Wapijanga was a Tongva village located in what is now Chino Hills, California, between the San Gabriel Mountains and Saddleback Peak. The village was located along Chino Creek, upstream from the village of Pashiinonga. [1] [2] It has been alternatively referred to as Wajijanga and Wapijangna. [3] It was recorded as a large village in San Gabriel Mission records. [3]
Wapijanga was a place of contact between Tongva and Serrano peoples, who primarily lived further east. [4] It was closest situated to the Tongva villages of Pashiinonga (also in the Chino Hills area) [5] and Tooypinga (along San Jose Creek near the grounds of the Los Angeles County Fair). [1] [2] [6]
The village site was submerged by the construction of the Prado Dam in 1941. [4] [5]
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.
Chino Hills is a city located in the southwestern corner of San Bernardino County, California, United States. The city borders Los Angeles County on its northwest side, Orange County to its south and southwest, and Riverside County to its southeast.
The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated areas and the incorporated cities of Burbank, Calabasas, Glendale, Hidden Hills, and San Fernando. The valley is well known for its iconic film studios such as Warner Bros. Studio and Walt Disney Studios. In addition, it is home to the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park.
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 Pomona Valley is located in the Greater Los Angeles Area between the San Gabriel Valley and San Bernardino Valley in Southern California. The valley is approximately 30 miles (48 km) east of downtown Los Angeles.
The Santa Ana River is the largest river entirely within Southern California in the United States. It rises in the San Bernardino Mountains and flows for most of its length through San Bernardino and Riverside counties, before cutting through the northern Santa Ana Mountains via Santa Ana Canyon and flowing southwest through urban Orange County to drain into the Pacific Ocean. The Santa Ana River is 96 miles (154 km) long, and its drainage basin is 2,650 square miles (6,900 km2) in size.
The San Gabriel River is a mostly urban waterway flowing 58 miles (93 km) southward through Los Angeles and Orange Counties, California in the United States. It is the central of three major rivers draining the Greater Los Angeles Area, the others being the Los Angeles River and Santa Ana River. The river's watershed stretches from the rugged San Gabriel Mountains to the heavily developed San Gabriel Valley and a significant part of the Los Angeles coastal plain, emptying into the Pacific Ocean between the cities of Long Beach and Seal Beach.
Ballona Creek is an 8.5-mile (13.7 km) channelized stream in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, that was once a "year-round river lined with sycamores and willows" with the Tongva village of Guashna located at the mouth of the creek. Ballona Creek and neighboring Ballona Wetlands remain a prime bird-watching spot for waterfowl, shorebirds, warblers, and birds of prey.
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 Jose Hills are a part of the Transverse Ranges in eastern Los Angeles County, California, marking the border between the San Gabriel Valley and the Pomona Valley. It includes portions of Covina, West Covina, Walnut, Pomona, and San Dimas. To the south, the valley of San Jose Creek separates the San Jose Hills from the Puente Hills and Chino Hills.
Juyubit was one of the largest villages of the Tongva people. The village was located at the foot of the West Coyote Hills at the confluence of the Coyote and La Cañada Verde creeks, in present-day Buena Park and Cerritos. It was one of the largest villages in Tovaangar. Alternate names of the village include: Jujubit, Jutucubit, Jutucuvit, Jutubit, Jutucunga, Utucubit, Otocubit, Uchubit, Ychubit, and Uchunga.
Kaawchama, alternatively referred to as Wa’aachnga, was a significant Tongva village in the San Bernardino Valley located in what is now west Redlands, California. The village became referred to by the Spanish as the Guachama Rancheria in 1810 after a supply station was constructed at the village for Mission San Gabriel, which then became part of Rancho San Bernardino following the secularization of the missions in 1833.
Genga, alternative spelling Gengaa and Kengaa, was a Tongva and Acjachemen village located on Newport Mesa overlooking the Santa Ana River in the Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, California area which included an open site now referred to as Banning Ranch. Archaeological evidence dates the village at over 9,000 years old. Villagers were recorded as Gebit in Spanish Mission records. The village may have been occupied as late as 1829 or 1830.
Hutuknga was a large Tongva village located in the foothills along the present channel of the Santa Ana River in what is now Yorba Linda, California. People from the village were recorded in mission records as Jutucabit. Hutuknga was part of a series of villages along the Santa Ana River, which included Lupukngna, Genga, Pajbenga, and Totpavit. The Turnball Canyon area is sometimes falsely associated with Hutuknga.
Pajbenga, alternative spelling Pagbigna and Pasbengna, was a Tongva village located at Santa Ana, California, near the El Refugio Adobe, which was the home of José Sepulveda. It was one of the main villages along the Santa Ana River, including Lupukngna, Genga, Totpavit, and Hutuknga. People from the village were recorded in mission records as Pajebet, Pajbet, Pajbebet, and Pajbepet.
Totpavit, alternative spellings Totabit and possibly Totavet, was a Tongva village located in what is now Olive, California. The village was located between the Santa Ana River and Santiago Creek. It was part of a series of villages along the Santa Ana River, including Genga, Pajbenga, and Hutuknga.
Tooypinga, alternatively spelled Toibingna, was a Tongva village located between the San Gabriel Mountains and Saddleback Peak at the base of the San Jose Hills along San Jose Creek. Nearby villages included Pashiinonga and Wapijanga. According to José Zalvidea, an informant of the era, the name "is derived from tojtsh, the devil woman who is there at El Rincon, near San José." People from the village were recorded as Toibipet.
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.
Guashna was a Tongva village located at Playa Vista, Los Angeles at the mouth of Ballona Creek. The site has also been referred to as Sa'angna, with various sources debating whether Sa'angna, meaning "place of tar," was a regional referent rather than a village name or whether it was a separate nearby village. The initial place name was said to be Sa'an; the village suffix "ngna" was added by Bernice Johnston to her 1962 map of Gabrieleño villages "despite her having found no mention of the term in baptismal records." Sa'angna is also not to be confused with Suangna. The Tongva referred to the Ballona Wetlands as Pwinukipar, meaning "full of water." Another alternate name may Waachnga.