empire|Spain]] and [[Mexican secularization act of 1833|secularized the missions]]. They sold the [[Ranchos of California|mission lands]], known as ranchos, to elite ranchers and forced the Tongva to assimilate.<ref name=":6" /> Most became [[Landlessness|landless]] refugees during this time.<ref name=":6" />

In 1848, [[Mexican Cession|California was ceded to the United States]] following the [[Mexican–American War|Mexican-American War]]. The US government signed 18 treaties between 1851 and 1852 promising {{convert|8.5|e6acre|e6ha|abbr=unit}} of land for [[Indian reservation|reservations]]. However, these treaties were never ratified by the Senate.<ref name="BillNo.1134">{{cite web |url=http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/sen/sb_1101-1150/sb_1134_bill_20080131_introduced.html |title=Senate Bill No. 1134 |last1=Oropeza |first1=J. |author-link1=Jenny Oropeza |last2=Scott |first2=J. |author-link2=Jack Scott (California politician) |last3=Yee |first3=L. |author-link3=Leland Yee |last4=Davis |first4=M. |author-link4=Mike Davis (politician) |last5=Karnette |first5=B. |author-link5=Betty Karnette |date=January 31, 2008 |website=California Legislative Information |publisher=Legislative Counsel of California |access-date=19 August 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020093320/http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/sen/sb_1101-1150/sb_1134_bill_20080131_introduced.html |archive-date=20 October 2013 }}</ref> The US had negotiated with people who did not represent the Tongva and had no authority to [[cede]] their land.<ref name="Heizer1972">{{cite web |first1=Robert F.|last1=Heizer |title=The Eighteen Unratified Treaties of 1851–1852 Between the California Indians and the United States Government. |url=https://scvhistory.com/scvhistory/heizer1972.htm |website=SCVHistory.com |publisher=SCVTV |access-date=4 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191226172554/https://scvhistory.com/scvhistory/heizer1972.htm |archive-date=26 December 2019 |date=1972|quote=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.}}</ref> 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 labor]]ers in a system of legalized slavery to expand the city of [[Los Angeles]] for [[Anglo-Americans|Anglo-American]] settlers, who became the new majority in the area by 1880.<ref name=":6" />

In the early 20th century, an extinction myth was purported about the Gabrieleño, who largely identified publicly as [[Mexican Americans|Mexican-American]] by this time.{{POV statement|date=August 2023}} However, a close-knit community of the people remained in contact with one another between [[Tejon Pass]] and [[San Gabriel Township, California|San Gabriel township]] into the 20th century.<ref name=":17" /><ref name=":8" /> 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;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gabrielinotribe.org|title=Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe – A California Indian Tribe historically known as San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians|website=gabrielinotribe.org|access-date=5 June 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170531051607/http://www.gabrielinotribe.org/|archive-date=31 May 2017}}</ref> 
*the Gabrielino/Tongva Tribe, known as the "slash" group;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tongvatribe.net|title=Gabrieliño/Tongva Nation Tribal Council|access-date=5 June 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170420194203/http://tongvatribe.net/|archive-date=20 April 2017}}</ref> 
*the Kizh Nation (Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians);<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gabrielenoindians.org|title=Gabrieleño Indians|website=gabrielenoindians.org|access-date=5 June 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170609224859/http://gabrielenoindians.org/Site/WELCOME.html|archive-date=9 June 2017|df=dmy-all}}</ref> and 
*the Gabrieleño/Tongva Tribal Council.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tongva.com|title=Gabrieleño/Tongva Tribal Council of San Gabriel|access-date=5 June 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010923234724/http://tongva.com/|archive-date=23 September 2001}}</ref>

Two of the groups, the hyphen and the slash group, were founded after a hostile split over the question of building an [[Native American gambling enterprises|Indian casino]].<ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-nov-26-me-gabrielino26-story.html "Battle over a casino plan divides Gabrielino Indians"]  ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' (November 26, 2006)</ref>  In 1994, the state of California recognized the Gabrielino "as the aboriginal tribe of the Los Angeles Basin."<ref name="CAGOV1994">{{cite web |title=Bill Number: AJR 96 |url=http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/93-94/bill/asm/ab_0051-0100/ajr_96_bill_940831_enrolled |website=ca.gov |access-date=13 July 2020 |date=11 August 1994 |archive-date=July 13, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713132827/http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/93-94/bill/asm/ab_0051-0100/ajr_96_bill_940831_enrolled |url-status=live }}</ref> No organized group representing the Tongva has attained [[Native American recognition in the United States|recognition as a tribe by the federal government]].<ref name="BillNo.1134" /> 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.<ref name=":05">{{Cite book |last=Loewe |first=Ronald |title=Of sacred lands and strip malls : the battle for Puvungna |date=2016 |isbn=978-0-7591-2162-1 |location=Lanham, MD |pages=138 |oclc=950751182}}</ref><ref name=":42">{{Cite web |date=2013-10-09 |title=Survey of park to determine burial-ground limits |url=https://www.ocregister.com/2013/10/09/survey-of-park-to-determine-burial-ground-limits/ |access-date=2022-12-21 |website=Orange County Register |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 2008, more than 1,700 people identified as Tongva or claimed partial ancestry.<ref name="BillNo.1134" /> In 2013, it was reported that the four Tongva groups that have applied for federal recognition had more than 3,900 members in total.<ref name=":9">{{Cite news|last=Gold|first=Lauren|date=3 June 2013|title=Mission Impossible: Native San Gabriel Valley tribes seek U.S. recognition|work=San Gabriel Valley Tribune|url=https://www.sgvtribune.com/2013/06/03/mission-impossible-native-san-gabriel-valley-tribes-seek-us-recognition/|access-date=8 October 2020|archive-date=August 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200808112516/https://www.sgvtribune.com/2013/06/03/mission-impossible-native-san-gabriel-valley-tribes-seek-us-recognition/|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy]] was established to campaign for the [[rematriation]] of Tongva homelands.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Valdez |first=Jonah |date=2022-10-10 |title=After nearly 200 years, the Tongva community has land in Los Angeles County |url=https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-10/after-nearly-200-years-the-tongva-community-has-land-in-los-angeles-county |access-date=2023-01-03 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> In 2022, a 1-acre site was returned to the conservancy in [[Altadena, California|Altadena]], which marked the first time the Tongva had land in [[Los Angeles County, California|Los Angeles County]] in 200 years.<ref name=":1" /><!-- Is there a draft bill to grant US recognition? needs explanation -->

== Geography ==
[[File:Southern CA Native American Tribal Territories.png|thumb|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, California|Los Angeles County]], the northwest portion of [[Orange County, California|Orange County]] and off-lying islands."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Johnston |first=Bernice |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000624992 |title=California's Gabrielino Indians. |date=1962 |publisher=Southwest Museum |series= Publications of the Frederick Webb Hodge Anniversary Publication Fund; v. 8|location=Los Angeles |access-date=August 17, 2022 |archive-date=August 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220817050719/https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000624992 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1962 Curator Bernice Johnson, of [[Southwest Museum of the American Indian|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 (Orange County)|Aliso Creek]].<ref name=":0" />

== Names ==

===''Tongva''===
[[File:Bench (Tongva).jpg|thumb|237x237px|A bench with the name ''Tongva'' on it]]
The word ''Tongva'' was coined by [[C. Hart Merriam]] in 1905<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/the-chievor-of-the-tongva-merriam-c-1905 | title=Science – the Chievor of the Tongva Merriam C 1905 }}</ref> from numerous informants. These included Mrs. James Rosemyre (née Narcisa Higuera) (Gabrileño), who lived around [[Fort Tejon]], near Bakersfield.<ref>{{cite web |title=C. Hart Merriam papers relating to work with California Indians, 1850–1974. (bulk 1898–1938) |url=https://archive.org/details/bancroft_chartmerriam_1556_25 |publisher=Online Archive of California |date=1855–1942}}</ref><ref name="Heizer1968">{{cite book|first=Robert F.|last=Heizer|title=The Indians of Los Angeles County: Hugo Reid's Letters of 1852|url=https://memory.loc.gov/service/gdc/calbk/007.pdf|year=1968|publisher=Southwest Museum|page=6, Introduction|access-date=May 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212161351/https://memory.loc.gov/service/gdc/calbk/007.pdf|archive-date=December 12, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Harkin2004" /> Merriam's orthography makes it clear that the endonym would be pronounced /ˈtoːŋve/.<ref name="Golla2011">{{cite book|first=Victor|last=Golla|title=California Indian Languages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B_yqdSE1F8wC&pg=PA312|year=2011|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-26667-4|page=312|quote=Merriam recorded the Gabrieleño self-designation as "Tong-vā," presumably [toŋve]|access-date=June 2, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224045620/https://books.google.com/books?id=B_yqdSE1F8wC&pg=PA312|archive-date=December 24, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

Some descendants prefer the [[Endonym and exonym|endonym]] ''[[Kizh]]'', which they argue is an earlier and more historically accurate name that was well documented by records of the Smithsonian Institution,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/report-upon-the-condition-and-progress-o | title=Report Upon the Condition and Progress O }}</ref> Congress,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/library-of-congress-subject-headings-kizh-refrence | title=Library of Congress Subject Headings Kizh {{as written|Refr|ence [sic]}} }}</ref> the Catholic Church,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/catholic-encyclopedia-kizh | title=Catholic Encyclopedia Kizh }}</ref> the San Gabriel Mission,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/the-old-san-gabriel-mission | title=The Old San Gabriel Mission }}</ref> and other historical scholars.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/the-ethno-botany-of-the-coahuilla-indian | title=The Ethno Botany of the Coahuilla Indian }}</ref>

=== ''Gabrieleño'' ===
The Spanish referred to the Indigenous peoples surrounding [[Mission San Gabriel Arcángel|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".<ref name="tongva.com">{{cite web|title=Tribal home of the Gabrieleno/Tongva Nation|url=http://tongva.com/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010923234724/http://tongva.com/|archive-date=2001-09-23|access-date=2018-04-06}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe – A California Indian Tribe historically known as San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians|url=http://www.gabrielinotribe.org/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320072616/http://www.gabrielinotribe.org/|archive-date=20 March 2018|access-date=6 April 2018|website=www.gabrielinotribe.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=tongvatribe.net|url=http://tongvatribe.net/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180321021940/http://tongvatribe.net/|archive-date=2018-03-21|access-date=2018-04-06|publisher=tongvatribe.net}}</ref>

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, California|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.''<ref name=":124">{{Cite news|last=Saldaña|first=Marisa|date=7 September 2018|title=Fighting History|work=La Verne Magazine|url=https://lavernemagazine.org/2018/09/fighting-history/|access-date=8 October 2020|archive-date=September 18, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200918075922/https://lavernemagazine.org/2018/09/fighting-history/|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Act of September 21, 1968, <!-- to achieve what? needs introduction itself -->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".<ref>{{cite web |title=Final Determination Against Federal Acknowledgement of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe |url=https://www.bia.gov/sites/default/files/dup/assets/as-ia/ofa/petition/111_muwekm_CA/111_fd.pdf |access-date=June 4, 2022 |archive-date=June 4, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220604193903/https://www.bia.gov/sites/default/files/dup/assets/as-ia/ofa/petition/111_muwekm_CA/111_fd.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

== History ==

=== Before the mission period ===
{{further|Takic languages|Uto-Aztecan|Indigenous peoples of California|Population of Native California|Archaic Southwest}}
[[File:Gabrieleño acorn granary.jpg|thumb|Photograph of a Mission Indian (Gabrieleño) woman filling a granary with acorns, {{Circa|1898}}|235x235px]]

