Finding Information About the Tongva: Learning the History of the Land Beneath Los Angeles

When we talk about Los Angeles history, the story often begins with missions, ranchos, or the growth of the city itself. But long before those chapters, this land was home to the Tongva people: the original stewards of the LA basin and surrounding islands.

Learning about the Tongva is not about rewriting history or assigning blame. It’s about understanding. Every canyon, river, and trail we move through today carries memory, and learning how to find accurate information helps us connect more deeply to the land we inhabit.

Who Are the Tongva?

The Tongva people have lived in the Los Angeles region for thousands of years. Their territory extended across what is now Los Angeles County, parts of Orange County, and the Channel Islands. Tongva villages were carefully situated near rivers, springs, and coastal resources, creating a sustainable relationship with the environment that lasted for generations.

Rather than a single centralized settlement, Tongva life was organized through networks of villages connected by trails, many of which later became roads, hiking paths, or natural corridors still in use today.

Why Finding Accurate Information Matters

Much of Indigenous history in California was fragmented or minimized through colonization, and later urban development. As a result, information about the Tongva is often scattered across academic archives, museum collections, and oral histories rather than easily accessible textbooks.

Learning responsibly means:

• Seeking sources created with or by Tongva people
• Avoiding oversimplified narratives
• Understanding that history is layered, not frozen in time

If you want to learn more about the Tongva, start with sources rooted in community knowledge and scholarship:

• Tongva tribal organizations and cultural preservation groups
• Museums and cultural centers in Southern California that collaborate with Indigenous communities
• University archives that focus on California Indigenous history

One of the most meaningful ways to understand Tongva history is to pay attention to the landscape itself. Rivers, hills, plant life, and animal migration patterns all shaped daily life. When you walk a trail, visit a park, or look out over a canyon, you are seeing geography that sustained people long ago. History is not always found in plaques or monuments. Sometimes it’s embedded in the land beneath your feet.

Learning about the Tongva doesn’t require expertise or perfection. It requires curiosity, humility, and care. Asking questions, listening, and acknowledging the deeper timelines of place helps us understand Los Angeles not just as a city, but as a landscape with a long and complex human story.

Remembering this history doesn’t take anything away from the present. It adds depth to it.