The Tongva ( /ˈtɒŋvə/ tong-və), also referred to as the Gabrieleño (also Gabrielino, or San Gabriel Band) or the Fernandeño (also Fernardino), are a historic Native American people who have inhabited an area in present-day Los Angeles in Southern California, centered on the San Gabriel Mountains area. Their Tongva language was a member of the Takic group within the Uto-Aztecan linguistic phylum. It was extinct during the early 20th century.
The name Gabrieleño is in reference to the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel set up by the Spanish colonists in 1771. Similarly, the Spanish referred to both the Tongva in the San Fernando Valley and the nearby Tataviam people, who spoke a different language, as Fernandeño, after the Mission San Fernando Rey de España. The name Tongva was first recorded as a self-designation of the inhabitants of the vicinity of Mission San Gabriel at the beginning of the 20th century. There is no known self-designation from times predating the 20th century.[1]
While Gabrieleño (also Gabrielino) remains in use, the name Tongva has become increasingly preferred as a self-designation since the 1990s. Since 2006, there have been three organizations claiming to represent the Tongva: The Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe (gabrielinotribe.org), also known as the "hyphen" group, the Gabrieliño/Tongva Nation Tribal Council (tongvatribe.net), also known as the "slash" group, and the Gabrieleño/Tongva Tribal Council of San Gabriel (tongva.com). The three groups are the result of a hostile split over the question of building a casino. The Gabrieleno/Tongva Tribal Council of San Gabriel on their website give a translation of Tongva as "people of the earth".[2]
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The territory which in historical times was occupied by the Tongva had been inhabited since at least 8,000 years ago. A prehistoric milling area estimated to be 8,000 years old was discovered in 2006 at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains near Azusa, California. The find yielded arrowheads, hearths and stone slabs used to grind seeds as well as tools and implements, but no human or animal bones.[3] In 2007 and early 2008, over 174 ancient American Indian remains were unearthed by archaeologists at a development site of Brightwater Hearthside Homes in the Bolsa Chica Mesa area in Orange County, California. This land was once shared by both the Tongva and Acjachemem. The site was in legal limbo for years before Heartside was given permission to start construction of over 300 homes. Both Tongva and Acjachemem Indians are in dispute over the remains and how to handle them.[4]
As part of the Uto-Aztecan phylum, the remote ancestors of the Tongva probably originated in the Sonoran Desert, between roughly 3,000 and 5,000 years ago.[5]
The diversity within the Takic group is "moderately deep", rough estimates by comparative linguists placing the breakup of common Takic into the Luiseño-Juaneño on one hand and the Tongva-Serrano on the other at about 2,000 years ago (comparable to the diversity of the Romance languages of Europe).[6] The separation of the Tongva-Serrano group into a Tongva people separate from the Serrano people is more recent, and possibly a result of Spanish missionary activity.
The first Europeans arrived in the Los Angeles area in 1542, when Portuguese explorer Juan Cabrillo reached San Pedro Bay, near present-day San Pedro. Cabrillo states that his ship was greeted by indigenous people in canoes.
The Mission San Gabriel Arcángel was established in 1771. The Tongva/Gabrielino population numbered about 5,000 at this time.[7] Well over 25,000 baptisms were conducted at San Gabriel between 1771 and 1834. The earliest ethnological surveys of the Christianized population of the San Gabriel area, by then known as Gabrielino, were conducted in the mid-19th century. By this time, the pre-Christian religious beliefs and mythology were already fading, and the Tongva language was on the brink of extinction by 1900, so that only fragmentary records of the indigenous language and culture of the Tongva have been preserved.
Along with the Chumash, their neighbors to the north and west, the Tongva are among the few New World peoples who regularly navigated along the Pacific coast. They built seaworthy canoes, called ti'at, using planks that were sewn together, edge to edge, and then caulked and coated with either pine pitch, or, more commonly, the tar that was available either from the La Brea Tar Pits, or as asphaltum that had washed up on shore from offshore oil seeps. The titi'at could hold as many as 12 people, their gear and the trade goods which they carried to trade with other people along the coast or on the Channel Islands.
The library of Loyola Marymount University, located in Los Angeles (Westchester), has an extensive collection of archival materials related to the Tongva and their history.
Currently there are an estimated 1,500 people self-identifying as members of the Tongva or Gabreilino tribe.
