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Tongva
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Also called:
Gabrielino, San Gabrielino, or Gabrieleño
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Tongva

people
Also known as: Gabrieleño, Gabrielino, San Gabrielino
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Britannica Editors
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History

Tongva, any of two, or possibly three, dialectally and culturally related Indigenous North American groups who historically spoke a language of Uto-Aztecan stock and lived in the lowlands, along the seacoast, and on islands in southern California at the time of Spanish colonization. The Tongva proper inhabited what are now southern and eastern Los Angeles county and northern Orange county, as well as the islands of Santa Catalina and San Clemente. They are often called Gabrielinos or San Gabrielinos, after the Franciscan mission San Gabriel Arcángel. The second group, Tataviam (Fernandeño), occupied areas in and around the San Fernando Valley and seacoast. A third, apparently related, group was the Nicolino (Nicoleño, or San Nicolinos), who inhabited San Nicolas Island.

The Tongva occupied some of the most fertile and pleasant land in California, and, because they were among the wealthiest and most technologically advanced Native Americans in the region, they exercised considerable influence on all their neighbors. In religion, for instance, the Tongva were the source of the jimsonweed cult, a widely practiced southern California religion that involved various sacred and esoteric rituals and the drinking of toloache, a hallucinogen made from the jimsonweed (Datura stramonium).

Traditionally, the interior and coastal Tongva lived in houses constructed of poles and tule-reed mats. Their economy was based on acorns and other wild plant foods, supplemented by fishing and hunting. Island Tongva, especially the Nicolino, often built dwellings of whale ribs covered with sea-lion skins or brush, and for food they relied on fish, sea mammals and birds, and mollusks. All groups made baskets, and a quarry on Santa Catalina Island provided soapstone that Tongva craftspeople made into such items as pots and scoops, ceremonial vessels, artistic carvings, beads, and ornaments. Trade between islanders, coastal people, and interior residents was extensive and based on a currency of clamshell beads. Each Tongva village had a hereditary chief; shamanism was an important part of Tongvae religion and healing practices.

Population estimates in the late 2010s indicated some 3,000 Tongva descendants. See also Mission Indians.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Teagan Wolter.