The Tongva (/ˈtɒŋvə/ TONG-və) are an Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately 4,000 square miles (10,000 km2). Some descendants of the people prefer Kizh as an endonym that, they argue, is more historically accurate. 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. During colonization, the Spanish referred to these people as Gabrieleño and Fernandeño, names derived from the Spanish missions built on their land: Mission San Gabriel Arcángel and Mission San Fernando Rey de España. Tongva is the most widely circulated endonym, used by Narcisa Higuera in 1905 to refer to inhabitants in the vicinity of Mission San Gabriel.
Four organizations have claimed to represent the people:
- the Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe, known as the “hyphen” group from the hyphen in their name;
- the Gabrielino/Tongva Tribe, known as the “slash” group;
- the Kizh Nation (Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians); and
- the Gabrieleño/Tongva Tribal Council.
TONGVA CREATOR GOD
ALL-SINGING, ALL-DANCING CREATOR GOD OF THE TONGVA
In the beginning was chaos. Then along came Quaoar with a spring in his step and a song in his heart. He danced and whirled and sang the Song of Creation, and thus the Universe began. First to be created was Weywot, God of the Sky. He joined in the dance routine and helped to create Chehooit, Goddess of the Earth. With complicated three-part harmonies now possible, the song grew ever more creative — so Tamit the Sun and Moar the Moon soon popped into existence. For a grand finale, the quintet sang into being plants, animals, people, stars, paperclips, clouds, agoraphobia, comets and everything else that exists. Not forgetting further deities Manisar, Manit, Pamit, Tolmalok and Tukupar Itar. And the audience roared. His work done, Quaoar settled back for a well-earned rest. They don’t write songs like that anymore.
The Tongva (or Gabrielinos) were the people who canoed out to greet Spanish explorer Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo upon his arrival off the shores of Santa Catalina and San Pedro in 1542. Cabrillo declined their invitation to come ashore and visit. Their original name having been lost to cultural assimilation into Spanish and Mexican culture, they came to be called Gabrielinos because of their close association with the Mission San Gabriel. They once inhabited all of Los Angeles County and northern parts of Orange County. There were an estimated 5,000 Tongva in the region when the first Spanish settlers arrived in 1781. There are 31 known sites believed to have been Tongva villages, each having had as many as 400 to 500 huts. Hereditary chieftains who wielded almost total authority over the community led the villages. Tongva communities and culture fell into a rapid decline with the arrival of the Mission de San Gabriel in 1771. Many of the Tongva joined the mission (and the Missions San Fernando and San Juan Capistrano) and, upon their conversions, were compelled to abandon their villages and culture. It was their association with the Mission San Gabriel that gave the Tongva their Europeanized name Gabrielino. By the time the first American settlers arrival in the Los Angeles area in 1841, Tongva survivors were scattered and working at subsistence level on Mexican land grants. Disease further decimated the Tongva population. Today, it is estimated that a few hundred to a few thousand Tongva still live in California.
Gabrielino Legends, Myths, and Stories (Kizh, Tongva)
GABRIELINO MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES
Quaoar (also spelled Kwawar Qua-o-ar, Quaguar, or Kwa’uwar)
The Gabrielino creator god, who created the other gods and later the world by singing and dancing them into existence. His name means “Creator” and is pronounced similar to quah-o-arr. He is equivalent to Chungichnish, the creator god of the neighboring Luiseno and Juaneno tribes, and indeed the Gabrielinos occasionally refer to Quaoar by his Luiseno-Juaneno name (and vice versa.)
Sky Coyote (Tukupar Itar, in the Tongva language)
Coyote is the trickster hero of the Gabrielino tribe. As in many Native American traditions of the Southwest, Gabrielino stories about Coyote range from light-hearted tales of mischief and buffoonery to more serious stories in which Coyote helps mankind.
Tolmalok (also spelled Tolmolak)
Some websites identify Tolmalok as another name for Coyote, but this is an error. Tolmalok is the name of the Gabrielino goddess of the underworld.
Weywot
Sky Father, the Tongva god of the sky. He was the first of Quaoar’s creations.
Chehooit
Earth Mother, the Tongva earth goddess.
Tamit and Moar
The sun and moon, respectively.
Manisar
The Gabrielino goddess of the harvest.
