Editing Tongva (section)

=== Material culture ===
[[File:California, Southern, Gabrielino (San Gabriel, Mission or Tongva), Late 19t - Bowl - 1929.267 - Cleveland Museum of Art.jpg|thumb|280x280px|Tongva basket or bowl was created in the late 19th or early 20th century]]
Tongva [[material culture]] and technology reflected a sophisticated knowledge of the working properties of natural materials and a highly developed artisanship, shown in many articles of everyday utility decorated with shell inlay, carving, and painting.<ref name="PeregrineEmber2012">{{cite book|editor1=Peter N. Peregrine|editor2=Melvin Ember|title=Encyclopedia of Prehistory: Volume 6: North America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oHAQBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA301|year=2012|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-1-4615-0523-5|page=301|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227051251/https://books.google.com/books?id=oHAQBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA301|archive-date=December 27, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Most of these items, including baskets, shell tools, and wooden weapons, were extremely perishable. [[Steatite|Soapstone]] from quarries on Catalina Island was used to make cooking implements, animal carvings, pipes, ritual objects, and ornaments.<ref name="BeanSmith1978542">{{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=542|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>

Using the stems of rushes (''[[Juncus]]'' sp .), grass (''[[Muhlenbergia rigens]]''), and squawbush (''[[Rhus trilobata]]''), women fabricated coiled and twined basketry in a three-color pattern for household use, seed collecting, and ceremonial containers to hold grave offerings.<ref name="BeanSmith1978542" /> They sealed some baskets, such as water bottles, with asphalt to make watertight containers for holding liquids.<ref name="BrajeErlandson,Timbrook2005">{{cite journal |author1=Todd J. Braje |author2=Jon Erlandson |author3=Jan Timbrook |title=An Asphaltum Coiled Basket Impression, Tarring Pebbles, and Middle Holocene Water Bottles from San Miguel Island, California |journal=Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology |date=2005 |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=207–213 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261777645|jstor=27825804 }}</ref>

The Tongva used the leaves of [[Schoenoplectus acutus|tule]] reeds as well as those of [[Typha latifolia|cattails]] to weave mats and thatch their shelters.<ref name="Fortier2009" />

Living in the mild climate of southern California, the men and children usually went nude, and women wore only a two-piece skirt, the back part being made from the flexible inner bark of cottonwood or willow, or occasionally deerskin. The front apron was made of cords of twisted dogbane or milkweed. People went barefoot except in rough areas where they wore crude sandals made of yucca fiber.<ref name="Malinowski1998">{{cite book|last=Malinowski|first=Sharon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CEb0x7tu9c0C&q=%22yucca%20fiber%20sandals%22|title=The Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes: California, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Islands|publisher=Gale|year=1998|isbn=978-0-7876-1089-0|page=67|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223043135/https://books.google.com/books?id=CEb0x7tu9c0C&q=%22yucca%20fiber%20sandals%22|archive-date=December 23, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> In cold weather, they wore robes or capes made from twisted strips of rabbit fur, deer skins, or bird skins with the feathers still attached. Also used as blankets at night, these were made of sea otter skins along the coast and on the islands.<ref name="BeanSmith1978541">{{cite book|author1=Lowell John Bean|url=https://planning.lacity.org/eir/CrossroadsHwd/deir/files/references/D14.pdf|title=Handbook of North American Indians: California|author2=Charles R. Smith|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|year=1978|editor-last1=Heizer|editor-first1=Robert F.|volume=8|page=541|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> “Women were tattooed from cheek to shoulder blade, from elbow to shoulder,” with cactus thorns used as needles and charcoal dust rubbed into the wounds as “ink,” leaving a blue-gray mark under the skin after the wounds healed.<ref name="getze1964" />