Editing Long Beach, California (section)

===Tongva period===
[[File:Puvunga Indian Village Sites.jpg|left|thumb|172x172px|The site of [[Puvunga]] was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1974.]]
[[Native Americans in the United States|Indigenous people]] have lived in coastal Southern California for over 10,000 years, and several successive cultures have inhabited the present-day area of Long Beach. By the 16th-century arrival of Spanish explorers, the dominant group was the [[Tongva]], who had established at least three major settlements within the present-day city. ''Tevaaxa'anga'' was an inland settlement near the [[Los Angeles River]], while ''Ahwaanga'' and ''[[Povuu'nga]]'' were coastal villages.<ref name="tfa">{{Cite book | last = McCawley | first = William | title=The First Angelinos: The Gabrielino Indians of Los Angeles | orig-year = 1952 | edition = Paperback | year=1996 | publisher=Malki Museum Press/Ballena Press | isbn=978-0-9651016-0-8}}</ref> Povuu'nga was particularly important to the Tongva, not only as a regional trading center and hub for fishermen,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Society |first=California Historical |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IIXjAAAAMAAJ |title=California Historical Society Quarterly |date=1966 |publisher=California Historical Society |pages=21–23 |language=en}}</ref> but for its deep ceremonial significance, being understood as their place of emergence as a people from which their lives began.<ref name=":6">{{Cite news |last1=Greene |first1=Sean |last2=Curwen |first2=Thomas |date=May 9, 2019 |title=Mapping the Tongva villages of L.A.'s past |newspaper=LA Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-tongva-map/ |access-date=June 19, 2019}}</ref>