Many lines of evidence suggest that the Tongva are descended from [[Uto-Aztecan languages|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 languages|Hokan]]-speaking inhabitants.<ref name="Sutton2009">{{cite journal|last=Sutton|first=M. Q.|year=2009|title=People and language: Defining the Takic expansion into southern California|url=http://www.pcas.org/assets/documents/Takic.pdf|url-status=live|journal=Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly|volume=41|issue=1–2|page=34|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131103174146/http://www.pcas.org/assets/documents/Takic.pdf|archive-date=3 November 2013|access-date=17 August 2013}}</ref><ref name="Kerr2002">{{cite journal|last1=Kerr|first1=S. L.|last2=Georganna|first2=M. H.|year=2002|title=Population replacement on the Southern Channel Islands: New evidence from San Nicolas Island|url=http://www.mednscience.org/sites/default/files/products/Kerr_Population_Replacement_SNI.pdf|url-status=dead|journal=Proceedings of the Fifth California Islands Symposium|location=Santa Barbara, CA|publisher=Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History|pages=546–554|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904100946/http://www.mednscience.org/sites/default/files/products/Kerr_Population_Replacement_SNI.pdf|archive-date=September 4, 2015|access-date=18 August 2013}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Sutton2009" />

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.<ref>{{cite web |title=A Mission Record of the California Indians |url=https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucp008-003.pdf |publisher=University of California Publications |pages=11–12 |date=May 28, 1928 |access-date=June 4, 2022 |archive-date=August 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220806005113/https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucp008-003.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Kroeber |first1=Alfred Louis |title=A Mission Record of the California Indians |year=1910 |publisher=The University Press |url=https://archive.org/details/amissionrecordc01sarrgoog/page/n20/mode/2up}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=A Mission Record of the California Indians |url=https://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/mrci/mrci01.htm |access-date=June 4, 2022 |archive-date=October 20, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191020121449/https://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/mrci/mrci01.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=C. Hart Merriam Papers Relating to Work with California Indians, 1850–1974 (bilk 1898–1938) |date=1898 |url=https://archive.org/details/bancroft_chartmerriam_1556_25 |publisher=Online Archive of California |pages=376–377}}</ref>

Prior to [[Russian colonization of the Americas|Russian]] and [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spanish colonization]] in what is now referred to California, the Tongva were primarily identified by their associated villages ([[Topanga, California|Topanga]], [[Cahuenga, California|Cahuenga]], [[Tujunga, CA|Tujunga]], [[Cucamonga]], etc.) For example, individuals from [[Yaanga]] were known as ''Yaangavit'' among the people (in mission records, they were recorded as ''Yabit'').<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":6">{{Cite book|last=Hernández|first=Kelly Lytle|title=City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, 1771–1965|publisher=UNC Press Books|year=2017|isbn=9781469631196|pages=30–43}}</ref> The Tongva lived in as many as one hundred villages.<ref name=":2" /> One or two clans would usually constitute a village, which was the center of Tongva life.<ref name=":4" />

The Tongva spoke a language of the [[Uto-Aztecan]] family (the remote ancestors of the Tongva probably [[Proto-Uto-Aztecan|coalesced as a people]] in the [[Sonoran Desert]], between perhaps 3,000 and 5,000 years ago). The diversity within the [[Takic languages|Takic]] group is "moderately deep"; rough estimates by comparative linguists place the breakup of common Takic into the [[Luiseño-Juaneño]] on one hand, and the Tongva-[[Serrano language|Serrano]] on the other, at about 2,000 years ago. (This is comparable to the differentiation of the [[Romance languages]] of Europe).<ref name="Golla2011179">{{cite book|last=Golla|first=Victor|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B_yqdSE1F8wC&pg=PA179|title=California Indian Languages|date=2011|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-26667-4|page=179|access-date=June 2, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223141046/https://books.google.com/books?id=B_yqdSE1F8wC&pg=PA179|archive-date=December 23, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> The division of the Tongva/Serrano group into the separate Tongva and [[Serrano people]]s is more recent, and may have been influenced by [[Spanish missions in California|Spanish missionary activity]].

The majority of Tongva territory was located in what has been referred to as the [[Sonoran Desert|Sonoran]] life zone, with rich ecological resources of acorn, pine nut, small game, and deer. On the coast, shellfish, sea mammals, and fish were available. Prior to [[Christianization]], the prevailing Tongva worldview was that humans were not the apex of creation, but were rather one strand in 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.<ref name=":13">{{Cite book|last=Castillo|first=Edward D.|title=Medicine Ways: Disease, Health, and Survival Among Native Americans|publisher=AltaMira Press|year=2001|isbn=9780742502550|pages=16–31|chapter=Blood Came from Their Mouths: Tongva and Chumash Responses to the Pandemic of 1801}}</ref> The Tongva understand time as [[Nonlinear system|nonlinear]] and there is constant communication with ancestors.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Dorame|first=Megan|date=16 September 2020|title=The Poetics of Sovereignty: Embracing Self-Determination on the Page|url=https://pen.org/the-poetics-of-sovereignty-embracing-self-determination-on-the-page/|access-date=29 September 2020|website=Pen America|archive-date=September 22, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922143428/https://pen.org/the-poetics-of-sovereignty-embracing-self-determination-on-the-page/|url-status=live}}</ref>

On October 7, 1542, an exploratory expedition led by Spanish explorer [[Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo|Juan Cabrillo]] reached [[Santa Catalina Island (California)|Santa Catalina]] in the Channel Islands, where his ships were greeted by Tongva in a canoe. The following day, Cabrillo and his men, the first Europeans known to have interacted with the Gabrieleño people, entered a large bay on the mainland, which they named "Baya de los Fumos" ("Bay of Smokes") on account of the many smoke fires they saw there. This is commonly believed to be [[San Pedro Bay, California|San Pedro Bay]], near present-day [[San Pedro, California|San Pedro]].<ref name="McCawley1996">{{cite book|last=McCawley|first=William|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DZAOAQAAMAAJ|title=The First Angelinos: The Gabrielino Indians of Los Angeles|publisher=Malki Museum Press|year=1996|isbn=978-0-9651016-0-8|page=4|access-date=June 17, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191228154448/https://books.google.com/books?id=DZAOAQAAMAAJ|archive-date=December 28, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Colonization and the mission period (1769–1834) ===
{{further|Mission Indians|Spanish missions in California}}[[File:San Gabriel Mission circa 1832.jpg|thumb|Painting of Mission San Gabriel by Ferdinand Deppe (1832) showing a Gabrieleño ''kiiy'' thatched with [[tule]]|241x241px]]

The [[Gaspar de Portolá|Gaspar de Portola]] expedition in 1769 was the first contact by land to reach Tongva territory, marking the beginning of Spanish colonization. [[Franciscans|Franciscan]] padre [[Junípero Serra|Junipero Serra]] accompanied Portola. Within two years of the expedition, Serra had founded four missions,<ref name=":17">{{Cite journal|last=Singleton|first=Heather Valdez|date=2004|title=Surviving Urbanization: The Gabrieleno, 1850–1928|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1409498|journal=Wíčazo Ša Review|volume=19|issue=2|pages=49–59|doi=10.1353/wic.2004.0026|jstor=1409498|s2cid=161847670|url-access=subscription}}</ref> including [[Mission San Gabriel Arcángel|Mission San Gabriel]], founded in 1771 and rebuilt in 1774, and [[Mission San Fernando Rey de España|Mission San Fernando]], founded in 1797. The people enslaved at San Gabriel were referred to as ''Gabrieleños'', while those enslaved at San Fernando were referred to as ''Fernandeños''. Although their language idioms were distinguishable, they did not diverge greatly, and it is possible there were as many as half a dozen dialects rather than the two which the existence of the missions has lent the appearance of being standard.<ref name="Kroeber1925">{{cite book|last=Kroeber|first=Alfred Louis|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015006584174&view=1up&seq=714|title=Handbook of the Indians of California|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|year=1925|page=620|access-date=June 17, 2019|archive-date=September 14, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914214050/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015006584174&view=1up&seq=714|url-status=live}}</ref> The demarcation of the Fernandeño and the Gabrieleño territories is mostly conjectural and there is no known point in which the two groups differed markedly in customs. The wider Gabrieleño group occupied what is now [[Los Angeles County, California|Los Angeles County]] south of the [[Sierra Madre Occidental|Sierra Madre]] and half of [[Orange County, California|Orange County]], as well as the islands of [[Santa Catalina Island (California)|Santa Catalina]] and [[San Clemente Island|San Clemente]].<ref name="Kroeber1925" />

The Spanish oversaw the construction of Mission San Gabriel in 1771. The Spanish colonizers used [[slave labor]] from local villages to construct the Missions.<ref name="Fortier2008">{{cite journal|author=Jana Fortier|date=December 2008|title=Native American Consultation And Ethnographic Study, Ventura County, California|url=https://www.academia.edu/418550|location=La Jolla, California|publisher=California Department of Transportation|pages=13–14|access-date=17 June 2019|archive-date=June 5, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220605140252/https://www.academia.edu/418550|url-status=live}}</ref>  Following the destruction of the original mission, probably due to [[El Niño]] flooding, the Spanish ordered the mission relocated five miles north in 1774 and began referring to the Tongva as "Gabrieleno." At the Gabrieleño settlement of Yaanga along the [[Los Angeles River]], missionaries and Indian neophytes, or baptized converts, built the first town of Los Angeles in 1781. It was called ''El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula'' (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porziuncola). In 1784, a sister mission, the ''[[Nuestra Señora Reina de los Ángeles Asistencia|Nuestra Señora Reina de los Angeles Asistencia]]'', was founded at Yaanga as well.<ref name="Fortier2008" />

[[File:The Gabrieleno Indians at the Time of the Portola Expedition (Bernice Johnston map, 1962).jpg|thumb|"The Gabrieleno Indians at the Time of the Portola Expedition," mapped by Bernice Johnston of the Southwest Museum (1962)]]
Entire villages were baptized and indoctrinated into the mission system with devastating results.<ref name=":4" /> For example, from 1788 to 1815, natives of the village of Guaspet were baptized at San Gabriel. Proximity to the missions created mass tension for Native Californians, which initiated "forced transformations in all aspects of daily life, including manners of speaking, eating, working, and connecting with the supernatural."<ref name=":4" /> As stated by scholars John Dietler, Heather Gibson, and Benjamin Vargas, "Catholic enterprises of [[proselytization]], acceptance into a mission as a convert, in theory, required abandoning most, if not all, traditional lifeways." Various strategies of control were implemented to retain control, such as the use of violence, segregation by age and gender, and using new converts as instruments of control over others.<ref name=":4" /> For example, Mission San Gabriel's Father Zalvidea punished suspected shamans "with frequent flogging and by chaining traditional religious practitioners together in pairs and sentencing them to hard labor in the sawmill."<ref name=":4" /> A missionary during this period reported that three out of four children died at Mission San Gabriel before reaching the age of 2.<ref name=":17" /> Nearly 6,000 Tongva lie buried in the grounds of the San Gabriel Mission.<ref name=":3" /> [[Carey McWilliams (journalist)|Carey McWilliams]] characterized it as follows: "the Franciscan padres eliminated Indians with the effectiveness of Nazis operating concentration camps...."<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|last=Armbruster-Sandoval|first=Ralph|title=Starving for Justice: Hunger Strikes, Spectacular Speech, and the Struggle for Dignity|publisher=University of Arizona Press|year=2017|isbn=9780816532582|pages=58–59}}</ref>
[[File:Mission San Gabriel Cemetery1.jpg|thumb|247x247px|It is estimated that nearly 6,000 Tongva lie buried on the grounds of Mission San Gabriel from the mission period.]]
There is much evidence of Tongva resistance to the mission system.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":6"/> Many individuals returned to their village at the time of death. Many converts retained their traditional practices in both domestic and spiritual contexts, despite the attempts by the padres and missionaries to control them. Traditional foods were incorporated into the mission diet and lithic and shell bead production and use persisted. More overt strategies of resistance such as refusal to enter the system, work slowdowns, abortion and infanticide of children resulting from rape, and fugiti were also prevalent. Five major uprisings were recorded at Mission San Gabriel alone.<ref name=":4" /> Two late-eighteenth-century rebellions against the mission system were led by Nicolás José, who was an early convert who had two social identities: "publicly participating in Catholic sacraments at the mission but privately committed to traditional dances, celebrations, and rituals."<ref name=":4" /> He participated in a failed attempt to kill the mission's priests in 1779 and organized eight foothill villages in a revolt in October 1785 with [[Toypurina]], who further organized the villages,<ref name=":03">{{Cite journal|last=Hackel|first=S. W.|date=2003-10-01|title=Sources of Rebellion: Indian Testimony and the Mission San Gabriel Uprising of 1785|journal=Ethnohistory|language=en|volume=50|issue=4|pages=643–669|doi=10.1215/00141801-50-4-643|s2cid=161256567|issn=0014-1801}}</ref> which "demonstrated a previously undocumented level of regional political unification both within and well beyond the mission."<ref name=":4" /> However, divided loyalties among the natives contributed to the failure of the 1785 attempt as well as mission soldiers being alerted of the attempt by converts or neophytes.<ref name=":4" />

