Otsungna was a Tongva village located in what is now the El Sereno neighborhood of Los Angeles, California [1] and California State University, Los Angeles. [2] It was referenced as the "Otsungna Prehistoric Village Site" in the construction of State Route 710. [3] The village has alternatively been referred to as Ochuunga, derived from the Tongva language word for "wild rose" [4] and possibly translating to "Place of Roses." [5]
The village was located north and west of the large village of Yaanga connected via a trail with the other village of Shevaanga. [6] [7] Spanish priest José Zalvidea noted that the village was located "on the road from San Gabriel to Los Angeles." [4] This was a pre-Columbian trail that was used extensively prior to the arrival of the Spanish colonizers. [4]
Although evidence of the village has been largely destroyed, it has been proposed that El Sereno was established adjacent to Otsungna as an early Spanish colonial settlement in the Los Angeles area since Tongva laborers were essential to the construction of the city and early settlements were often constructed near preexisting Tongva villages. [2]
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel is a Californian mission and historic landmark in San Gabriel, California. It was founded by Spaniards of the Franciscan order on "The Feast of the Birth of Mary," September 8, 1771, as the fourth of what would become twenty-one Spanish missions in California. San Gabriel Arcángel was named after the Archangel Gabriel and often referred to as the "Godmother of the Pueblo of Los Angeles." The mission was built and run using what has been described as slave labor from nearby Tongva villages, such as Yaanga and was built on the site of the village of Toviscanga. When the nearby Pueblo de los Ángeles was built in 1781, the mission competed with the emerging pueblo for control of Indigenous labor.
The Tongva are an Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately 4,000 square miles (10,000 km2). In the precolonial era, the people lived in as many as 100 villages and primarily identified by their village rather than by a pan-tribal name. During colonization, the Spanish referred to these people as Gabrieleño and Fernandeño, names derived from the Spanish missions built on their land: Mission San Gabriel Arcángel and Mission San Fernando Rey de España. Tongva is the most widely circulated endonym among the people, used by Narcisa Higuera in 1905 to refer to inhabitants in the vicinity of Mission San Gabriel. Some direct lineal descendants of the people advocate the use of their ancestral name Kizh as an endonym.
Chatsworth is a suburban neighborhood in the City of Los Angeles, California, in the San Fernando Valley.
The San Gabriel Valley, often referred to by its initials as S.G.V., is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, lying immediately to the east of the eastern city limits of the city of Los Angeles and occupying the vast majority of the southeastern part of Los Angeles County, California. Surrounding features include:
The Arroyo Seco, meaning "dry stream" in Spanish, is a 24.9-mile-long (40.1 km) seasonal river, canyon, watershed, and cultural area in Los Angeles County, California. The area was explored by Gaspar de Portolà who named the stream Arroyo Seco as this canyon had the least water of any he had seen. During this exploration he met the Chief Hahamog-na (Hahamonga) of the Tongva Indians.
University Hills is a neighborhood on the East Side of Los Angeles, California. It consists of the residential areas surrounding California State University, Los Angeles.
El Sereno is a Los Angeles neighborhood in the Eastside Los Angeles region of Los Angeles County, California.
The Hahamog'na, commonly anglicized to Hahamongna and spelled Xaxaamonga in their native language, are a tribe of the Tongva people of California. Their language belongs to the Uto-Aztecan family.
Puvunga is an ancient village and sacred site of the Tongva nation, the Indigenous people of the Los Angeles Basin, and the Acjachemen, the Indigenous people of Orange County now located at California State University, Long Beach and the surrounding area. The Tongva know Puvunga as the "place of emergence" and it is where they believed "their world and their lives began." The site remains an important ceremonial site and ending to an annual pilgrimage for the Tongva, Acjachemen, and Chumash.
The San Rafael Hills are a mountain range in Los Angeles County, California. They are one of the lower Transverse Ranges, and are parallel to and below the San Gabriel Mountains, adjacent to the San Gabriel Valley overlooking the Los Angeles Basin.
Chowigna is a former Tongva-Gabrieleño Native American settlement in Los Angeles County, California.
Suangna is a former Tongva (Gabrieleño) Native American settlement in Los Angeles County, California. There is a plaque set in stone commemorating the village in Carson.
Toviscanga was a former Tongva village now located at Mission San Gabriel Arcángel in San Gabriel, California. Alternative spellings for the village include Tobiscanga. The name of Tuvasak was the Payómkawichum name for the village. The village was closely situated to the village of Sibagna.
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Founded in 1874 and incorporated in 1886, the city is famous for its colorful history and for the hosting of both the Tournament of Roses Parade and the annual Rose Bowl game football game. It is also the home of the world-renowned California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
Rose Hills is a neighborhood on the Eastside of Los Angeles.
Yaanga was a large Tongva village originally located near what is now downtown Los Angeles, just west of the Los Angeles River and beneath U.S. Route 101. People from the village were recorded as Yabit in missionary records although were known as Yaangavit, Yavitam, or Yavitem among the people. It is unclear what the exact population of Yaanga was prior to colonization, although it was recorded as the largest and most influential village in the region.
Moyongna, alternatively spelled Moyonga, was a coastal Tongva village or landmark site located near the entrance of Newport Bay in Newport Beach, California near Corona del Mar. As a coastal village, the usage of te'aats was likely important to the village's people. Nearby coastal villages included Genga, located on Newport Mesa, and Lupukngna, located near the mouth of the Santa Ana River.
Achooykomenga is a former settlement that was located at the site of Mission San Fernando Rey de España before it was founded in 1797. Prior to the mission's founding, in the 1780s, it functioned as a shared native settlement for an agricultural rancho of Pueblo de Los Ángeles that was worked by Ventureño Chumash, Fernandeño (Tongva), and Tataviam laborers.
Geveronga was a Tongva village located at what is now Pico-Union, Los Angeles, California along the Los Angeles River. Part of the village area is also located on the campuses of the University of Southern California (USC) at its University Park Campus. The USC History Department provided a map of the general location of Geveronga in its land acknowledgement in 2021. People from the village were known as Geverovit.
Momonga was a Tongva village located at what is now Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California in the San Fernando Valley. The village may have been located in the area now referred to as Stoney Point. The village was located near the village of Ashaawanga, also associated with the Chatsworth area.