The
Tongva (pronounced
/'t??v?/ TONG-v?) are a
Native American people who inhabited the area in and around
Los Angeles, California, before the arrival of
Europeans.
Tongva means "people of the earth" in the
Tongva language, a language in the
Uto-Aztecan family. The Tongva are also sometimes referred to as the
Gabrieleño/Tongva (often written "Gabrieleno/Tongva") or
Gabrielino/Tongva tribe. Following the Spanish custom of naming local tribes after nearby missions, they were called the
Gabrieleño,
Gabrielino, or
San Gabrieleño in reference to
Mission San Gabriel Arcangel. Likewise, the nearby
Tataviam people were known as "Fernandeño" after
Mission San Fernando Rey de España.
Along with the Chumash, their neighbors to the north and west, the Tongva are among the few New World peoples who regularly navigated the ocean. 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. These titi'at could hold as many as 12 people and all their gear and all the trade goods they were carrying to trade with other people, either along the coast or on one of the Channel Islands. The Tongva canoed out to greet Spanish explorer Juan Cabrillo when he arrived off the shores of San Pedro in 1542.
Modern place-names with Tongva origins include Pacoima, Tujunga, Topanga, Rancho Cucamonga, Azusa, and Cahuenga Pass.
The name of their creation deity, Quaoar, has been used to name a large object in the Kuiper belt. A 2,656-foot summit in the Verdugo Mountains, in Glendale, has been named Tongva Peak. The Gabrielino Trail is a 28-mile path through the Angeles National Forest.