[[File:Pictorial and Historical map of Old Los Angeles County 1938 by George W. Kirkman.jpg|thumb|[[George W. Kirkman]]'s 1938 historical map of pre-1860 Los Angeles County shows locations of "Gabrieleño" villages marked with generic "[[Indian teepees]]."]]
Toypurina, José and two other leaders of the rebellion, Chief Tomasajaquichi of Juvit village and a man named Alijivit, from the nearby village of Jajamovit, were put on trial for the 1785 rebellion.<ref name=":03"/> At his trial, José stated that he participated because the ban at the mission on dances and ceremonies instituted by the missionaries, and enforced by the governor of California in 1782, was intolerable as they prevented their mourning ceremonies.<ref name=":4" /> When questioned about the attack, Toypurina is famously quoted as saying that she participated in the instigation because “[she hated] the padres and all of you, for living here on my native soil, for trespassing upon the land of my forefathers and despoiling our tribal domains. …  I came [to the mission] to inspire the dirty cowards to fight, and not to quail at the sight of Spanish sticks that spit fire and death, nor [to] retch at the evil smell of gunsmoke{{snd}}and be done with you white invaders!’<ref name=":03" /> Scholars have debated the accuracy of this quote, from Thomas Workman Temple II's article “Toypurina the Witch and the Indian Uprising at San Gabriel” suggesting it may differ significantly from the testimony recorded by Spanish authorities at the time. According to the soldier who recorded her words, she stated simply that she ‘‘was angry with the Padres and the others of the Mission, because they had come to live and establish themselves in her land.’’<ref name=":03" /> In June 1788, nearly three years later, their sentences arrived from [[Mexico City]]: Nicolás José was banned from San Gabriel and sentenced to six years of hard labor in irons at the most distant penitentiary in the region.<ref name=":03"/> Toypurina was banished from Mission San Gabriel and sent to the most distant Spanish mission.

Resistance to Spanish rule demonstrated how the Spanish Crown's claims to California were both insecure and contested.<ref name=":6" /> By the 1800s, San Gabriel was the richest in the entire colonial mission system, supplying cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, horses, mules, and other supplies for settlers and settlements throughout [[Alta California]].

The mission system has been described by some historians as a form of coerced labor that deeply disrupted Indigenous lifeways and autonomy. Latter-day ethnologist Hugo Reid reported, “Indian children were taken from their parents to be raised behind bars at the mission. They were allowed outside the locked dormitories only to attend to church business and their assigned chores. When they were old enough, boys and girls were put to work in the vast vineyards and orchards owned by the missions. Soldiers watched, ready to hunt down any who tried to escape.” Writing in 1852, Reid said he knew of Tongva who “had an ear lopped off or were branded on the lip for trying to get away.”<ref name="latimes1971" />

In 1810, the "Gabrieleño" labor population at the mission was recorded to be 1,201. It jumped to 1,636 in 1820 and then declined to 1,320 in 1830.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Martínez|first=Roberta H.|title=Latinos in Pasadena|publisher=Arcadia|year=2009|isbn=9780738569550|pages=15}}</ref> Resistance to this system of forced labor continued into the early 19th century. In 1817, the San Gabriel Mission recorded that there were "473 Indian fugitives."<ref name=":17" /> In 1828, a German immigrant purchased the land on which the village of Yang-Na stood and evicted the entire community with the help of Mexican officials.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|title=A People's Guide to Los Angeles|publisher=University of California Press|year=2012|isbn=9780520953345|page=71}}</ref>

=== Mexican secularization and occupation (1834–1848) ===
{{Further|Mexican Secularization Act of 1833|Ranchos of California}}[[File:Two Tongva women.jpg|thumb|283x283px|Two Tongva women at the San Fernando Mission, {{Circa|1890|lk=no}}]]The mission period ended in 1834 with secularization under Mexican rule.<ref name=":4" /> Some "Gabrieleño" were absorbed into Mexican society as a result of secularization, which emancipated the neophytes.<ref name=":3" /> Tongva and other California Natives largely became workers while former Spanish elites were granted huge land grants.<ref name=":3" /> Land was systemically denied to California Natives by ''[[Californios|Californio]]'' land-owning men. In the Los Angeles basin area, only 20 former neophytes from San Gabriel Mission received any land from secularization. What they received were relatively small plots of land. A "Gabrieleño" by the name of Prospero Elias Dominguez was granted a 22-acre plot near the mission while Mexican authorities granted the remainder of the mission land, approximately 1.5 million acres, to a few colonist families. In 1846, it was noted by researcher Kelly Lytle Hernández that 140 Gabrieleños signed a petition demanding access to mission lands and that ''Californio'' authorities rejected their petition.<ref name=":6" />

Emancipated from enslavement in the missions yet barred from their own land, most Tongva became [[Landlessness|landless]] refugees during this period. Entire villages fled inland to escape the invaders and continued devastation. Others moved to Los Angeles, a city which saw an increase in the Native population from 200 in 1820 to 553 in 1836 (out of a total population of 1,088).<ref name=":6" /> As stated by scholar Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval, "while they should have been owners, the Tongva became workers, performing strenuous, back-breaking labor just as they had done ever since settler colonialism emerged in Southern California."<ref name=":5" /> As described by researcher Heather Valdez Singleton, Los Angeles was heavily dependent on Native labor and "grew slowly on the back of the Gabrieleño laborers."<ref name=":17" /> Some of the people became ''[[vaquero]]s'' on the ranches, highly skilled horsemen or cowboys, herding and caring for the cattle. There was little land available to the Tongva to use for food outside of the ranches. Some crops such as corn and beans were planted on ranchos to sustain the workers.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Imhoff|first=Christyne|title=One Land: Many Peoples, Many Ways : Teacher Manual|publisher=National Park Service, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area|year=1998|pages=62–63}}</ref>

Several Gabrieleño families stayed within the [[San Gabriel Township, California|San Gabriel township]], which became "the cultural and geographic center of the Gabrieleño community."<ref name=":17" /> Yaanga also diversified and increased in size, with peoples of various Native backgrounds coming to live together shortly following secularization.<ref name=":6" /> However, the government had instituted a system dependent on Native labor and servitude and increasingly eliminated any alternatives within the Los Angeles area. As explained by Kelly Lytle Hernández, "there was no place for Natives living but not working in Mexican Los Angeles. In turn, the ''ayuntaminto'' (city council) passed new laws to compel Natives to work or be arrested."<ref name=":6" /> In January 1836, the council directed ''Californios'' to sweep across Los Angeles to arrest "all drunken Indians."<ref name=":6" /> As recorded by Hernández, "Tongva men and women, along with an increasingly diverse set of their Native neighbors, filled the jail and convict labor crews in Mexican Los Angeles."<ref name=":6" /> By 1844, most Natives in Los Angeles worked as servants in a perpetual system of servitude, tending to the land and serving settlers, invaders, and colonizers.<ref name=":6" />

The ''ayuntamiunto'' forced the Native settlement of Yaanga to move farther away from town. By the mid-1840s, the settlement was forcibly moved eastward across the [[Los Angeles River]], placing a divide between Mexican Los Angeles and the nearest Native community. However, "Native men, women, and children continued to live (not just work) in the city. On Saturday Nights, they even held parties, danced, and gambled at the removed Yaanga village and also at the plaza at the center of town." In response, the ''Californios'' continued to attempt to control Native lives, issuing Alta California governor [[Pío Pico|Pio Pico]] a petition in 1846 stating: "We ask that the Indians be placed under strict police surveillance or the persons for whom the Indians work give [the Indians] quarter at the employer's rancho."<ref name=":6" /> In 1847, a law was passed that prohibited Gabrielinos from entering the city without proof of employment.<ref name=":7" /> A part of the proclamation read:<ref name=":17" /><blockquote>Indians who have no masters but are self-sustaining, shall be lodged outside of the City limits in localities widely separated... All vagrant Indians of either sex who have not tried to secure a situation within four days and are found unemployed, shall be put to work on public works or sent to the house of correction.</blockquote>In 1848, Los Angeles formally became a town in the United States following the [[Mexican–American War|Mexican-American War]].<ref name=":6" />

=== American occupation and continued subjugation (1848–) ===
{{Further|California genocide|Forced labor in California}}[[File:Gabrieleño huts.png|thumb|''Gabrieleño'' dwellings at Acurag-na rancheria near Mission San Gabriel, California (1877–1880)|224x224px|alt=]]Landless and unrecognized, the people faced systemic discrimination, exploitation through [[Penal labour|convict labor]], and loss of autonomy under American occupation. Some of the people were displaced to small Mexican and Native communities in the [[Eagle Rock, Los Angeles|Eagle Rock]] and [[Highland Park, Los Angeles|Highland Park]] districts of Los Angeles as well as [[Pauma Valley, California|Pauma]], [[Pala, California|Pala]], [[Temecula, California|Temecula]], [[Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians|Pechanga]], and [[San Jacinto, California|San Jacinto]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M7E2AQAAMAAJ|title=Los Angeles Union Station Run-through Tracks Project: Environmental Impact Statement|publisher=United States. Federal Railroad Administration|year=2004|pages=34–35|access-date=October 19, 2020|archive-date=September 13, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220913170726/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Los_Angeles_Union_Station_Run_through_Tr/M7E2AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0|url-status=live}}</ref> The imprisonment of Natives in Los Angeles was a symbol of establishing the new "rule of law." The city's vigilante community would routinely "invade" the jail and hang the accused in the streets. Once Congress granted statehood to California in 1850, many of the first laws passed targeted Natives for arrest, imprisonment, and convict labor. The 1850 Act for the Government and Protection of Indians "targeted Native peoples for easy arrest by stipulating that they could be arrested on vagrancy charges based 'on the complaint of any reasonable citizen'"<ref name=":6" /> and Gabrieleños faced the brunt of this policy. Section 14 of the act stated:<ref name=":17" /><blockquote>When an Indian is convicted of any offence before a Justice of the Peace punishable by fine, any white person may, by consent of the Justice, give bond for said Indian, conditioned for the payment of said fine and costs, and in such case the Indian shall be compelled to work for the person so bailing, until he has discharged or cancelled the fine assessed against him.</blockquote>Native men were disproportionately [[Criminalization|criminalized]] and swept into this legalized system of [[indentured servitude]].<ref name=":17" /> As was recorded by Anglo-American settlers, "'White men, whom the Marshal is too discreet to arrest' ... spilled out of the town's many saloons, streets, and brothels, but the aggressive and targeted enforcement of state and local vagrancy and drunk codes filled the Los Angeles County Jail with Natives, most of whom were men." Most spent their days working on the county [[chain gang]], which was largely involved with keeping the city streets clean in the 1850s and 1860s but increasingly included road construction projects as well.<ref name=":6" />