In 1994, the state of California recognized the Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe (Spanish: Tribu de Gabrieleño-Tongva) and the Fernandino-Tongva Tribe (Spanish: Tribu de Fernandeño-Tongva), but neither has gained federal recognition.
There is no single organization accepted by the Gabrielino/Tongva Nation. This is largely because of a controversy regarding the opening of a casino on land that would be considered part of the Gabrielino/Tongva's homeland. 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 and sharing of revenues to all tribal members. The Gabrielino/Tongva Tribal Council of San Gabriel is the primary faction that does not support gaming for its members. None of the organizations are recognized by the federal government.
The Gabrieleno/Tongva Tribal Council of San Gabriel claims more than 300 enrolled members.
In 1994, the Gabrielino/Tongva of San Gabriel filed for federal recognition. Other Gabrielino groups have done the same. The Gabrielino/Tongva of California Tribal Council and the Coastal Gabrielino-Diegueno Band of Mission Indians filed in 1997. These applications for federal recognition remain pending. The San Gabriel group received nonprofit status with the state of California in 1994.
In 2001, the San Gabriel council broke apart over concessions given to the developers of Playa Vista and a proposal to build an Indian casino in Compton, California. A Santa Monica faction (parents of the "slash" and "hyphen" groups) was formed which advocated gaming for the tribe. The San Gabriel council and Santa Monica faction sued each other over allegations that the San Gabriel faction removed members to increase shares for other members and that tribal records were stolen in order for the Santa Monica faction to gain federal recognition.[8] The Santa Monica faction advocated the building of a casion, while the San Gabriel faction was opposed to it.
The Santa Monica faction then fell apart in its turn in September 2006, into the "slash" and "hyphen" groups, as tribal secretary Sam Dunlap and tribal attorney Jonathan Stein confronted each other over various alleged fiscal improprieties and derogatory comments made to each other.[9] Since that point, the slash group has hired former state senator Richard Polanco to be its chief executive officer, while the hyphen group has allied with Stein and issued warrants for the arrest of Polanco and members of the hyphen group.[10]
Stein's group (hyphen), which is based in Santa Monica, has proposed a casino to be built in Garden Grove, California, approximately two miles south of Disneyland.[11] In September 2007, the city council of Garden Grove unanimously rejected the casino proposal, instead choosing to build a water park on the land.[12]
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 have improved respect of indigenous rights and tribal sovereignty, but conflicts between the Tongva and the rapidly expanding population of Los Angeles have often required resolution in the courts. Sometimes developers have inadvertently disturbed Tongva burial grounds.[13] The tribe complained about archeologists breaking bones of ancestral remains found during an excavation of a site at Playa Vista.[14] An important resolution was finally honored at the Playa Vista project site against the 'Westchester Bluffs' near the Ballona Wetlands estuary and by the historic natural course of Ballona Creek.
In the 1990s, the Gabrielino/Tongva Springs Foundation revived use of the Kuruvungna Springs for sacred ceremonies. The natural spring is located on the site of a former Tongva village, now developed as the campus of University High School in West Los Angeles. The Tongva consider the spring, which flows at 22,000 gallons per day, to be one of their last remaining sacred sites and they regularly make it the centerpiece of ceremonial events.
Controversy had arisen over uses of the area the Tongva call Puvungna. They have believed it is the birthplace of the Tongva prophet 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 the grounds of California State University, Long Beach. A portion of Puvungna, a burial ground on the western edge of the campus, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Since 1992, developers have repeatedly attempted to build a strip mall in the area. The Tongva petitioned the courts for relief, which blocked the development.
Tongva/Gabrieliño/Fernandeño oral literature is relatively little known, due to their early (1770s) Christianization 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 and the Cahuilla.[15]
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). Another important figure is Weywot, variously identified as a sky god or as a son of the Earth. 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 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.[16]
Astronomers have used the name of Quaoar, to name a large object in the Kuiper belt, 50000 Quaoar (2002), and the name of Weywot to name its satellite (2009).
Tongva place names continue to be used in California. Examples include: Pacoima, Tujunga, Topanga, Rancho Cucamonga, Azusa, and Cahuenga Pass.
The Gabrielino Trail is a 28-mile path through the Angeles National Forest, created in 1970.[17] A 2,656-foot summit in the Verdugo Mountains, in Glendale, has been named Tongva Peak in 2002, following a proposal by one Richard Toyon.[18]
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