Tongva - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tongva - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "The Tongva are a Native American people originally inhabiting the area in and around Los Angeles, California, previously known as the 'Gabriele�o,' 'San Gabriele�o,' or 'Gabrielino' tribe. Tongva means 'people of the earth' in the Tongvan language. (They are sometimes referred to as the Gabriele�o-Tongva tribe.) Following the Spanish custom of naming local tribes after nearby missions, they were called the 'Gabriele�o' or 'Gabrielino' in reference to Mission San Gabriel Arcangel. Other bands were known as 'Fernande�o' after Mission San Fernando Rey de Espa�a.
The Tongva are one of only two New World peoples who regularly navigated the ocean (the other was the Chumash, a neighboring tribe located just to the north). They built seaworthy canoes, called ti'at, using planks that were sewn together, edge to edge, and then caulked and coated with either pine pitch, or, more commonly, the tar that was available either from the La Brea Tar Pits, or as asphaltum that had washed up on shore from offshore oil seeps. These titi'at could hold as many as 12 people and all their gear and all the trade goods they were carrying to trade with other people, either along the coast or on one of the Channel Islands. The Tongva canoed out to greet Spanish explorer Juan Cabrillo when he arrived off the shores of San Pedro in 1542.
The Tongva language is in the Uto-Aztecan family of languages.
Modern place names with Tongva origins include: Pacoima, Tujunga, Topanga, Rancho Cucamonga, Azusa, and Cahuenga Pass."