Although federal officials reported that there were an estimated 16,930 California Indians and 1,050 at Mission San Gabriel, "the federal agents ignored them and those living in Los Angeles" because they were viewed as "friendly to the whites," as revealed in the personal diaries of Commissioner [[George W. Barbour]]. In 1852, superintendent of Indian Affairs [[Edward Fitzgerald Beale]] echoed this sentiment, reporting that "because these Indians were Christians, with many holding ranch jobs and having interacted with whites," that "they are not much to be dreaded."<ref name=":17" /> Although a California Senate Bill of 2008 asserted that the US government signed treaties with the Gabrieleño, promising {{convert|8.5|e6acre|ha}} of land for [[Indian reservation|reservations]], and that these treaties were never ratified,<ref name="BillNo.1134" /> a paper published in 1972 by [[Robert Heizer]] of the [[University of California at Berkeley]], shows that the eighteen treaties made between April 29, 1851, and August 22, 1852, were negotiated with persons who did not represent the Tongva people and that none of these persons had authority to cede lands that belonged to the people.<ref name="Heizer1972" />

An 1852 editorial in the ''[[Los Angeles Star]]'' revealed the public's anger towards any possibility of the Gabrieleño receiving recognition and exercising sovereignty:<ref name=":17" /><blockquote>To place upon our most fertile soil the most degraded race of aborigines upon the North American Continent, to invest them with the rights of sovereignty, and to teach them that they are to be treated as powerful and independent nations, is planting the seeds of future disaster and ruin... We hope that the general government will let us alone{{snd}}that it will neither undertake to feed, settle or remove the Indians amongst whom we in the South reside, and that they leave everything just as it now exists, except affording us the protection which two or three cavalry companies would give.</blockquote>[[File:SanGabriel-1880.jpg|thumb|246x246px|Mission Road in [[San Gabriel, California|San Gabriel]] (1880). San Gabriel township remained the center of Gabrieleño life into the 20th century.]]In 1852, [[Hugo Reid]] wrote a series of letters for the ''[[Los Angeles Star]]'' from the center of the Gabrieleño community in San Gabriel township, describing Gabrieleño life and culture. Reid himself was married to a Gabrieleño woman by the name of Bartolomea Cumicrabit, who he renamed "Victoria." Reid wrote the following: "Their chiefs still exist. In San Gabriel remain only four, and those young... They have no jurisdiction more than to appoint times for holding of Feasts and regulating affairs connected with the church [traditional structure made of brush]." There is some speculation that Reid was campaigning for the position of Indian agent in Southern California, but died before he could be appointed. Instead, in 1852, [[Benjamin D. Wilson]] was appointed, who maintained the status quo.<ref name=":17" /> The letters of Hugo Reid revealed the names of 28 Gabrielino villages.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Indians of Los Angeles County |url=https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services//service/gdc/calbk/007.pdf |access-date=June 4, 2022 |archive-date=May 16, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516095555/https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services//service/gdc/calbk/007.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1855, the Gabrieleño were reported by the superintendent of Indian affairs [[Thomas J. Henley]] to be in "a miserable and degraded condition." However, Henley admitted that moving them to a reservation, potentially at Sebastian Reserve in [[Tejon Pass]], would be opposed by the citizens because "in the vineyards, especially during the grape season, their labor is made useful and is obtained at a cheap rate." A few Gabrieleño were in fact at Sebastian Reserve and maintained contact with the people living in San Gabriel during this time.<ref name=":17" />

In 1859, amidst increasing [[criminalization]] and absorption into the city's burgeoning [[convict labor]] system, the county grand jury declared "stringent vagrant laws should be enacted and enforced compelling such persons ['Indians'] to obtain an honest livelihood or seek their old homes in the mountains." This declaration ignored Reid's research, which stated that most Tongva villages, including [[Yaanga]], "were located in the basin, along its rivers and on its shoreline, stretching from the deserts and to the sea." Only a few villages led by ''tomyaars'' (chiefs) were "in the mountains, where [[Chinigchinix|Chengiichngech]]'s avengers, serpents, and bears lived," as described by historian Kelly Lytle Hernández. However, "the grand jury dismissed the depths of Indigenous claims to life, land, and sovereignty in the region and, instead, chose to frame Indigenous peoples as drunks and vagrants [[loitering]] in Los Angeles... disavowing a long history of Indigenous belonging in the basin."<ref name=":6" />

While in 1848, Los Angeles had been a small town largely of Mexicans and Natives, by 1880 it was home to an Anglo-American majority following waves of white migration in the 1870s from the completion of the [[transcontinental railroad]]. As stated by research Heather Valdez Singleton, newcomers "took advantage of the fact that many Gabrieleño families, who had cultivated and lived on the same land for generations, did not hold legal title to the land, and used the law to [[Eviction|evict]] Indian families." The Gabrieleño became vocal about this and notified former Indian agent J. Q. Stanley, who referred to them as "half-civilized" yet lobbied to protect the Gabrieleño "against the lawless whites living amongst them," arguing that they would become "[[Vagrancy|vagabonds]]" otherwise. However, active Indian agent Augustus P. Greene's recommendation took precedent, arguing that "Mission Indians in southern California were slowing the settlement of this portion of the country for non-Indians and suggested that the Indians be completely assimilated," as summarized by Singleton.<ref name=":17" />

In 1882, [[Helen Hunt Jackson]] was sent by the federal government to document the condition of the Mission Indians in southern California. She reported that there were a considerable number of people "in the colonies in the San Gabriel Valley, where they live like gypsies in brush huts, here today, gone tomorrow, eking out a miserable existence by days' work." However, even though Jackson's report would become the impetus for the Mission Indian Relief Act of 1891,<ref name=":17" /> the Gabrieleño were "overlooked by the commission charged with setting aside lands for Mission Indians."<ref name=":16">{{Cite book|last=Rosenthal|first=Nicolas G.|title=A Companion to California History|publisher=Wiley|year=2014|isbn=9781118798041|editor-last=Igler|editor-first=David|pages=408|chapter=At the Center of Indian Country|editor-last2=Deverell|editor-first2=William}}</ref> It is speculated that this may have been attributed to what was perceived as their compliance with the government, which caused them to be neglected, as noted earlier by Indian agent J. Q. Stanley.<ref name=":17" />

==== Extinction controversy ====
{{Further|American Indian boarding schools}}[[File:Sherman Indian School in Riverside, ca.1910 (CHS-5251).jpg|thumb|262x262px|[[Sherman Indian School]] in [[Riverside, California|Riverside]] (1910). Between 1890 and 1920, at least 50 Gabrieleño children were enrolled at this school on the recommendation of federal agents.]]
By the early twentieth century, Gabrieleño identity had suffered greatly under American occupation. Most Gabrieleño publicly identified as Mexican, learned Spanish, and adopted Catholicism while keeping their identity a secret.<ref name=":7" /> In schools, students were punished for mentioning that they were "Indian" and many of the people assimilated into [[Mexican Americans|Mexican-American]] or [[Chicano]] culture.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Arellanes|first=Gloria|title=The Chicano Generation: Testimonios of the Movement|publisher=University of California Press|year=2015|isbn=9780520961364|pages=116–117}}</ref> Further attempts to establish a reservation for the Gabrieleño in 1907 failed.<ref name=":17" /> Soon it began to be perpetuated in the local press that the Gabrieleño were extinct. In February 1921, the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' declared that the death of Jose de los Santos Juncos, an Indigenous man who lived at Mission San Gabriel and was 106 years old at his time of passing, "marked the passing of a vanished race."<ref name=":8">{{Cite book|last=Brook|first=Vincent|title=Land of Smoke and Mirrors: A Cultural History of Los Angeles|publisher=Rutgers University Press|year=2013|isbn=9780813554587|pages=55–60}}</ref> In 1925, [[A. L. Kroeber|Alfred Kroeber]] declared that the Gabrieleño culture was extinct, stating "they have melted away so completely that we know more of the finer facts of the culture of ruder tribes."<ref name=":17" /> Scholars have noted that this extinction myth has proven to be "remarkably resilient," yet is untrue.<ref name=":8" />

Despite being declared extinct, Gabrieleño children were still being assimilated by federal agents who encouraged enrollment at [[Sherman Indian School]] in [[Riverside, California]]. Between 1890 and 1920, at least 50 Gabrieleño children were recorded at the school. Between 1910 and 1920, the establishment of the Mission Indian Federation, of which the Gabrieleño joined, led to the 1928 California Indians Jurisdictional Act, which created official enrollment records for those who could prove ancestry from a California Indian living in the state in 1852. Over 150 people self-identified as Gabrieleño on this roll. A Gabrieleño woman at Tejon Reservation provided the names and addresses of several Gabrieleño living in San Gabriel, showing that contact between the group at Tejon Reservation and the group at San Gabriel township, which are more than 70 miles apart, was being maintained into the 1920s and 1930s.<ref name=":17" />

In 1971, Bernice Johnston, former curator of the [[Southwest Museum of the American Indian|Southwest Museum]] and author of ''California’s Gabrielino Indians'' (1962), spoke to the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'': “After spending much of her life trying to trace the Indians, she believes she almost came in contact with some Gabrielinos a few years ago…She relates that on a Sunday, while giving a tour of the museum, ‘I saw these shy, dark people looking around. They were asking questions about the Gabrielino Indians. I asked why they wanted to know, and nearly fell over when they told me they were Gabrielinos and wanted to know something about themselves. I was busy with the tour, we were crowded. I rushed back to them as soon as I could but they were gone. I didn’t even get their names.”<ref name="latimes1971">Vasquez, Richard. "Gabrieleno Indians--This Land Was Their Land: Land Conflicts." ''Los Angeles Times'', June 14, 1971, pp. 2-b1''.''</ref>

==== Desecrated sites and Land Back ====
{{Further|Land Back}}[[File:Newport Beach Fairview Park 2017.jpg|thumb|Tongva sites continue to be destroyed due to a lack of federal recognition. Fairview Park (pictured in 2017) in [[Costa Mesa, California|Costa Mesa]] is near a Tongva site dated 9,000 years old that has been threatened.<ref name=":05" /><ref name=":42" />]]
Historians and contemporary Tongva advocates have argued that [[Anglo-Americans|Anglo-American]] institutions, including schools and museums, have historically challenged the preservation of tribal identity throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Contemporary members have cited being denied the legitimacy of their identity. Tribal identity is also hindered by a lack of [[Native American recognition in the United States|federal recognition]] and having no land base, which has meant that the tribe has access to almost none of their traditional homelands.<ref name=":8" />