Tobohar and Pahavit (sometimes spelled Pabavit)
The first man and woman.
GABRIELINO INDIAN STORIES
About Quaoar
Summary of the Tongva myth of creation.
Mythology of the Mission Indians
Collection of Tongva and other Mission Indian myths and legends.
Mythology of Southern California
Early 20th-century collection of Gabrielino and other California Indian legends.
Since time immemorial, we the Tongva People have inhabited the 4,000+ square mile region we call Tovangar, known today as the Greater Los Angeles Basin. Our natural, ancestral boundaries are from the Santa Susanna Mountains to the North, Aliso Creek to the South, the San Bernardino Mountains to the East, and the Pacific Ocean to the West, including the four channel islands of Santa Catalina, San Clemente, Santa Barbara, and San Nicolas. It was October 8, 1542, when Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo noted in his log his description of the “Bay of Smokes” (San Pedro Bay). Over two hundred years later, on August 2, 1769, Captain Gaspar de Portolá and his contingent of men, camped in Yaang’na (Los Angeles). Both groups encountered the Tongva People living in the respective areas. In 1771, the Spanish turned their sights to conquer and enslave the Tongva by using them as the slave labor force to build the Misión de San Gabriel Arcángel, giving the Tongva slaves the name of Gabrieleño.
The 18 “lost treaties” enslavement by missionaries and early settlers, government-sponsored genocides against tribal groups, and the notorious 1851 Indian laws (allowing Indian child theft and slavery) are examples of savagery exercised, sponsored or condoned by the State of California. Even California’s judiciary participated in an apartheid-like history of racism. See, e.g., People v. Hall (S.Ct. 1854), which enforced and expanded Section 394 of the Civil Practice Act providing “No Indian or Negro shall be allowed to testify as a witness in any action in which a White person is a party.” Our Supreme Court reasoned, “The evident intention of the Act was to throw around the citizen a protection for life and property, which could only be secured by removing him above the corrupting influences of degraded castes.” When Governor Davis stated that he was ending the abusive chapters of the State’s history towards Indian tribes, by dealing with federally-recognized tribal sovereigns, he was only half right. There are over 50 well-documented Indian tribes that have not been officially recognized by the federal government and have received no assistance from the State. The Gabrielino-Tongva are one of two state-recognized tribes and the best-documented tribe in the State without federal recognition.
Anthropologists today believe that the people known as the Tongva arrived in the Los Angeles basin sometime around 500 BC, eventually displacing other inhabitants. The Spanish first encountered the Tongva in 1542, when Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo made landfall. Even though the Tongva inhabited both the mainland and islands, the language and lifestyle of these people was very similar. One of the major differences among island and mainland groups was that island dwellers mainly hunted sea mammals, while mainland groups hunted mainly terrestrial animals such as deer. One of the most famous Tongva was Toypurina, a medicine woman who led a revolt against the Spanish in 1785. The revolt was put down, and after her trial, Toypurina was sent into exile at Mission San Carlos Borromeo, where she became Christian and married a Spanish soldier. Friar Gerónimo Boscana, a Franciscan stationed at San Gabriel, wrote a famous treatise on Tongva religious practices, known as “Chingichngich.” There are several groups today representing the Tongva people, including the Tongva Band of Mission Indians of San Gabriel, the Tongva (Gabrielino) Indians of California, the Tongva (Gabrielino) Tribe, and the Gabrielino Band of Southern California Indians.
The “San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians” Gabrieleno (Tongva) Band of Mission Indians was exclusively recognized by the State of California in 1994. We have remained an integral part of the Southern California community. Our presence is well documented. Our existence is preserved in records of the three local Catholic Missions and in the records of local cities throughout the Los Angeles and Orange Counties as well as the Southern Channel Islands. We have cultural and historic sites located throughout the County. Our office still remains near the San Gabriel Mission. The Gabrieleno (Tongva) Band of Mission Indians is the first and only state recognized tribe in the Los Angeles area. Our lineage is dated back before the time of the California missions. The first part of our name “Gabrieleno” comes from the term the Spainiards gave us while we worked and lived as slaves in the San Gabriel Mission. The second part of our name, Tongva, comes from our native language. We recognize both parts of our name as homage to our ancestors who lived in and out of the San Gabriel mission. We are the first Angelenos, and we are here!
Indigenous Peoples Literature 