Tongva

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Mrs. James V. Rosemeyre (Narcisa Higuera), one of the last speakers and chief witness of the Tongva language (photo taken in 1905 in Bakersfield, California)

The Tongva or Gabrieleño (also Gabrielino ) are an Indian people in the Los Angeles area .

The Tongva are a subgroup of the indigenous people of the Los Angeles Basin and the offshore islands ( Santa Catalina , San Nicholas , San Clemente and Santa Barbara ), formerly known as the "Mission Indians" . Closely related to the Tongva are the Serrano (Spanish for "mountain dwellers"), who were native to the northern San Gabriel Mountains and further east in San Bernardino County .

Culture

There is only sparse information about the culture of the Tongva before their Christianization around 1770. Their mythology and traditions were only recorded by ethnologists generations after the Christianization and are accordingly fragmentary. One of the earliest sources is a letter written by Hugo Ried in 1852. Kroeber (1925) attempted a comprehensive overview of the myths of the Takic- speaking peoples, to which the Tongva belonged.

Alfred Kroeber describes the popular belief of the Tongva before their Christianization as mythic-ritual-social six-god pantheon ("mythical-ritual-social six-gods pantheon"). The central figure of this mythology, in the role of both cultural and legislative giver as well as creator, with strong traits of a Christ figure, was Chinigchinix, also known under the name Quaoar (first recorded by Ried (1852) in the spelling Qua- o-ar ).

history

Prehistory and linguistic classification

The Tongva belong to the group of Takic- speaking peoples within the Uto-Aztec language family. The Takic Group was native to what is now the greater Los Angeles area and probably formed around 3,000 years ago. This group split into the Cupan (Luiseño-Juaneño) and the Tongva-Serrano languages. Experts estimate the depth of this split at around 2000 years and compare it with the variability of the Romance languages in Europe. In contrast, the division of the Tongva-Serrano group into the language of the Tongva on the one hand and the Serrano on the other hand is much more recent and probably a result of the subjugation of these groups by the Spaniards. The whole Takic language group is extinct or moribund. The last Tongva speakers died in the early 20th century. Around 2000 there were still a few dozen living native speakers known from the Cupan group. However, there have also been efforts to revive these languages ​​since the 1990s. The neighboring Chumash tribe had cultural similarities with the Takic peoples, especially the construction of seaworthy canoes. However, they are linguistically unrelated and probably represent an older language layer that was passed over by the Uto-Aztec speakers.

Tongva and Chumash were the only southern California tribes able to build seaworthy canoes. The Tongva's canoes were built from planks and plant fiber. They were caulked with the asphalt emerging in the Los Angeles Basin .

History since colonization

The first European ship reached the southern California coast in 1542, with the expedition of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo . Cabrillo already describes the canoes of the natives. The time between this contact and the Spanish conquest (1542–1770) is sometimes referred to as "protohistoric". Cabrillo wintered in the Santa Barbara Canal in 1542/43 , and it is possible that this first contact already led to epidemics and corresponding demographic shifts to the disadvantage of the Chumash.

The Spanish colonization and missionary work in California began in the late 17th century and reached what is now the US state ( Upper California ) around 1770. The San Gabriel Mission was opened in 1771. At this point in time, the tribes known today as Tongva and Serrano were probably not yet separated into two distinct groups. Their population at that time was an estimated 5,000. The natives associated with the San Gabriel Mission were called Gabrieleño in the 19th century . Part of the Tongva was also associated with the San Fernando Rey Mission and was accordingly called Fernandeño . Christianization and submission by the Spaniards led to a rapid loss of culture. The tradition of building seaworthy canoes ( ti'at ) had already disappeared by the 1830s.

The self-designation Tongva was not registered until after 1900. It comes from Mrs. James V. Rosemeyre (Narcisa Higuera), who was one of the last native speakers of the Tongva language, and the source of much of its known vocabulary. There has been a movement to revitalize the Tongva culture and language since the 1990s. Only since then has the self-name Tongva been preferred, but the previously common Gabrielino also remains in use. In 1994 the organization Gabrielino / Tongva of San Gabriel applied for official recognition from the federal government. This application is still pending. The state of California recognized the organization as a non-profit. Since the 1970s there have been attempts by ethnologists to reconstruct the seaworthy canoe ( ti'at ). In 1993 a ti'at was recreated by members of the Tongva tribe and in 1995 it was successfully rowed to Santa Catalina Island , about 30 km off the coast of California.

In 2001 there was a split due to disputes over a planned Indian casino . The split-off group was based in Santa Monica and split again in 2006, into the Gabrieliño / Tongva Nation Tribal Council on the one hand and Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe on the other. Since that date, the three Tongva organizations have repeatedly accused and brought legal proceedings against each other. The total membership of these three organizations is estimated at around 1500 people; However, this number should be treated with caution, as everyone, especially the Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe , represented by the lawyer Jonathan Stein, freely recruits members with the intention of appearing as the largest of the three warring groups and therefore "official representation" of the tribe.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ AL Kroeber: Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin No. 78.Washington, DC 1925.
  2. ^ William McCawley: The First Angelinos: The Gabrielino Indians of Los Angeles . Malki Museum Press, Banning, California, 1996, ISBN 0-9651016-1-4 .
  3. Jack S. Williams: The Tongva of California. Library of Native Americans of California, The Rosen Publishing Group, 2003, ISBN 0-8239-6429-9 .
  4. ^ Victor Golla: California Indian Languages. University of California Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-520-26667-4 , pp. 178f.
  5. ^ Publications on the revitalization of the Tongva languages:
    Claudia K. Jurmain, William McCawley: O, my ancestor: recognition and renewal for the Gabrielino-Tongva people of the Los Angeles area. Heyday Books, 2009.
    Pamela Munro et al .: Yaara 'Shiraaw'ax' Eyooshiraaw'a. Now You're Speaking Our Language: Gabrielino / Tongva / Fernandeño . Lulu.com, 2008.
  6. ^ Mary Null Boulé, Gabrielino Tribe , p. 38.
  7. Jon M. Erlandson, Torben C. Rick, Douglas J. Kennett, Philip L. Walker: Dates, demography, and disease: Cultural contacts and possible evidence for Old World epidemics among the Island Chumash. In: Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly. 37 (3), 2001, pp. 11-26.
  8. ^ L. Frank, Kim Hogeland: First families: a photographic history of California Indians. Heyday, 2007, p. 110.
  9. Christine Pelisek: Casino Nation - Indians and tribal war over a club in Compton. In: LA Weekly . April 8, 2004.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Tongva  - collection of images, videos and audio files