The Tongva have also struggled to protect their sacred sites, ancestral remains, and artefacts from destruction in the 21st century. In 2001, a 9,000-year-old [[Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve|Bolsa Chica]] village site was heavily damaged. The company that performed the initial archaeological survey was fined $600,000 for its poor assessment that clearly favored the developer.<ref name=":42" /> Burials near the site of [[Genga, California|Genga]] were unearthed and moved, despite opposition from the tribes, in favor of commercial development.<ref name=":05" />

In 2019, [[California State University, Long Beach|CSU, Long Beach]] dumped trash and dirt on top of [[Puvunga]] in its construction of new student housing, which reawakened a decades-long dispute between the university and the tribe over the treatment of the sacred site.<ref name=":07">{{Cite news |last1=Kazenoff |first1=Tess |last2=Gomez |first2=Savannah |date=25 May 2020 |title=CSULB dumping on Native American burial site |newspaper=LBCC Viking News |url=https://lbccviking.com/2020/05/csulb-dumping-on-native-american-burial-site}}</ref> In 2022, it was announced that part of the village site of [[Genga, California|Genga]] may be transformed into a green space. Leaders of the project have claimed that "tribal descendants of the area’s earliest residents will also have a voice" in how the park is developed.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-05-26 |title=Purchase of Banning Ranch for preserved natural space is fully funded |url=https://www.ocregister.com/2022/05/26/purchase-of-banning-ranch-for-preserved-natural-space-is-fully-funded |access-date=2022-12-11 |website=Orange County Register |language=en-US}}</ref>

The [[Tongva Taraxat Paxaxa Conservancy|Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy]] has been established as part of the [[Land Back]] movement and for the rematriation of Tongva homelands.<ref name=":1" /> The ''kuuyam nahwá’a'' ("guest exchange") has been developed by the conservancy as a way for people living in the homelands of the Tongva to pay a form of contribution for living on the land.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Support the Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy |url=https://tongva.networkforgood.com/projects/159058-ttpc |access-date=2023-01-03 |website=Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy |language=en}}</ref> In October 2022, a 1-acre site was returned to the conservancy by a private resident in [[Altadena, California|Altadena]], which marked the first time the Tongva had land in [[Los Angeles County, California|Los Angeles County]] in 200 years.<ref name=":1" />

== Culture ==
[[File:Tongva Sacred Springs 2023 March open house day 19.jpg|thumb|left|Replica Tongva ''kiiy'' and [[Sambucus cerulea|California native elderberry]] in blossom at [[Tongva Sacred Springs]] in Los Angeles]]

The Tongva lived in the main part of the most fertile lowland of southern California, including a stretch of sheltered coast with a pleasant climate and abundant food resources,<ref name="HeizerWhipple1971">{{cite book|first=William J.|last=Wallace|editor1=Robert Fleming Heizer|editor2=Mary Anne Whipple|title=The California Indians: A Source Book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZjUOmWWyGSMC&pg=PA187|year=1971|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-02031-3|page=187|chapter=A Suggested Chronology for Southern California Coastal Archaeology|access-date=June 17, 2019|archive-date=December 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224022908/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZjUOmWWyGSMC&pg=PA187|url-status=live}}</ref> as well as Santa Catalina, San Clemente, and San Nicolas Islands.<ref>{{Cite web | title=Gabrielino/Tongva Nation of the Greater Los Angeles Basin – NAHC Digital Atlas | url=https://nahc.ca.gov/cp/tribal-atlas-pages/gabrielino-tongva-nation/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030141705/http://nahc.ca.gov/cp/tribal-atlas-pages/gabrielino-tongva-nation/ | archive-date=2020-10-30}}</ref> The Tongva were a prominent cultural group south of the [[Tehachapi, California|Tehachapi]] and among the [[Uto-Aztecan languages|Uto-Aztecan]] speakers in California, influencing other Indigenous groups through trade and interaction. Many of the cultural developments of the surrounding southern peoples had their origin with the Gabrieleño.<ref>Kroeber 1925, p. 621</ref> The Tongva territory was the center of a flourishing trade network that extended from the [[Channel Islands (California)|Channel Islands]] in the west to the [[Colorado River]] in the east, allowing the people to maintain trade relations with the [[Cahuilla]], [[Serrano people|Serrano]], [[Luiseño]], [[Chumash people|Chumash]], and [[Mohave people|Mohave]].<ref name="EnvironmentalImpact2004">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M7E2AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA30|title=Los Angeles Union Station Run-through Tracks Project: Environmental Impact Statement|publisher=Caltrans|year=2004|pages=30–33|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191222231126/https://books.google.com/books?id=M7E2AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA30|archive-date=December 22, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

Like all Indigenous peoples, they utilized and existed in an interconnected relationship with the [[flora]] and [[fauna]] of their familial territory. Villages were located throughout four major ecological zones, as noted by biologist Matthew Teutimez: interior mountains and foothills, grassland/oak woodland, sheltered coastal canyons, and the exposed coast. Therefore, resources such as plants, animals, and earth minerals were diverse and used for various purposes, including for food and materials. Prominent flora included oak (''[[Quercus agrifolia]]'') and willow (''[[Salix|Salix spp.]]'') trees, chia (''[[Salvia columbariae]]''), cattail (''[[Typha|Typha spp.]]''), datura or jimsonweed (''[[Datura innoxia]]''), white sage (''[[Salvia apiana]]''), ''[[Juncus|Juncus spp.]]'', Mexican Elderberry (''[[Sambucus]]''), wild tobacco (''[[Nicotiana|Nicotiana spp.]]''), and yucca (''[[Hesperoyucca whipplei]]''). Prominent fauna included [[mule deer]], [[pronghorn]], [[California black bear|black bear]], [[grizzly bear]], [[black-tailed jackrabbit]], [[Cottontail rabbit|cottontail]], [[bald eagle]], [[red-tailed hawk]], [[dolphin]], and [[gray whale]].<ref name=":15">{{Cite journal|last=Teutimez|first=Matthew|title=A Compendium of Kizh/Gabrieleno Utilized Flora and Fauna|url=http://www.gabrielenoindians.net/flora-and-fauna.html|journal=Kizh Tribal Press|access-date=October 9, 2020|archive-date=July 26, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726143457/http://gabrielenoindians.net/flora-and-fauna.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== ''Te'aat'' and the ocean ===
[[File:CINMS - Tomol Crossing Sunrise .jpg|thumb|289x289px|''Te'aats'', also referred to as ''tomol''s ([[Chumash people|Chumash]]),  were widely used by the Tongva and were especially important for trade. A ''tomol'' pictured in 2015.]]
{{Main|Tomol}}
The Tongva had a concentrated population along the coast. They fished and hunted in the estuary of the Los Angeles River, and like the [[Chumash people|Chumash]], their neighbors to the north and west along the Pacific coast, the Gabrieleño built seaworthy plank [[canoe]]s, called ''te'aat'', from driftwood. To build them, they used planks of driftwood pine that were sewn together with vegetable fiber cord, edge to edge, and then glued with the tar that was available either from the [[La Brea Tar Pits]], or as [[Bitumen|asphalt]] that had washed up on shore from offshore oil seeps. The finished vessel was caulked with plant fibers and tar, stained with red [[ochre]], and sealed with pine pitch. The ''te'aat'', as noted by the [[Sebastián Vizcaíno]] expedition, could hold up to 20 people<ref>McCawley 1996, pp. 123–125</ref> as well as their gear and trade goods. These canoes allowed the development of trade between the mainland villages and the offshore islands, and were important to the region's economy and social organization,<ref>{{cite book|title=Delineation Drilling Activities in Federal Waters Offshore, Santa Barbara County: Environmental Impact Statement|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cyQ3AQAAMAAJ&pg=SA4-PA112|year=2001|pages=4-112–4-114|access-date=June 17, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221063801/https://books.google.com/books?id=cyQ3AQAAMAAJ&pg=SA4-PA112|archive-date=December 21, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Kennett2005">{{cite book|first=Douglas J.|last=Kennett|title=The Island Chumash: Behavioral Ecology of a Maritime Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uKYlDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA79|date=4 April 2005|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-24302-6|page=79|access-date=June 17, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191226231946/https://books.google.com/books?id=uKYlDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA79|archive-date=December 26, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> with trade in food and manufactured goods being carried on between the people on the mainland coast and people in the interior as well. The Gabrieleño regularly paddled their canoes to Catalina Island, where they gathered [[abalone]],<ref name="SekulaTchen2004">{{cite journal |author1=Allan Sekula |author2=Jack (John Kuo Wei) Tchen |title=Interview with Allan Sekula: Los Angeles, California, October 26, 2002 |journal=International Labor and Working-Class History |date=2004 |issue=66 |page=162 |issn=0147-5479|jstor=27672963 }}</ref> which they pried off the rocks with implements made of fragments of whale ribs or other strong bones.<ref name="Walker1937">{{cite book|first=Edwin Francis|last=Walker|title=Indians of Southern California|url=https://archive.org/details/indiansofsouther00walk/page/8|year=1937|publisher=Southwest Museum|pages=6–9}}</ref>

=== Food culture ===
[[File:Salvia-columbariae-seeds.jpg|left|thumb|233x233px|Chia (''[[salvia columbariae]])'' seeds are integral to the Tongva diet.]]
In the Tongva economic system, food resources were managed by the village chief, who was given a portion of the yield of each day's hunting, fishing, or gathering to add to the communal food reserves. Individual families stored some food to be used in times of scarcity. Villages were located in places with accessible drinking water, protection from the elements, and productive areas where different [[ecological niche]]s on the land intersected. Situating their villages at these resource islands enabled the Tongva to gather the plant products of two or more zones in close proximity.<ref name="EnvironmentalImpact2004" />

Households consisted of a main house (''kiiy'') and temporary camp shelters used during food-gathering excursions. In the summer, families who lived near grasslands collected roots, seeds, flowers, fruit, and leafy greens, and in the winter families who lived near chaparral shrubland collected nuts and acorns, yucca, and hunted deer. The group used “wooden tongs” to collect prickly pear fruits.<ref name="layersoftime1964">Getze, George. "Layers of Time Reveal Legends of Southland Missions and Indians: Time Layers Tell Legends of Southland." ''Los Angeles Times'', Jan 12, 1964, p. 2.</ref>

