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NATIVE AMERICANS
The History of the
TONGVA
The Tongva occupied an
area that is now covered by Los Angeles County and parts of Orange
County The area extended to Aliso Creek and to southwestern San
Bernardino County. They also occupied the southern Channel Islands:
Santa Catalina, San Nicholas, San Clemente, and possibly Santa Barbara
Island. The Tongva and the Chumash were the two most populous and
powerful groups in Southern California. Many Tongva village sites
existed in the Los Angeles basin. Tongva people still live in the Los
Angeles area. They are often referred to as "Gabrielino" because they
were taken by the Spanish to the San Gabriel Mission in the late 18th
century.
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Pictographs of
the Tongva or Gabrielino people are very rare today. Many rock art
sites have been destroyed by the development of Greater Los
Angeles. There are paintings at a few sites in the San Gabriel
Mountains and in the northwestern part of the San Fernando Valley.
This example looks similar to Luiseno pictographs because of the
diamond patterns and wavy lines. The purpose and function of the
Tongva rock art was similar to the Luiseno. |
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Perhaps the young women also painted
these symbols during their puberty ceremony. Because this site is
not public, and not protected, the location is not revealed. |
The Tongva spoke a Takic Uto-Aztecan (Shoshonean) language. The
neighboring tribes, Cahuilla, Serrano, Luiseno, Juaneno, and
Fernandeno, spoke different Takic languages.
Because of the mild climate in Southern California, women wore
only a two-piece skirt. The back part was made from the soft inner
bark of cottonwood or willow, or sometimes deerskin. The front
piece was made of many cords of twisted dog bane or milkweed. In
cold weather, men, women, and children wore a robe or blanket made
from twisted strips of rabbit fur woven together with milkweed or
yucca fiber twine. Robes were also made from deer skins. Along the
coast and on the Islands, robes were made of sea otter skins.
People went barefoot except in rough country when they wore
sandals made of yucca fiber. Everyone took a daily early morning
bath. Women used red ocher to protect their faces from sunburn and
for decoration. Men and women tattooed their faces with
interesting designs. Men wore their hair long and sometimes pinned
it up with a cane or bone hairpin. Women left their hair long with
bangs over their forehead. Clay was used to clean and strengthen
the hair. It was applied, left to dry, and then brushed out.
Ornaments were made of strings of shell beads, steatite, and
whalebone. Men wore cane earrings. Children usually went without
clothes.
Food was abundant. Men generally were the hunters of meat, sea
mammals, and fish. The Tongva and Chumash had ocean-going wood
plank canoes.
Women gathered plants, seeds, and shell fish. Food crops were not
planted, but existing plants were cultivated and weeded. In the
inland areas, tons of acorns were gathered, stored, ground,
leached of tannic acid, and then cooked into a mush or soup.
Bedrock mortars and portable mortars, metates, and manos were used
to grind seeds and acorns.
The people made brushes of yucca root, dippers from gourds, plates
and bowls from wood, and shallow bowls from abalone shells. No
pottery was made, but steatite, or soapstone, was quarried on
Catalina Island. Steatite was carved into pots or flat pans.
Coiled and twined baskets of various sizes and shapes were made.
Huge cone-shaped carrying baskets were used to bring the acorn
harvest back to the village. Tightly woven water bottles were
coated with asphalt.
Houses were dome shaped, made by bending and tying willow branches
into shape, then thatched with tule, carrizo, or grass. There was
an entrance door and smoke hole in the house.
Each village was autonomous and had its own leader. The leader's
office was hereditary and passed from father to son, or
occasionally, to a daughter. The leader took the name of the
village. He settled all disputes. Retribution was in the form of
shell bead money, food, or animal skins. Murder or incest was
punishable by death. Only the leader was allowed more than one
wife.
A special ceremony was conducted for adolescent girls. The girls
were the center of dancing and singing in their honor. During the
ceremony a sand painting was made depicting the beliefs of the
Tongva. This ceremony gave them the status of adult women in the
tribe.
It was believed that after death important people became stars in
the sky, and ordinary people went to the underworld to dance and
feast. The dead were cremated with their possessions.
The Tongva were the originators of a new religion which was
prevalent in California at the time of the Spanish contact.
Chungichnish, the deity of this religion, was born at Puvungna, a
Tongva village which was located at the site of Rancho Los
Alamitos near Long Beach.
Some rock art sites in the San Gabriel Mountains and in the
northwestern San Fernando Valley were used by the Tongva.
Source: Puvungna Educational
Materials Regarding the Native Southern Californians In and Around
the Long Beach Area , Diane Roe, published by the Rancho Los
Alamitos Foundation, Long Beach, CA 90815, 1993.
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