Tongva Indian Memorial and Exhibit
The Tongva Memorial
The Tongva Memorial is located on the Leavey Campus, just west of the O'Malley Residence Hall on the bluff side of LMU Drive. The memorial serves several purposes. First and foremost, it is a tribute to the people who were the original settlers of the Los Angeles basin. Second, it memorializes the two archaeological sites that were destroyed during the development of the Leavey Campus, as well as the other seventeen known Tongva sites along the Westchester bluffs and Ballona wetlands. Third, it is a place where one can quietly think, meditate, or simply enjoy the panoramic view of the Santa Monica Bay and the Santa Monica Mountains. Finally, it is a place to learn more about the first Angelenos and some of the plants they used. The memorial opened on April 28, 2000 with a Tongva Indian blessing ceremony.
The memorial site consists of three concentric circles. The outer circle/walkway of decomposed granite has a series of boulders located around it with timeline plaques attached to the boulders.
Tongva History Timeline
| Year |
Historical Event |
| 1542 |
First contact is made by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo of Spain. |
| 1602 |
Sebastian Vizcaino arrives with Catholic priests. |
| 1769 |
Don Gaspar de Portola arrives with Father Crespi. Crespi begins his diary. |
| 1770 |
Father Junipero Serra arrives from Spain via Mexico to establish the first missions |
| 1771 |
Fathers Somera and Cambon arrive. Missions San Gabriel and San Fernando are founded, and the name "Gabrielino" is born. |
| 1781 |
El ciudad de la reina de los angeles (Los Angeles) is founded. Tongva Indians already living there call it "Yangna." |
| 1785 |
San Gabriel Mission Indians stage a revolt against the Spanish. Led by a female chief, Toy Purina, the revolt is soon crushed by the Spanish. All indians who participated in the revolt are either killed or exiled to Santa Barbara Island. |
| 1824 |
Mexico gains independence from Spain. Mexican culturalization of Gabrielino/Tongva Indian continues. Many indian religious rites, customs, and languages (dialects) are lost. |
| 1833 |
Missions are secularized and indians are left to work on rancherias owned by Spanish soldiers and noblemen. In as little as two hundred years, a great and caring indian culture has been almost virtually destroyed. |
| 1850 |
Few full blooded Gabrielino/Tongva Indians remain. Some intermarry with the Spanish. Some cultural artifacts of the tribe survive, such as clamshell bead money, waterproof baskets, steatite jewelry, cooking vessels, bowls, and pipes. |
| 1900 |
Tribal elders struggle to keep the old traditions alive, continually meeting as a tribe in San Gabriel and Los Angeles. |
| 1994 |
The Gabrielino/Tongva Indians are recognized as the indigenous people of Los Angeles by the city of San Gabriel and the state of California. |
Directional Plaques
The memorial's middle circle consists of four stone benches oriented to the cardinal directions. On the inside portion of the benches are special plaques recognizing the Tongva Indians' history and spirituality:
- Mother Earth: We are the caretakers of the land. It is our duty as caretakers to treat Mother Earth with kindness and respect. We must cultivate with care, always keeping in mind that Mother Earth is the giver of all life with her waters, rocks, trees, plants and animals. (north)
- Grandfather Sky (Creator): We give thanks and pray to our Creator for the very air we breathe, for the food that we eat, and the land that we live upon. We cannot ever own the land. Rather, the land owns us. Thank you Creator for all that You have given us. Grandfather Sky, we ask for Your guidance in all that we do. Please bless our time here until we return, once again to you. (west)
- The Legend of Torovim: A Tongva Chieftian was being pursued by an enemy tribe somewhere in Topanga - Where the Mountains meet the Sea. He came to a cliff. Rather than submit to his captors, he dove into the sea. As he fell, he changed into the Dolphin, or Torovim, our brother of the ocean. He now swims around the world, staying ever vigilant and alert to ensure the safety of our people. It is his duty as caretaker of the ocean. And, when the Torovim is no more, our people will cease to be. (east)
- The Tongva People have lived in the Los Angeles basin for hundreds of years and continue to do so. Two thousand years ago native people worked and lived where you are now standing. Further east along the bluff was another village site that native people used from about 900 years ago to the time the Spanish arrived. Some of the typical material cultural items are displayed in an exhibit case in the library. (south)
Memorial Centerpiece
The paved flagstone inner circle and centerpiece of the memorial is a large concrete medallion designed especially for the site by Mathew Dorame, a Los Angeles area artist and Tongva/Gabrielino Indian. The legend of Torovim is represented by dolphins, a sacred animal to the Tongva people, swimming around a map of the western hemisphere.