Some prairie communities moved to the coast in the winter to fish, hunt whales and [[elephant seal]]s, and harvest shellfish. Those villages located on the coast during the summer went on food collecting trips inland during the winter rainy season to gather roots, tubers, [[corm]]s, and bulbs of plants including cattails, lilies, and wild onions.<ref name="King1987">{{cite journal|author1=Chester King|date=1987|title=Ethnohistoric Reconstruction of Subsistence-Settlement Systems in the Vicinity of Burton Mesa|url=https://www.academia.edu/37558753|page=10|access-date=7 July 2019|archive-date=September 14, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914214054/https://www.academia.edu/37558753|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Fortier2009">{{cite journal|author1=Jana Fortier|date=March 2009|title=Native American Consultation and Ethnographic Study, Ventura County, California|url=https://www.academia.edu/418550|page=15|access-date=7 July 2019|website=Academia.edu|archive-date=June 5, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220605140252/https://www.academia.edu/418550|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Tongva did not practice horticulture or agriculture, as their well-developed hunter-gatherer and trade economy provided adequate food resources.<ref>{{cite book|title=Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbors Channel Improvements: Environmental Impact Statement|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oj00AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA13|year=1984|page=13|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191225095013/https://books.google.com/books?id=Oj00AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA13|archive-date=December 25, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Gumprecht2001">{{cite book|first=Blake|last=Gumprecht|title=The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2ftBJpp7aIoC&pg=PA32|date= 2001|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-6642-5|page=32|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191228154447/https://books.google.com/books?id=2ftBJpp7aIoC&pg=PA32|archive-date=December 28, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Loewe2016">{{cite book|first=Ronald|last=Loewe|title=Of Sacred Lands and Strip Malls: The Battle for Puvungna|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xIrpDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA20|year=2016|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=978-0-7591-2162-1|page=20|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191230205752/https://books.google.com/books?id=xIrpDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA20|archive-date=December 30, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> The bread was made from the yellow pollen of cattail heads, and the underground [[rhizomes]] were dried and ground into a starchy meal.<ref name="King1987" /><ref name="Fortier2009" /> The young shoots were eaten raw.<ref>Fortier 2009, p. 46</ref> The seeds of [[Salvia columbariae|chia]], a herbaceous plant of the sage family, were gathered in large quantities when they were ripe. The flower heads were beaten with a paddle over a tightly woven basket to collect the seeds. These were dried or roasted and ground into a flour called "pinole," which was often mixed with the flour of other ground seeds or grains. Water was added to make a cooling drink; mixing with less water yielded a kind of porridge that could be baked into cakes.<ref name="Reid1968">{{cite book|last=Reid|first=Hugo|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b59340&view=1up&seq=25|title=The Indians of Los Angeles County: Hugo Reid's Letters of 1852|year=1926|location=Los Angeles|pages=11–12|orig-year=1852|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-date=September 14, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914214050/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b59340&view=1up&seq=25|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="McCawley1996129">{{cite book|last=McCawley|first=William|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DZAOAQAAMAAJ|title=The First Angelinos: The Gabrielino Indians of Los Angeles|publisher=Malki Museum Press|year=1996|isbn=978-0-9651016-0-8|pages=129–130|access-date=June 17, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191228154448/https://books.google.com/books?id=DZAOAQAAMAAJ|archive-date=December 28, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Acorn mush]] was a staple food as it was of all the [[Mission Indians|Indigenous peoples who were forcibly relocated to missions in Southern California]]. Acorns were gathered in October; this was a communal effort with the men climbing the trees and shaking them while the women and children collected the nuts.<ref name="McCawley1996129" /> The acorns were stored in large wicker [[granaries]] supported by wooden stakes well above the ground. Preparing them for food took about a week. Acorns were placed, one at a time, on end in the slight hollow of a rock and their shells broken by a light blow from a small hammerstone; then the membrane, or skin, covering the acorn meat was removed. Following this process the acorn meats were dried for days,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GU8wAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA11-PA3|title=Indian Education|publisher=Education Division, U.S. Office of Indian Affairs|year=1936|series=1-79|page=3|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207031237/https://books.google.com/books?id=GU8wAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA11-PA3|archive-date=December 7, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> after which the kernels were pounded into a meal with a pestle. This was done in a stone mortar or in a mortar hole in a boulder. Large [[bedrock mortar|bedrock outcroppings]] near oak stands often display evidence of the community mills where the women labored.<ref name="Walker1937" />

The pounded acorn meal was put into baskets and the bitter [[tannic acid]] it contained was leached out to make the meal more palatable and digestible.<ref name="McCawley1996129" /> The prepared meal was cooked by boiling in water in a watertight grass-woven basket or in a soapstone bowl into which heated stones were dropped. Soapstone casseroles were used directly over the fire. Various foods of meat, seeds, or roots were cooked by the same method.<ref name="Walker1937" /> The mush thus prepared was eaten cold or nearly so, as was all their food. Another favored Tongva food was the seed kernel of a species of plum (''[[prunus ilicifolia]]'' (common name: holly-leaf cherry) they called ''islay'', which was ground into meal and made into gruel.<ref name="Reid1968" />

Men performed most of the heavy, short-duration labor; they hunted, fished, helped with some food-gathering, and carried on trade with other cultural groups. Large game animals were hunted with bows and arrows, and small game was taken with [[Trapping#Deadfall traps|deadfall traps]], snares, and bows made of [[Aesculus californica|buckeye]] wood.<ref name="Campbell1999">{{cite book|first=Paul Douglas|last=Campbell|title=Survival Skills of Native California|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qSRLW5ziVFAC&pg=265|year=1999|publisher=Gibbs Smith|isbn=978-0-87905-921-7|page=265|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191229192924/https://books.google.com/books?id=qSRLW5ziVFAC&pg=265|archive-date=December 29, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> John P. Harrington recorded that rattlesnake venom was used as an arrow poison.<ref name="HudsonBlackburn1982">{{cite book|author1=Travis Hudson|author2=Thomas C. Blackburn|title=The Material Culture of the Chumash Interaction Sphere: Food Procurement and Transportation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JpJ0AAAAMAAJ&q=%22rattlesnake%20venom%22|year=1982|publisher=Ballena Press|isbn=978-0-87919-097-2|page=125|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224131001/https://books.google.com/books?id=JpJ0AAAAMAAJ&q=%22rattlesnake%20venom%22|archive-date=December 24, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Burrowing animals were driven from their burrows with smoke and clubbed; communal rabbit drives were made during the seasonal controlled burning of [[chaparral]] on the prairie,<ref name="EnvironmentalImpact2004" /> the rabbits being killed with nets, bow and arrows, and [[throwing stick]]s.<ref name="BeanSmith1978546">{{cite book|author1=Lowell John Bean|author2=Charles R. Smith|editor-first1=Robert F.|editor-last1=Heizer|title=Handbook of North American Indians: California|url=https://planning.lacity.org/eir/CrossroadsHwd/deir/files/references/D14.pdf|volume=8|year=1978|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|page=546|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190709031338/https://planning.lacity.org/eir/CrossroadsHwd/deir/files/references/D14.pdf|archive-date=July 9, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

Harpoons, spear-throwers, and clubs were used to hunt marine mammals and ''te'aat'' used to access them.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Learn |first1=Joshua Rapp |title=In Coastal California, the Tongva Sustainably Hunted Marine Mammals for Centuries |url=https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/in-coastal-california-the-tongva-sustainably-hunted-marine-mammals-for-centuries/ |access-date=23 September 2021 |work=[[Hakai Magazine]] |date=10 September 2021 |archive-date=September 23, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923193215/https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/in-coastal-california-the-tongva-sustainably-hunted-marine-mammals-for-centuries/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Fishing was done from shorelines or along rivers, streams, and creeks with hook and line, nets, basketry traps, spears, bow and arrows, and poisons made from plants. Reciprocity and sharing of resources were important values in Tongva culture. Hugo Reid reported that the hoarding of food supplies was so stigmatized by the Tongva moral code that hunters would give away large portions of coveted foods such as fresh meat, and under some circumstances, were prohibited from eating their own kill or fishermen from eating their own catch.<ref>McCawley 1996, pp. 111, 148</ref><ref name="Fortier2009" />

Women collected and prepared plant and some animal food resources and made baskets, pots, and clothing. In their old age, they and the old men cared for the young and taught them Tongva [[Lifeway#Anthropology and archeology|lifeways]].<ref name="BeanSmith1978546" />

=== Material culture ===
[[File:California, Southern, Gabrielino (San Gabriel, Mission or Tongva), Late 19t - Bowl - 1929.267 - Cleveland Museum of Art.jpg|thumb|280x280px|Tongva basket or bowl was created in the late 19th or early 20th century]]
Tongva [[material culture]] and technology reflected a sophisticated knowledge of the working properties of natural materials and a highly developed artisanship, shown in many articles of everyday utility decorated with shell inlay, carving, and painting.<ref name="PeregrineEmber2012">{{cite book|editor1=Peter N. Peregrine|editor2=Melvin Ember|title=Encyclopedia of Prehistory: Volume 6: North America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oHAQBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA301|year=2012|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-1-4615-0523-5|page=301|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227051251/https://books.google.com/books?id=oHAQBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA301|archive-date=December 27, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Most of these items, including baskets, shell tools, and wooden weapons, were extremely perishable. [[Steatite|Soapstone]] from quarries on Catalina Island was used to make cooking implements, animal carvings, pipes, ritual objects, and ornaments.<ref name="BeanSmith1978542">{{cite book|author1=Lowell John Bean|author2=Charles R. Smith|editor-first1=Robert F.|editor-last1=Heizer|title=Handbook of North American Indians: California|url=https://planning.lacity.org/eir/CrossroadsHwd/deir/files/references/D14.pdf|volume=8|year=1978|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|page=542|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190709031338/https://planning.lacity.org/eir/CrossroadsHwd/deir/files/references/D14.pdf|archive-date=July 9, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

Using the stems of rushes (''[[Juncus]]'' sp .), grass (''[[Muhlenbergia rigens]]''), and squawbush (''[[Rhus trilobata]]''), women fabricated coiled and twined basketry in a three-color pattern for household use, seed collecting, and ceremonial containers to hold grave offerings.<ref name="BeanSmith1978542" /> They sealed some baskets, such as water bottles, with asphalt to make watertight containers for holding liquids.<ref name="BrajeErlandson, Timbrook2005">{{cite journal |author1=Todd J. Braje |author2=Jon Erlandson |author3=Jan Timbrook |title=An Asphaltum Coiled Basket Impression, Tarring Pebbles, and Middle Holocene Water Bottles from San Miguel Island, California |journal=Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology |date=2005 |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=207–213 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261777645|jstor=27825804 }}</ref>

The Tongva used the leaves of [[Schoenoplectus acutus|tule]] reeds as well as those of [[Typha latifolia|cattails]] to weave mats and thatch their shelters.<ref name="Fortier2009" />

Living in the mild climate of southern California, the men and children usually went nude, and women wore only a two-piece skirt, the back part being made from the flexible inner bark of cottonwood or willow, or occasionally deerskin. The front apron was made of cords of twisted dogbane or milkweed. People went barefoot except in rough areas where they wore crude sandals made of yucca fiber.<ref name="Malinowski1998">{{cite book|last=Malinowski|first=Sharon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CEb0x7tu9c0C&q=%22yucca%20fiber%20sandals%22|title=The Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes: California, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Islands|publisher=Gale|year=1998|isbn=978-0-7876-1089-0|page=67|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223043135/https://books.google.com/books?id=CEb0x7tu9c0C&q=%22yucca%20fiber%20sandals%22|archive-date=December 23, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> In cold weather, they wore robes or capes made from twisted strips of rabbit fur, deer skins, or bird skins with the feathers still attached. Also used as blankets at night, these were made of sea otter skins along the coast and on the islands.<ref name="BeanSmith1978541">{{cite book|author1=Lowell John Bean|url=https://planning.lacity.org/eir/CrossroadsHwd/deir/files/references/D14.pdf|title=Handbook of North American Indians: California|author2=Charles R. Smith|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|year=1978|editor-last1=Heizer|editor-first1=Robert F.|volume=8|page=541|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190709031338/https://planning.lacity.org/eir/CrossroadsHwd/deir/files/references/D14.pdf|archive-date=July 9, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> “Women were tattooed from cheek to shoulder blade, from elbow to shoulder,” with cactus thorns used as needles and charcoal dust rubbed into the wounds as “ink,” leaving a blue-gray mark under the skin after the wounds healed.<ref name="getze1964" />

=== Social culture ===
There were three capital crimes in the community: murder, incest and disrespect for elders.<ref name="getze1964">Getze, George. "Southland Indians Used Strange Rites." ''Los Angeles Times'', Jan 14, 1964, p. 1</ref>

According to Father [[Gerónimo Boscana]], relations between the [[Chumash people|Chumash]], Gabrieleños, [[Luiseño]]s, and [[Kumeyaay|Diegueños]], as he called them, were generally peaceful but “when there was a war it was ferocious…no quarter was given, and no prisoners were taken except the wounded.”<ref name="getze1964" />

== Contemporary tribe ==
The earliest ethnological surveys of the Christianized population of the San Gabriel area, who were then known by the Spanish as ''Gabrielino'', were conducted in the mid-19th century. By this time, their pre-Christian religious beliefs and mythology were already fading. The Gabrieleño language was on the brink of extinction by 1900, so only fragmentary records of the Indigenous language and culture of the Gabrieleño have been preserved. Gabrieleño was one of the Cupan languages in the Takic language group, which is part of the [[Uto-Aztecan]] family of languages. It may be considered a dialect of Fernandeño, but it has not been a language of everyday conversation since the 1940s. The Gabrieleño people now speak English but a few are attempting to revive their language by using it in everyday conversation and ceremonial contexts. Presently, Gabrieleño is also being used in language revitalization classes and in some public discussions regarding religious and environmental issues.<ref name="Fortier2008"/>

The library of [[Loyola Marymount University]], located in Los Angeles ([[Westchester, Los Angeles|Westchester]]), has an extensive collection of archival materials related to the Tongva and their history.

