Editing Tongva (section)

=== Food culture ===
[[File:Salvia-columbariae-seeds.jpg|left|thumb|233x233px|Chia (''[[salvia columbariae]])'' seeds are integral to the Tongva diet.]]
In the Tongva economic system, food resources were managed by the village chief, who was given a portion of the yield of each day's hunting, fishing, or gathering to add to the communal food reserves. Individual families stored some food to be used in times of scarcity. Villages were located in places with accessible drinking water, protection from the elements, and productive areas where different [[ecological niche]]s on the land intersected. Situating their villages at these resource islands enabled the Tongva to gather the plant products of two or more zones in close proximity.<ref name="EnvironmentalImpact2004" />

Households consisted of a main house (''kiiy'') and temporary camp shelters used during food-gathering excursions. In the summer, families who lived near grasslands collected roots, seeds, flowers, fruit, and leafy greens, and in the winter families who lived near chaparral shrubland collected nuts and acorns, yucca, and hunted deer. The group used “wooden tongs” to collect prickly pear fruits.<ref name="layersoftime1964">Getze, George. "Layers of Time Reveal Legends of Southland Missions and Indians: Time Layers Tell Legends of Southland." ''Los Angeles Times'', Jan 12, 1964, p. 2.</ref>

Some prairie communities moved to the coast in the winter to fish, hunt whales and [[elephant seal]]s, and harvest shellfish. Those villages located on the coast during the summer went on food collecting trips inland during the winter rainy season to gather roots, tubers, [[corm]]s, and bulbs of plants including cattails, lilies, and wild onions.<ref name="King1987">{{cite journal|author1=Chester King|date=1987|title=Ethnohistoric Reconstruction of Subsistence-Settlement Systems in the Vicinity of Burton Mesa|url=https://www.academia.edu/37558753|page=10|access-date=7 July 2019|archive-date=September 14, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914214054/https://www.academia.edu/37558753|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Fortier2009">{{cite journal|author1=Jana Fortier|date=March 2009|title=Native American Consultation and Ethnographic Study, Ventura County, California|url=https://www.academia.edu/418550|page=15|access-date=7 July 2019|website=Academia.edu|archive-date=June 5, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220605140252/https://www.academia.edu/418550|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Tongva did not practice horticulture or agriculture, as their well-developed hunter-gatherer and trade economy provided adequate food resources.<ref>{{cite book|title=Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbors Channel Improvements: Environmental Impact Statement|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oj00AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA13|year=1984|page=13|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191225095013/https://books.google.com/books?id=Oj00AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA13|archive-date=December 25, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Gumprecht2001">{{cite book|first=Blake|last=Gumprecht|title=The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2ftBJpp7aIoC&pg=PA32|date= 2001|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-6642-5|page=32|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191228154447/https://books.google.com/books?id=2ftBJpp7aIoC&pg=PA32|archive-date=December 28, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Loewe2016">{{cite book|first=Ronald|last=Loewe|title=Of Sacred Lands and Strip Malls: The Battle for Puvungna|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xIrpDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA20|year=2016|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=978-0-7591-2162-1|page=20|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191230205752/https://books.google.com/books?id=xIrpDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA20|archive-date=December 30, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> The bread was made from the yellow pollen of cattail heads, and the underground [[rhizomes]] were dried and ground into a starchy meal.<ref name="King1987" /><ref name="Fortier2009" /> The young shoots were eaten raw.<ref>Fortier 2009, p. 46</ref> The seeds of [[Salvia columbariae|chia]], a herbaceous plant of the sage family, were gathered in large quantities when they were ripe. The flower heads were beaten with a paddle over a tightly woven basket to collect the seeds. These were dried or roasted and ground into a flour called "pinole," which was often mixed with the flour of other ground seeds or grains. Water was added to make a cooling drink; mixing with less water yielded a kind of porridge that could be baked into cakes.<ref name="Reid1968">{{cite book|last=Reid|first=Hugo|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b59340&view=1up&seq=25|title=The Indians of Los Angeles County: Hugo Reid's Letters of 1852|year=1926|location=Los Angeles|pages=11–12|orig-year=1852|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-date=September 14, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914214050/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b59340&view=1up&seq=25|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="McCawley1996129">{{cite book|last=McCawley|first=William|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DZAOAQAAMAAJ|title=The First Angelinos: The Gabrielino Indians of Los Angeles|publisher=Malki Museum Press|year=1996|isbn=978-0-9651016-0-8|pages=129–130|access-date=June 17, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191228154448/https://books.google.com/books?id=DZAOAQAAMAAJ|archive-date=December 28, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Acorn mush]] was a staple food as it was of all the [[Mission Indians|Indigenous peoples who were forcibly relocated to missions in Southern California]]. Acorns were gathered in October; this was a communal effort with the men climbing the trees and shaking them while the women and children collected the nuts.<ref name="McCawley1996129" /> The acorns were stored in large wicker [[granaries]] supported by wooden stakes well above the ground. Preparing them for food took about a week. Acorns were placed, one at a time, on end in the slight hollow of a rock and their shells broken by a light blow from a small hammerstone; then the membrane, or skin, covering the acorn meat was removed. Following this process the acorn meats were dried for days,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GU8wAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA11-PA3|title=Indian Education|publisher=Education Division, U.S. Office of Indian Affairs|year=1936|series=1-79|page=3|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207031237/https://books.google.com/books?id=GU8wAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA11-PA3|archive-date=December 7, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> after which the kernels were pounded into a meal with a pestle. This was done in a stone mortar or in a mortar hole in a boulder. Large [[bedrock mortar|bedrock outcroppings]] near oak stands often display evidence of the community mills where the women labored.<ref name="Walker1937" />