Native Plants
A small ethnobotanic garden accompanies the memorial. The outside of the outer circle and between the outer and middle circles contain plants that the native peoples used in their daily lives.
| Plant's Common Name |
Use by Tongva |
Garden Location |
| White sage |
Religious, purification |
Inner circle |
| Purple sage |
Medicinal |
Inner circle |
| California buckwheat |
Medicinal |
South garden |
| California lilac |
Basketry; soap |
North garden |
| Chia |
Medicinal |
West garden |
| Deer grass |
Basketry |
Garden entry |
| Lemonade berry |
Food source |
South garden |
| Manzanita |
Medicinal |
Garden entry |
| Toyon |
Wooden implements |
West garden |
| Yarrow |
Medicinal |
Outer circle |
| Yucca |
Twine; rope |
Outer circle boulders |
Tongva History
At the time the Spanish arrived in this area, the Tongva people (people of the Earth) occupied most of what is now Los Angeles County and part of northern Orange County. The channel islands of Santa Catalina, San Clemente, San Nicholas, and Santa Barbara were part of their territory.
For thousands of years, the Tongva Nation had a vital and thriving civilization with a working government, legal system, religion, music, dance, art, cultural exchange and monetary system. Because of the long distances between tribal settlements, each Tongva village was led by its own chief. All of the village chiefs reported directly to a central chief who was responsible for the welfare of all the Tongva people. The Tongva lived as hunter-gatherers, eating nuts, berries, sage, seafood and small game. The Tongva travelled to Santa Catalina and other channel islands by plank canoe.
After the establishment of the Spanish Mission system, coastal native peoples, such as the Tongva, were brought to the missions to provide the requisite labor. Over time the original names of the native groups dropped out of the historical record and the general term "Mission Indians" or the name of the mission was applied and thus the Tongva are known in most of the literature of today as the Gabrielinos. However, the people refer to themselves as Tongva or Gabrielino/Tongva. Before the arrival of the Spanish, the Tongva population was estimated at 200,000 people. By the end of the mid-18th century that total had dwindled to 70,000, and by the late 1800s only 6,000 Tongva remained.
The Tongva people continue to live in the Los Angeles area. Today tribal elders struggle to keep alive the old traditions, regularly meeting as a tribe in San Gabriel and Los Angeles. They have a tribal saying, "We have always been here, we are still here, and we will always be here."
Archaeological Background
Located on the bluffs overlooking the Ballona wetlands and Santa Monica Bay in the "Leavey Campus" area of Loyola Marymount University there were two village sites of the people who first lived here. Analysis of data collected during excavations of the sites prior to development as well as collected during the monitoring of the grading operations, indicated people lived here in seasonal villages from approximately 1,000 B.C. to 1,000 A.D. Although the two sites were officially known to archaeologists as LAn61A and LAn61B, workers soon began calling LAn61A "Marymount" and LAn61B "Loyola."
The researchers concluded that "the artifactual material from Loyola Marymount is typical of virtually any California coastal Indian site dating to around 1,000 B.C. or thereafter. Groundstone items, for instance, are dominated by the usual manos, metates, mortars, and pestles. However, the groundstone collection did include both a doscoidal from "Loyola" and a rare five-pointed cogstone from "Marymount," both of which would normally be regarded as artifacts of more considerable antiquity. Nevertheless, the bulk of our chronological data indicate that neither site was occupied prior to about 1,000 B.C." (p.240, Van Horn and Murray, 1985).
Researchers further state that "In some ways, the collection from Loyola Marymount is most notable for what it lacks. Most remarkable, in our judgement, is the complete lack of marine shell artifacts. This includes not only fishhooks but marine shell ornaments as well....Rather, we believe that the Loyola and Marymount deposits prove that large-scale marine shell bead manufacture was a late development which did not take place until well after 1,000 A.D." (p.242, Van Horn and Murray, 1985).
Projectile points from the site are somewhat atypical of Southern California coastal peoples. Van Horn argued that the appearance of the "Marymount" point style can be viewed as evidence of Shoshonean occupation of the coastal area sometime after 500 A.D. (p.35, Van Horn, 1990).
Library Exhibit
Accompanying the outdoor memorial is an exhibit in the Charles Von der Ahe Library on the lower level in the atrium. The exhibit recounts the history of the Tongva with early photographs and more recent photographs of current Tongva/Gabrielino tribe members living in the Los Angeles area. Visitors to the exhibit will also see cultural artifacts from the archaeological site: a mortar, stone tools including knives and manos, and pendants and beads. A key to the ethnobotanic garden lists the botanic names with specimen plant color photos. The exhibit is open all hours the library is open. Visitors to the library register at the lobby information station.
In 2002 the library compiled a 60-page bibliography 
of over 500 publications and documents written about the Tongva, some of which are in the collections of the Charles von der Ahe Library.
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