In the 21st century, an estimated 1,700 people self-identify as members of the Tongva or Gabrieleño tribe.<ref name="BillNo.1134" /> In 1994, the state of California recognized the ''Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe'' ({{langx|es|Tribu de Gabrieleño-Tongva}})<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/sen/sb_1101-1150/sb_1134_bill_20080131_introduced.html|title=SB 1134 Senate Bill – Introduced|last=Oropeza|website=www.leginfo.ca.gov|access-date=2017-01-25|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304185401/http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/sen/sb_1101-1150/sb_1134_bill_20080131_introduced.html|archive-date=2016-03-04}}</ref> and the ''Fernandino-Tongva Tribe'' ({{langx|es|Tribu de Fernandeño-Tongva}}),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.missionscalifornia.com/content/native-americans-san-fernando-rey.html|title=Native Americans of San Fernando Rey {{!}} California Missions Resource Center|website=www.missionscalifornia.com|language=en|access-date=2017-01-25|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202080659/http://www.missionscalifornia.com/content/native-americans-san-fernando-rey.html|archive-date=2017-02-02}}</ref> but neither has gained federal recognition. In 2013, it was reported that the four Tongva groups that have applied for federal recognition had over 3,900 members collectively.<ref name=":9" />

The Gabrieleño/Tongva people do not accept one organization or government as representing them. They have had strong internal disagreements about governance and their future, largely related to plans supported by some members to open a [[Native American gambling enterprises|gaming casino]] on land that would be considered part of the Gabrieleño/Tongva homeland. Gaming casinos have generated great revenues for many Native American tribes, but not all Tongva people believe the benefits outweigh the negative aspects. The Gabrielino/Tongva Tribe (sometimes called the "slash" group) and Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe (sometimes called the "hyphen" group) are the two primary factions advocating a casino for the Tongva nation, with sharing of revenues by all the people. The Gabrielino Tribal Council of San Gabriel, now known as the Kizh Nation (Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians), claims that it does not support gaming. The Gabrielino Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians also does not support gambling and has been operating and meeting in the city of San Gabriel for over a hundred years. None of these organizations is recognized as a tribe by the federal government.<ref name=":9" />

=== History of organizations and casino dispute ===
In 1990, the Gabrielino/Tongva of San Gabriel filed for federal recognition. Other Gabrieleño groups have done the same. The Gabrielino/Tongva of California Tribal Council and the Coastal Gabrielino-Diegueno Band of Mission Indians filed federal petitions in 1997. These applications for federal recognition remain pending.

The San Gabriel group gained acknowledgement of its nonprofit status by the state of California in 1994. In 2001, the San Gabriel council divided over concessions given to the developers of [[Playa Vista, Los Angeles, California|Playa Vista]] and a proposal to build an Indian casino in [[Compton, California]]. A Santa Monica faction formed that advocated gaming for the tribe, which the San Gabriel faction opposed.

The San Gabriel council and Santa Monica faction sued each other over allegations that the San Gabriel faction expelled some members in order to increase gaming shares for other members. There were allegations that the Santa Monica faction stole tribal records in order to support its case for federal recognition.<ref>Christine Pelisek, [http://www.laweekly.com/2004-04-08/news/casino-nation/ "Casino Nation – Indians and tribal war over a club in Compton"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110404040514/http://www.laweekly.com/2004-04-08/news/casino-nation/ |date=2011-04-04 }}, ''[[LA Weekly]],'' 8 April 2004.</ref>

In September 2006, the Santa Monica faction divided into the "slash" and "hyphen" groups: the Gabrielino/Tongva Tribe and Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe.<ref name="Brook2013">{{cite book|first=Vincent|last=Brook|title=Land of Smoke and Mirrors: A Cultural History of Los Angeles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zpnOaFgMTa8C&pg=PA57|date= 2013|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=978-0-8135-5458-7|pages=57–58|access-date=June 1, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191230164823/https://books.google.com/books?id=zpnOaFgMTa8C&pg=PA57|archive-date=December 30, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Tribal secretary Sam Dunlap and tribal attorney Jonathan Stein confronted each other over various alleged fiscal improprieties and derogatory comments made to each other.<ref name="CapitolWeekly2009">{{cite web|url=http://www.capitolweekly.net/news/article.html?article_id=1350|title='Capitol Weekly'|access-date=5 June 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090512135707/http://www.capitolweekly.net/news/article.html?article_id=1350|archive-date=12 May 2009}}</ref><ref name="Loewe2016147">{{cite book|first=Ronald|last=Loewe|title=Of Sacred Lands and Strip Malls: The Battle for Puvungna|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xIrpDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA147|year=2016|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=978-0-7591-2162-1|page=147|access-date=June 1, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224045054/https://books.google.com/books?id=xIrpDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA147|archive-date=December 24, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Since that time, the slash group has hired former state senator [[Richard Polanco]] as its chief executive officer. The hyphen group has allied with Stein and issued warrants for the arrest of Polanco and members of the slash group.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.capitolweekly.net/news/article.html?article_id=1476|title=''Capitol Weekly''<!-- Bot generated title -->|access-date=5 June 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090508154034/http://www.capitolweekly.net/news/article.html?article_id=1476|archive-date=8 May 2009}}</ref>

Stein's group (hyphen), the Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe, is based in Santa Monica. It has proposed a casino to be built in [[Garden Grove, California]], approximately two miles south of [[Disneyland]].<ref>[http://www.ocregister.com/news/stein-tribe-casino-1823176-city-garden News: "Lawyer drives casino plan"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011161425/http://www.ocregister.com/news/stein-tribe-casino-1823176-city-garden |date=2007-10-11 }}, ''Orange County Register''</ref> In September 2007, the [[city council]] of Garden Grove unanimously rejected the casino proposal, instead choosing to build a water park on the land.<ref>[http://www.ocregister.com/news/casino-city-council-1843828-members-mcwhinney News: "Garden Grove City Council votes down casino proposal"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071124204233/http://www.ocregister.com/news/casino-city-council-1843828-members-mcwhinney |date=2007-11-24 }}, ''Orange County Register''</ref>

=== Land use issues ===
Controversies have arisen in contemporary California related to land-use issues and Native American rights, including those of the Tongva. Since the late twentieth century, both the state and the United States governments have improved respect of Indigenous rights and tribal sovereignty. The Tongva have challenged local development plans in the courts in order to protect and preserve some of their sacred grounds. Given the long Indigenous history in the area, not all archaeological sites have been identified.

Sometimes land developers have inadvertently disturbed Tongva burial grounds.<ref>[http://134.71.196.75/oldprojects/421sp2003/01/reschwarzberg/Media/PDF/Gabrieleno-Tongva%20Tribe.pdf Schwarzberg, Robert; "Displacement of the Gabrielino-Tongva Indians"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110703034441/http://134.71.196.75/oldprojects/421sp2003/01/reschwarzberg/Media/PDF/Gabrieleno-Tongva%20Tribe.pdf |date=2011-07-03 }}</ref> The tribe denounced [[archeologists|archaeologists]] breaking bones of ancestral remains found during an excavation of a site at Playa Vista.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/mcglr38&div=37&id=&page=|title=Grave Disturbances: Been Digging Lately Review of Selected 2007 California Legislation: Public Resources 38 McGeorge Law Review 2007|website=heinonline.org|access-date=6 April 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170111064705/http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals%2Fmcglr38&div=37&id=&page=|archive-date=11 January 2017}}</ref>

In the 1990s, the Gabrielino/Tongva Springs Foundation revived use of the [[Tongva Sacred Springs]], also known as Kuruvungna Springs, for sacred ceremonies. The natural springs are located on the site of a former Tongva village, now developed as the campus of [[University High School (Los Angeles, California)|University High School]] in [[West Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California|West Los Angeles]]. The Tongva consider the springs to be one of their last remaining sacred sites and they regularly make them the centerpiece of ceremonial events.<ref name="Tongva Sacred Springs">{{cite web |title=Kuruvungna Village Springs History and the Gabrielino {{!}} Tongva Springs Foundation |url=http://gabrielinosprings.com/wpsite/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/FactSheet_KuruvungnaSprings2021.pdf |access-date=5 August 2024 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20211024065510/http://gabrielinosprings.com/wpsite/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/FactSheet_KuruvungnaSprings2021.pdf |archive-date=24 October 2021 |date=2021}}</ref>

The Tongva have another sacred area known as ''[[Puvunga|Puvungna]].'' They believe it is the birthplace of the Tongva prophet [[Chinigchinix|Chingishnish]], and many believe it to be the place of creation. The site contains an active spring and the area was formerly inhabited by a Tongva village. It has been developed as part of the grounds of [[California State University, Long Beach]]. A portion of Puvungna, a Tongva burial ground on the western edge of the campus, is listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]]. In October 2019, following the dumping of soil, along with concrete, rebar and other debris, on "land that holds archaeological artefacts actively used by local Tribal groups for ceremonies"<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-09-29|title=State agency criticizes Cal State University for damaging sacred Native site|url=http://www.oc-breeze.com/2020/09/28/188004_state-agency-criticizes-cal-state-university-for-damaging-sacred-native-site/|access-date=2021-01-18|website=Orange County Breeze|language=en-US|archive-date=September 14, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914214053/http://www.oc-breeze.com/2020/09/28/188004_state-agency-criticizes-cal-state-university-for-damaging-sacred-native-site/|url-status=live}}</ref> from a nearby construction site, the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, [[Acjachemen]] Nation–Belardes (an organization that [[List of organizations that self-identify as Native American tribes|self-identifies as a Native American tribe]]), and the California Cultural Resource Preservation Alliance (CCRPA) filed a lawsuit against the university.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Jordan|first=Rachel|date=2020-12-01|title=Protect Puvungna: Indigenous peoples fight to preserve land on CSULB campus|url=https://abc7.com/8418295/|access-date=2021-01-18|website=ABC7 Los Angeles|language=en|archive-date=January 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127204725/https://abc7.com/8418295/|url-status=live}}</ref> In November 2019, the university agreed to stop dumping materials onto the site, and as of 2020 the lawsuit between these parties is still ongoing.<ref>{{Cite web|last=DiMaggio|first=Karla M. Enriquez with additional reporting by Emma|title=Inside the struggle to preserve Puvungna|url=https://signaltribunenewspaper.com/54784/community/inside-the-struggle-to-preserve-puvungna/|access-date=2021-01-18|website=The Signal Tribune newspaper|archive-date=December 31, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201231055848/https://signaltribunenewspaper.com/54784/community/inside-the-struggle-to-preserve-puvungna/|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Traditional narratives ==
{{further|Traditional narratives of Indigenous Californians}}
Tongva/Gabrieleño/Fernandeño oral literature is relatively little known, due to their early Christianization in the 1770s by [[Spanish missions in California]]. The available evidence suggests strong cultural links with the group's linguistic kin and neighbors to the south and east, the [[Luiseño people|Luiseño]] and the [[Cahuilla]].<ref>Kroeber (1925) pp. 623–626 has fragments of myths, with comparisons. McCawley (1996) includes previously unpublished narratives collected in 1914–1933 by [[John Peabody Harrington]], pp. 174–178. Heizer (1968) notes that Hugo Reid's letter of 1852 contains what he describes as a kind of [[Orpheus]] legend.{{Clarify|date=December 2011}}</ref>

