CV’s First Inhabitants – Toypurina’s Revolt

It’s obvious from history that, although the Tongva people were eventually subjugated by the Spanish, they didn’t go down easy. There were several revolts, both small and large, throughout the lifespan of the Mission system, but none was so dramatic and poignant as “Toypurina’s Revolt” in 1785.

The Mission San Gabriel, after a rocky start with the local natives, was just beginning to gain ground with conversions by 1785, and neophytes to the Mission were increasing. One such convert, Nicholas Jose, was troubled by his conversion. The priests were by necessity becoming more authoritarian and had recently declared that the baptized Mission Indians were no longer allowed to return to their villages to participate in dances and rituals. Nicholas Jose was angry and set to plotting the overthrow of Mission San Gabriel.

He approached a powerful female shaman of a nearby village, a 25-year-old woman named Toypurina. She had witnessed first-hand the depredations of the Mission soldiers and was angry at the growing influence of the Mission. She agreed to join him as one of the leaders of the rebellion. It would be her job to travel from village to village, enlisting support for the revolt, and to augment the planned attack with her magical powers. She undoubtedly visited our own village of Wiqangna, walking along the trail that is today Honolulu Avenue. From there she continued up today’s Tujunga Canyon Boulevard to the village of Tujungna, returning back again through the Crescenta Valley. She enlisted many warriors, promising that they would kill the soldiers and priests and take back their land.

In the meantime, Nicholas Jose rallied the baptized natives within the Mission to rise up during the attack. Nicholas Jose was unaware that at least one of the Mission Indians betrayed the plan to the corporal of the guard, Jose Verdugo. (Yes, this is the same Verdugo who later owned our valley!)

One night in October 1785, a large band of warriors, armed with bows and arrows led by Toypurina and two village chiefs, slipped over the walls of the Mission compound. Toypurina had cast spells that would immobilize the priests and soldiers. When Toypurina entered the priest’s quarters, she could see their immobile forms under blankets on the beds. She must have thought her spells had worked. But as they approached to kill the priests, the blankets were cast aside and, instead of priests, fully armed soldiers sprang out of bed led by Corporal Verdugo. At a shouted signal, soldiers all over the Mission emerged from hiding. The warriors scattered back over the walls, but the soldiers caught 21 of them, including Toypurina, Nicholas Jose and the two village chiefs.

A trial ensued in which the captured warriors were dealt whippings and sentences of hard labor. Some of them, fearing execution, fingered Toypurina as the ringleader, saying that she had bewitched them into joining the revolt. At her trial, Toypurina was unrepentant. She expressed her hatred for the Spanish, and her disgust for the cowardly warriors who ran away. The Spanish governor, fearing making a martyr of Toypurina, had her forcibly baptized and exiled to a Mission far away. Her captor, Corporal Verdugo, was rewarded handsomely at his retirement with a vast rancho, the land we live on today, and his legacy lives on in many place names.

Toypurina was a charismatic leader, but her revolt came too late. Her culture was already fading. The Tongva were too demoralized and too fragmented to mount a unified resistance. But today the legacy of Toypurina is reemerging. She has become an icon of Native-American resistance in Southern California, and a symbol of the power of women. She is becoming the representative of a growing awareness of the people who lived here before us. Even locally, at the La Crescenta Library, we find an image of Toypurina on the floor plaque near the entrance. On the plaque, we see Benjamin Briggs in the forefront representing the American period. Behind him Jose Verdugo symbolizes the Spanish era. And behind both is the image of Toypurina, representing the thousands of years of Tongva history in our valley.

  mike lawler