Editing Tongva (section)

=== Before the mission period ===
{{further|Takic languages|Uto-Aztecan|Indigenous peoples of California|Population of Native California|Archaic Southwest}}
[[File:Gabrieleño acorn granary.jpg|thumb|Photograph of a Mission Indian (Gabrieleño) woman filling a granary with acorns, {{Circa|1898}}|235x235px]]

Many lines of evidence suggest that the Tongva are descended from [[Uto-Aztecan languages|Uto-Aztecan]]-speaking peoples who originated in what is now [[Nevada]], and moved southwest into coastal Southern California 3,500 years ago. According to a model proposed by archaeologist Mark Q. Sutton, these migrants either absorbed or pushed out the earlier [[Hokan languages|Hokan]]-speaking inhabitants.<ref name="Sutton2009">{{cite journal|last=Sutton|first=M. Q.|year=2009|title=People and language: Defining the Takic expansion into southern California|url=http://www.pcas.org/assets/documents/Takic.pdf|url-status=live|journal=Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly|volume=41|issue=1–2|page=34|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131103174146/http://www.pcas.org/assets/documents/Takic.pdf|archive-date=3 November 2013|access-date=17 August 2013}}</ref><ref name="Kerr2002">{{cite journal|last1=Kerr|first1=S. L.|last2=Georganna|first2=M. H.|year=2002|title=Population replacement on the Southern Channel Islands: New evidence from San Nicolas Island|url=http://www.mednscience.org/sites/default/files/products/Kerr_Population_Replacement_SNI.pdf|url-status=dead|journal=Proceedings of the Fifth California Islands Symposium|location=Santa Barbara, CA|publisher=Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History|pages=546–554|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904100946/http://www.mednscience.org/sites/default/files/products/Kerr_Population_Replacement_SNI.pdf|archive-date=September 4, 2015|access-date=18 August 2013}}</ref> By 500 AD, one source estimates the Tongva may have come to occupy all the lands now associated with them, although this is unclear and contested among scholars.<ref name="Sutton2009" />

In 1811, the priests of Mission San Gabriel recorded at least four languages; Kokomcar, Guiguitamcar, Corbonamga, and Sibanga. During the same time, three languages were recorded in Mission San Fernando.<ref>{{cite web |title=A Mission Record of the California Indians |url=https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucp008-003.pdf |publisher=University of California Publications |pages=11–12 |date=May 28, 1928 |access-date=June 4, 2022 |archive-date=August 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220806005113/https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucp008-003.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Kroeber |first1=Alfred Louis |title=A Mission Record of the California Indians |year=1910 |publisher=The University Press |url=https://archive.org/details/amissionrecordc01sarrgoog/page/n20/mode/2up}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=A Mission Record of the California Indians |url=https://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/mrci/mrci01.htm |access-date=June 4, 2022 |archive-date=October 20, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191020121449/https://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/mrci/mrci01.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=C. Hart Merriam Papers Relating to Work with California Indians, 1850–1974 (bilk 1898–1938) |url=https://archive.org/details/bancroft_chartmerriam_1556_25 |publisher=Online Archive of California |pages=376–377}}</ref>

Prior to [[Russian colonization of the Americas|Russian]] and [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spanish colonization]] in what is now referred to California, the Tongva were primarily identified by their associated villages ([[Topanga, California|Topanga]], [[Cahuenga, California|Cahuenga]], [[Tujunga, CA|Tujunga]], [[Cucamonga]], etc.) For example, individuals from [[Yaanga]] were known as ''Yaangavit'' among the people (in mission records, they were recorded as ''Yabit'').<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":6">{{Cite book|last=Hernández|first=Kelly Lytle|title=City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, 1771–1965|publisher=UNC Press Books|year=2017|isbn=9781469631196|pages=30–43}}</ref> The Tongva lived in as many as one hundred villages.<ref name=":2" /> One or two clans would usually constitute a village, which was the center of Tongva life.<ref name=":4" />

The Tongva spoke a language of the [[Uto-Aztecan]] family (the remote ancestors of the Tongva probably [[Proto-Uto-Aztecan|coalesced as a people]] in the [[Sonoran Desert]], between perhaps 3,000 and 5,000 years ago). The diversity within the [[Takic languages|Takic]] group is "moderately deep"; rough estimates by comparative linguists place the breakup of common Takic into the [[Luiseño-Juaneño]] on one hand, and the Tongva-[[Serrano language|Serrano]] on the other, at about 2,000 years ago. (This is comparable to the differentiation of the [[Romance languages]] of Europe).<ref name="Golla2011179">{{cite book|last=Golla|first=Victor|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B_yqdSE1F8wC&pg=PA179|title=California Indian Languages|date=2011|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-26667-4|page=179|access-date=June 2, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223141046/https://books.google.com/books?id=B_yqdSE1F8wC&pg=PA179|archive-date=December 23, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> The division of the Tongva/Serrano group into the separate Tongva and [[Serrano people]]s is more recent, and may have been influenced by [[Spanish missions in California|Spanish missionary activity]].

The majority of Tongva territory was located in what has been referred to as the [[Sonoran Desert|Sonoran]] life zone, with rich ecological resources of acorn, pine nut, small game, and deer. On the coast, shellfish, sea mammals, and fish were available. Prior to [[Christianization]], the prevailing Tongva worldview was that humans were not the apex of creation, but were rather one strand in the [[web of life]]. Humans, along with plants, animals, and the land were in a reciprocal relationship of mutual respect and care, which is evident in their creation stories.<ref name=":13">{{Cite book|last=Castillo|first=Edward D.|title=Medicine Ways: Disease, Health, and Survival Among Native Americans|publisher=AltaMira Press|year=2001|isbn=9780742502550|pages=16–31|chapter=Blood Came from Their Mouths: Tongva and Chumash Responses to the Pandemic of 1801}}</ref> The Tongva understand time as [[Nonlinear system|nonlinear]] and there is constant communication with ancestors.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Dorame|first=Megan|date=16 September 2020|title=The Poetics of Sovereignty: Embracing Self-Determination on the Page|url=https://pen.org/the-poetics-of-sovereignty-embracing-self-determination-on-the-page/|access-date=29 September 2020|website=Pen America|archive-date=September 22, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922143428/https://pen.org/the-poetics-of-sovereignty-embracing-self-determination-on-the-page/|url-status=live}}</ref>

On October 7, 1542, an exploratory expedition led by Spanish explorer [[Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo|Juan Cabrillo]] reached [[Santa Catalina Island (California)|Santa Catalina]] in the Channel Islands, where his ships were greeted by Tongva in a canoe. The following day, Cabrillo and his men, the first Europeans known to have interacted with the Gabrieleño people, entered a large bay on the mainland, which they named "Baya de los Fumos" ("Bay of Smokes") on account of the many smoke fires they saw there. This is commonly believed to be [[San Pedro Bay, California|San Pedro Bay]], near present-day [[San Pedro, California|San Pedro]].<ref name="McCawley1996">{{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|page=4|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>