The pounded acorn meal was put into baskets and the bitter [[tannic acid]] it contained was leached out to make the meal more palatable and digestible.<ref name="McCawley1996129" /> The prepared meal was cooked by boiling in water in a watertight grass-woven basket or in a soapstone bowl into which heated stones were dropped. Soapstone casseroles were used directly over the fire. Various foods of meat, seeds, or roots were cooked by the same method.<ref name="Walker1937" /> The mush thus prepared was eaten cold or nearly so, as was all their food. Another favored Tongva food was the seed kernel of a species of plum (''[[prunus ilicifolia]]'' (common name: holly-leaf cherry) they called ''islay'', which was ground into meal and made into gruel.<ref name="Reid1968" />

Men performed most of the heavy, short-duration labor; they hunted, fished, helped with some food-gathering, and carried on trade with other cultural groups. Large game animals were hunted with bows and arrows, and small game was taken with [[Trapping#Deadfall traps|deadfall traps]], snares, and bows made of [[Aesculus californica|buckeye]] wood.<ref name="Campbell1999">{{cite book|first=Paul Douglas|last=Campbell|title=Survival Skills of Native California|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qSRLW5ziVFAC&pg=265|year=1999|publisher=Gibbs Smith|isbn=978-0-87905-921-7|page=265|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191229192924/https://books.google.com/books?id=qSRLW5ziVFAC&pg=265|archive-date=December 29, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> John P. Harrington recorded that rattlesnake venom was used as an arrow poison.<ref name="HudsonBlackburn1982">{{cite book|author1=Travis Hudson|author2=Thomas C. Blackburn|title=The Material Culture of the Chumash Interaction Sphere: Food Procurement and Transportation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JpJ0AAAAMAAJ&q=%22rattlesnake%20venom%22|year=1982|publisher=Ballena Press|isbn=978-0-87919-097-2|page=125|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224131001/https://books.google.com/books?id=JpJ0AAAAMAAJ&q=%22rattlesnake%20venom%22|archive-date=December 24, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Burrowing animals were driven from their burrows with smoke and clubbed; communal rabbit drives were made during the seasonal controlled burning of [[chaparral]] on the prairie,<ref name="EnvironmentalImpact2004" /> the rabbits being killed with nets, bow and arrows, and [[throwing stick]]s.<ref name="BeanSmith1978546">{{cite book|author1=Lowell John Bean|author2=Charles R. Smith|editor-first1=Robert F.|editor-last1=Heizer|title=Handbook of North American Indians: California|url=https://planning.lacity.org/eir/CrossroadsHwd/deir/files/references/D14.pdf|volume=8|year=1978|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|page=546|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190709031338/https://planning.lacity.org/eir/CrossroadsHwd/deir/files/references/D14.pdf|archive-date=July 9, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

Harpoons, spear-throwers, and clubs were used to hunt marine mammals and ''te'aat'' used to access them.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Learn |first1=Joshua Rapp |title=In Coastal California, the Tongva Sustainably Hunted Marine Mammals for Centuries |url=https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/in-coastal-california-the-tongva-sustainably-hunted-marine-mammals-for-centuries/ |access-date=23 September 2021 |work=[[Hakai Magazine]] |date=10 September 2021 |archive-date=September 23, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923193215/https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/in-coastal-california-the-tongva-sustainably-hunted-marine-mammals-for-centuries/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Fishing was done from shorelines or along rivers, streams, and creeks with hook and line, nets, basketry traps, spears, bow and arrows, and poisons made from plants. Reciprocity and sharing of resources were important values in Tongva culture. Hugo Reid reported that the hoarding of food supplies was so stigmatized by the Tongva moral code that hunters would give away large portions of coveted foods such as fresh meat, and under some circumstances, were prohibited from eating their own kill or fishermen from eating their own catch.<ref>McCawley 1996, pp. 111, 148</ref><ref name="Fortier2009" />

Women collected and prepared plant and some animal food resources and made baskets, pots, and clothing. In their old age, they and the old men cared for the young and taught them Tongva [[Lifeway#Anthropology and archeology|lifeways]].<ref name="BeanSmith1978546" />