About the Gabrielino-Tongva Bibliography

As part of its commitment to highlighting Indigenous voices and perspectives in its collections, the William H. Hannon Library received in December 2021 an Inclusive Excellence Grant from Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to publish a new open educational resource: a digital bibliography of published and archival resources on the Gabrielino-Tongva tribe.

The project builds upon an earlier printed version of the bibliography to promote wider dissemination of Gabrielino-Tongva-centric resources and scholarship. Grant funds were used for student editorial and research support, and to engage an expert from the Gabrielino-Tongva Nation to review and write introductions for the bibliography.

The first edition of the bibliography was compiled in the late 1970s by Mary LaLone, a student at UCLA’s Graduate School of Library Science, and published in 1980 as Occasional Paper 6 of the UCLA Institute of Archaeology. It immediately became an essential resource for students, scholars, and community members researching Gabrielino-Tongva history. Later, former Von der Ahe Library director Edward Evans, Ph.D., supervised the preparation of an updated bibliography. In 2002, the library published an updated version of a comprehensive bibliography of publications on the Tongva Indians.[1] In 2015, Librarian-in-Residence Katherine Donaldson assessed and updated the 2002 bibliography and began the process of migrating the resources into a Group Library on the open-source bibliographic management platform Zotero, but the update was not made public. Between 1976-2002, the bibliography grew from 182 items to over 600.

When reflecting upon the subject index of the previous editions of the bibliography, we recognized they were indicative of the archaeological and anthropological assumptions through which academia historically examined indigeneity, which centers the experience and voices of non-Indigenous researchers and scholars. The updated Gabrielino-Tongva Bibliography adapts the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) classification plan, developed to support land rights research and environmental/ecological knowledge materials in British Columbia.[2] By adapting the UBCIC plan, the organization of the bibliography centers an Indigenous worldview and recognizes the current state of Indigenous rights.

The new edition includes chapters on Gabrielino-Tongva Governance and Tribal Membership and Status; and Gabrielino-Tongva protests, activism, and political movements, which highlight Gabrielino-Tongva political activities, especially the efforts for federal recognition. In addition, we developed a chapter called “Non-Indigenous Land Use” listing publications about protests at construction sites throughout Southern California on Gabrielino-Tongva land. The updated bibliography also contains resources beyond those in the William H. Hannon Library, with links to the Autry Museum of the American West, California State University system, University of California system, and the Huntington Library to create a robust, expanded list for readers to take their research across a diverse array of collections.

Presently, the updated Gabrielino-Tongva Bibliography contains over 1,000 citations. The team collaborated with Edgar Perez, tribal historian and member of the Gabrielino-Tongva Nation, who provided feedback on additional research topics and resources. New citations include conference recordings, television, radio and podcast interviews, and digital scholarship projects approved by Gabrielino-Tongva community members. We also include links to sources on the 2011 protests over excavations in downtown Los Angeles. Overall, we sought to highlight the labor and voices of Gabrielino-Tongva activists, artists, and educators and provide space for researchers to locate those resources, but we recognize this work is not complete. By publishing this bibliography with an open license and making it freely available, we are extending an invitation to Gabrielino-Tongva community members, students, and scholars both locally and globally to adapt and continue to improve this research tool.

This project is led by Jessea Young, scholarly communications librarian, with support from Jamie Hazlitt, associate dean at the William H. Hannon Library and Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) Open Education Leadership Fellow, and Nicolas G. Rosenthal, professor of history and a specialist in California and Indigenous history. Hannon Library student assistants, Micah Tsukamoto ’23, psychology major and business administration minor, and RC Wright III ’23, history major, provided research and editorial support. The project encapsulates the Hannon Library’s dedication to highlighting and advocating for Indigenous issues through collaborations with students, scholars, and members of Indigenous communities.

[1] Brianne Gillen, G. Edward Evans, and Mary B. LaLone, Gabrielino/Tongva Bibliography (Los Angeles: Loyola Marymount University Library, 2002).

Digital Version: Gillen, Brianne and Evans, G. Edward, “Gabrielino/Tongva Bibliography” (2002). LMU Librarian Publications & Presentations. 144.

[2] Alissa Cherry and Keshav Mukunda, “A Case Study in Indigenous Classification: Revisiting and Reviving the Brian Deer Scheme,” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 53, no. 5–6 (July 4, 2015): 548–67.

Revised from Developing Educational Resources that Highlight Indigenous Voices