Introduction

You[WE] will not be invisible 

-Julia Bogany, Tongva Elder

The Native American community before 1771 had their language, customs, ceremonies, religion, and way of life. Earth was respected and honored for its resources and beauty.  The animals, water, trees, rocks, hills, and mountains were a tribute to their existence.

Spain ordered its missionaries and military escorts to occupy Native ancestral land in 1769 under the authority of the Laws of the Indies. It was now claimed as the Provincia de las Californias Nueva Espana-Province of Californias New Spain.  Some of the provisions in these Laws stated that the “Indians” would be treated with respect and that no harm should be inflicted upon their leaders and women. Their land would be returned within a decade after training in agriculture, trades, and Christian doctrine. Compliance with these provisions was under the control of the missionaries and soldiers.

Once Mission San Gabriel was established the Native peoples’ culture began its decline. Baptism meant conversion to European agriculture, religious expression, dress, language, and work ethic. We were called Gabrieleno as if we were adopted, children. There existed mixed feelings of suspicion and admiration for Mission padres and their hype for a new life. Many accepted conversion to Catholic doctrine instructed in unknown languages. Converts were called Neophytes and non-converts were Gentiles. Both classifications of “Gabrieleños” participated in constructing the church building, dormitories, military posts, a jailhouse, and missionary quarters. Many decided to enter the Mission compounds to live and learn about their new existence. Agriculture, animal husbandry, European toolmaking, use of textiles, fabric manufacture, and equestrian skills were learned.

This knowledge came at a devastating exchange. Mission life for neophytes was managed under stringent conditions for work schedules and church attendance. 18th-century missionaries like Junipero Serra, Fermin Lasuen, and Jose Maria Zalvidea believed in strict discipline and paternalistic control. Daily work and religious observance were maintained by the distribution of meager portions of food, clothing, glass beads, music, and parades. Those who refused work assignments or church attendance or fled faced public whippings, humiliation, and detention. Friars kept leather whips (some barbed), chains, shackles, and a jailhouse because the neophyte was under their care and control.   Franciscans preached spiritual well-being above the physical; souls over lives; and labor hardships led to spiritual rehabilitation. Indian dormitories were dens for sexual abuse and diseases. Mission San Gabriel had thousands of land holdings for food production and lease, animals, and pasture.

After 50 years of Spanish rule in “Gabrieleño” ancestral land, hundreds of Native people were converted to Catholicism and thousands died from epidemic diseases. Stress and culture shock caused tribal disintegration and the collapse of intergroup alliances. Tribal lands became occupied by immigrants from the Anza and Rivera Expeditions. Many Indigenous Peoples from Mission San Gabriel adapted to those conditions and learned new skills to survive. But several hundred suffered from depression, malnourishment, and a sense of hopelessness.

Spain was expelled from California in 1821 and the new government was the Mexican Republic. It continued to grant large acres of tribal land called Ranchos to retired soldiers, politicians, and private citizens. During its administration, “Mission Indians” were emancipated from clergy authority through the Secularization Act. Many fled to mountain communities, El Pueblo de Los Angeles, or to the ranchos. Several were employed as ranch hands, domestic servants, and field workers. Others remained in the Mission San Gabriel area where descendants are residing today, including this writer. We continued to survive.  

The Native landscape dramatically changed because thousands of herds of horses, cattle, and sheep needed grasses for grazing. Non-indigenous crops were planted. The loss of cultural resources continued to adversely impact the Native lifestyle. Meanwhile, the landowners, the rancheros, needed a workforce to manage the land. Indians were employed as herdsmen, horsemen, household servants, and cooks. Although the relationship was often that of lord and vassal, settler-colonists intermarried with Indigenous Peoples. In some events, rancheros were godparents to Native infants and adults. We continued to adapt and survive.  

Indians who came to the Pueblo of Los Angeles met a restricted experience. It was governed by a local council (ayuntamiento) with rules of conduct. The council ordered Indians to be housed in a segregated district. Work was available as house servants to the pobladores (immigrant settlers) who founded the Pueblo. Private landowners planted large vineyards for product export and local consumption. They hired neophytes and gentiles as field workers. Non-indigenous entrepreneurs opened competing unregulated saloons. Consumption abuse of their products caused alcoholism, mayhem, homicides, and physical violence against and amongst the Indian community. As the pueblo expanded, Indians from other tribes migrated to the area for work and pleasure. Daily life, in general, consisted of work, alcohol, idleness, violence, gambling, and death. We adapted and survived. 

When the Mexican-American War ended in 1848, none of the Articles in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo expressed relief for Indigenous Peoples. For example, citizenship was not granted. The U.S. Government sent commissioners to negotiate treaties of peace and friendship, including with the Gabrieleño. These treaties provided about nine million acres of land for Indians. But the California Legislature at the time opposed their ratification recognizing the value of the land. The U.S. Senate rejected the treaties. Some tribes were relocated to reservations. Gabrieleños were invited to relocate to the Tejon Reserve in another county, but they refused to leave their homelands

Sometime in the mid-1800s, the term Gabrielino surfaced. It may have been coined by ethnographers, historians, or other investigators who could not pronounce the Spanish term. in the early twentieth-century, C. Hart Merriam, an ethnographer, interviewed a Tongva woman raised in San Gabriel and asked her what the Gabrieleños called themselves. She replied, “Tongva.” Other Native terms have been reported. In 1984 the State of California Joint Assembly recognized the Gabrielino as the aboriginal tribe of the Los Angeles Basin. There are several placenames spelled differently honoring our tribe: Tujunga, Cahuenga, Cucamonga, Pomona, Anaheim, and Azusa. There are also parks named for the tribe. We have a high school in our name. Land Acknowledgment Statements have been adopted by the Academy of Motion Pictures Museum, educational institutions, and other organizations. Archaeology sites have reported the tribe’s existence for thousands of years. The tribe is aggressively pursuing federal recognition.

One of the Gabrielino concepts of cosmology was that Tovaangar was the world where humans existed, therefore, the Tongva are “people from the earth.”

We are the TONGVA-united as Survivors