According to Kroeber (1925), the pre-Christian Tongva had a "mythic-ritual-social six-god pantheon". The principal deity was [[Chinigchinix]], also known as [[Quaoar (mythology)|Quaoar]]. Another important figure is Weywot, the god of the sky, who was created by Quaoar.<ref name=planet>Lakdawalla, Emily. [http://planetary.org/blog/article/00002206/ "Two new names in the solar system: Herse and Weywot"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111209093120/http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002206 |date=2011-12-09 }}, ''The Planetary Society.'' 12 Nov 2009. Retrieved 18 March 2012.</ref> Weywot ruled over the Tongva, but he was very cruel, and he was finally killed by his own sons. When the Tongva assembled to decide what to do next, they had a vision of a ghostly being who called himself Quaoar, who said he had come to restore order and to [[Culture hero|give laws]] to the people. After he had given instructions as to which groups would have political and spiritual leadership, he began to dance and slowly ascended into heaven.<ref>Williams (2003), pp. 30–33.</ref>

After consulting with the Tongva, astronomers [[Michael E. Brown]] and [[Chad Trujillo]] used the name of Quaoar to name a large object in the [[Kuiper belt]] that they had discovered, [[50000 Quaoar]] (2002). When Brown later found [[Weywot (moon)|a satellite]] of Quaoar, he left the choice of name up to the Tongva, who selected Weywot (2009).<ref name=planet />

== Toponymy ==
{{Main|Category:Tongva populated places}}
[[File:Indian place names Los Angeles Herald.jpg|thumb|“Indian names: the aboriginal nomenclature of Southern California,” published in the ''Los Angeles Herald'', 1893]]
From the Spanish colonial period, Tongva place names have been absorbed into general use in Southern California. Examples include [[Pacoima, Los Angeles|Pacoima]], [[Sunland-Tujunga, Los Angeles|Tujunga]], [[Topanga, California|Topanga]], [[Rancho Cucamonga, California|Rancho Cucamonga]], [[Azusa, California|Azusa]] ([[Azucsagna, California|Azucsagna]]), and [[Cahuenga Pass]].

Sacred sites that have not been totally demolished, destroyed, or built over include [[Puvunga]], [[Kuruvungna Springs]], and [[Eagle Rock, Los Angeles|Eagle Rock]].

In other cases, toponyms or places have been recently named to honor the Indigenous peoples. The [[Gabrielino Trail]] is a {{Convert|28|mi|adj=on}} path through the [[Angeles National Forest]], created and named in 1970.<ref>{{cite web|quote=several existing trails were renamed to make a 'new' 28.5 mile trail in 1970|url=http://www.adamspackstation.com/facilities.html#gabrielino|title=adamspackstation.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070108212148/http://www.adamspackstation.com/facilities.html|archive-date=2007-01-08 }}</ref>

A {{Convert|2,656|ft|adj=on}} summit in the [[Verdugo Mountains]], in [[Glendale, California|Glendale]], was named Tongva Peak in 2002, following a proposal by Richard Toyon.<ref>{{cite news|first=Carol|last=Chambers|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-aug-13-me-33740-story.html|title=One Man's Crusade to Take a Peak Into History|archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20111207161248/http://articles.latimes.com/2001/aug/13/local/me-33740 |archive-date=2011-12-07|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|url-status=live|date=13 August 2001}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|quote=In September of 2002, Mr. Toyon was successful in lobbying congress in Washington, D.C., and in Sacramento, to persuade the U.S. Geological Survey to officially name a prominent peak in the Verdugo Mountains, Tongva Peak, in honor of the first people of the Los Angeles basin. Later that year, the peak was dedicated and the plaque that names the mountain sits imbedded in a boulder on the summit of Tongva Peak in perpetuity. |url=http://www.tera90041.org/archives/elett1-6-06.htm|title=TERA (The Eagle Rock Association)|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426025446/http://www.tera90041.org/archives/elett1-6-06.htm |archive-date=2012-04-26|date=January 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tera90041.org/archives/elett1-14-06.htm |title=TERA e.letter 01-14-2006 |access-date=2011-12-06 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426025456/http://www.tera90041.org/archives/elett1-14-06.htm |archive-date=2012-04-26 }}</ref>

[[Tongva Park]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.smciviccenterparks.com/site/|title=smciviccenterparks.com|website=www.smciviccenterparks.com|access-date=5 June 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100714020027/http://www.smciviccenterparks.com/site/|archive-date=14 July 2010}}</ref> is a {{Convert|6.2|acre|adj=on}} park in [[Santa Monica, California]]. The park is located just south of Colorado Avenue, between Ocean Avenue and Main Street. The park includes an amphitheater, playground, garden, fountains, picnic areas, and restrooms. The park was dedicated on October 13, 2013.

== Notable people ==
Contemporary Tongva people are listed under their specific groups.
* [[Victoria Reid]] (c. 1809–1868) was a woman from the village of [[Comicranga]] who became a respected landowner in [[Mexican California]], before experiencing a decline in status in white American society. She was married to [[Hugo Reid]]<ref name=":32">{{Cite book |last=Raquel Casas |first=Maria |title=Latina legacies: identity, biography, and community |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |others=Vicki Ruíz, Virginia Sánchez Korrol |isbn=978-0-19-803502-2 |location=New York |pages=19–38 |oclc=61330208}}</ref>
* [[Toypurina]] (1760–1799) was a Gabrieliño medicine woman who opposed the rule of colonization by Spanish missionaries in California, and led an unsuccessful rebellion against them in 1785
* [[Julia Bogany]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=News |url=https://www.tobevisible.org/ |access-date=2024-10-11 |website=To Be Visible |language=en}}</ref> (1948–2021) was a teacher, activist, and member of the Tongva tribe dedicated to the teaching, revitalization, and visibility of Tongva language and culture.
* [[Tonantzin Carmelo]] is a Tongva film and television actress.<ref>{{cite web |last1=CBC News |title=Tongva actor Tonantzin Carmelo says change in roles for Indigenous talent 'a slow drip' |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/lights-camera-oscars-meet-the-creators-decolonizing-hollywood-1.5450603/tongva-actor-tonantzin-carmelo-says-change-in-roles-for-indigenous-talent-a-slow-drip-1.5453238 |website=cbc.ca |publisher=Canadian Broadcast Corporation |access-date=13 December 2024}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Los Angeles|California}}
* [[Bibliography of Los Angeles]]
* [[Outline of the history of Los Angeles]]
* [[Bibliography of California history]]
* [[Chinigchinix]]
* [[Mission Indians]]
* [[:Category:Tongva populated places|Tongva populated places]]

== References ==
;Notes
{{Notelist}}

;Citations
{{Reflist}}

;Works cited 
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book|first=Horatio|last=Hale|title=United States Exploring Expedition: During the Years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1842 Under the Command of Charles Wilkes, U.S.N.. Ethnography and Philology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yRvZM3mN-U4C&pg=PA569|year=1846|publisher=Lea and Blanchard|access-date=June 2, 2019|archive-date=December 27, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227153326/https://books.google.com/books?id=yRvZM3mN-U4C&pg=PA569|url-status=live}}
{{refend}}

;Further reading
{{refbegin}}
* [[Lowell John Bean|Bean, Lowell John]] and Charles R. Smith. 1978. "Gabrielino" in ''Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 8 (California)'', pp.&nbsp;538–549. William C. Sturtevant, and Robert F. Heizer, eds. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. {{ISBN|0160045789|0160045754}}.
* Heizer, Robert F., ed. 1968. ''The Indians of Los Angeles County: Hugo Reid's Letters of 1852.'' Southwest Museum Papers Number 21. Highland Park, Los Angeles.
** [https://memory.loc.gov/service/gdc/calbk/007.pdf Reid, Hugo. (1852), ''The Indians of Los Angeles County''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212161351/https://memory.loc.gov/service/gdc/calbk/007.pdf |date=December 12, 2019 }}, full text available online at Library of Congress
* Johnson, J. R. [https://web.archive.org/web/20100314182734/http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/980/files/sspshp%20ethnohistory.pdf ''Ethnohistory of West S.F. Valley''], CA State Parks, 2006
* Johnston, Bernice Eastman. 1962. [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000624992 ''California's Gabrielino Indians''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220817050719/https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000624992 |date=August 17, 2022 }}. Southwest Museum, Los Angeles.
* {{Cite book| publisher = Washington : G.P.O.| last = Kroeber| first = A. L.| title = Handbook of the Indians of California| series = Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin| access-date = 2018-09-16| date = 1925| url = https://archive.org/details/bulletin781925smit| via = Internet Archive}}
* McCawley, William. 1996. ''The First Angelinos: The Gabrielino Indians of Los Angeles.'' Malki Museum Press, Banning, California. {{ISBN|0-9651016-1-4}}
* Williams, Jack S., ''The Tongva of California'', Library of Native Americans of California, The Rosen Publishing Group, 2003, {{ISBN|978-0-8239-6429-1}}.
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Tongva}}
;Tribal council websites

* Gabrielino Tongva Nation  https://gabrielinotongva.org/
* [https://www.gabrieleno-nsn.us/ San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians]
* [https://www.gabrieleno-nsn.us/ Gabrieleno (Tongva) Band of Mission Indians]
* [http://gabrielino-tongva.com/ Gabrielino / Tongva Nation]
* [https://gabrielenoindians.org/ Kizh Nation]

;Other
* [http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Chumash/Tongva.html Tongva ''(Gabrieliños)'' archives] at UCLA.
* [http://avim.parks.ca.gov/ Antelope Valley Indian Museum]; online collections database; use 'search' to see many Tongva artifacts.
* [http://www.santafesprings.org/depts/community_serv/library/heritage/tongva.asp  Tongva Exhibit, Heritage Park], [[Santa Fe Springs, California]]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090627053054/http://www.santafesprings.org/depts/community_serv/library/heritage/tongva.asp |date=June 27, 2009 }}
* [http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures/lariver/yangna/gabrieleno-tongva-mission-indians.html Gabrieleño-Tongva Mission Indians], KCET
* [https://www.instagram.com/reel/DG4SSFnp-8W/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ== Short video survey of Tongva villages]
{{Tongva villages}}
{{Populations of Native California Groups}}
{{California history}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tongva people}}
[[Category:Tongva| ]]
[[Category:Mission Indians]]
[[Category:Indigenous peoples of California]]
[[Category:History of Los Angeles]]
[[Category:History of Los Angeles County, California]]
[[Category:History of Orange County, California]]
[[Category:San Gabriel, California]]
[[Category:Unrecognized tribes in the United States]]
[[Category:Uto-Aztecan peoples]]