CV’s First Inhabitants – First Contact The village of Wiqangna in the Crescenta Valley would not have been in the path of the first Spanish explorers to venture north into the Los Angeles area. However, they would have been touched hard by the successive waves of disease that followed them. Smallpox, measles and influenza […]
CV’s First Inhabitants – The Harvest Festival The Tongva Native Americans had many celebrations throughout the year: summer and winter solstice, rites of puberty, harvests, funerals and political advancements all merited feasts, songs and dances. The following is a fictionalized account of a harvest festival one fall day in the village of Wiqangna, in […]
CV’s First Inhabitants – The Harvest Festival The Tongva Native Americans had many celebrations throughout the year: summer and winter solstice, rites of puberty, harvests, funerals and political advancements all merited feasts, songs and dances. The following is a fictionalized account of a harvest festival one fall day in the village of Wiqangna, in […]
CV’s First Inhabitants – Hunting As I have mentioned in previous columns, the Tongva people of the Los Angeles area enjoyed a rich and nutritious diet. Besides the variety of plants they ate, they had a wide array of high-protein meat available. While the coast natives were awash in seafood (pun-intended), the inland natives […]
CV’s First Inhabitants – What Did They Eat? Let’s imagine ourselves in the pre-European Crescenta Valley, walking up the dusty trail (today’s Honolulu Avenue) that ran between the villages strung along the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. We’re walking on the edge of a large oak forest (that is today Crescenta Valley Park) […]
CV’s First Inhabitants – What Did They Look Like? I’ve been writing about the Tongva people and their likely village in the Crescenta Valley, the village of Wiqangna (Wi-Kong-Na). Imagine a group of Wiqangna villagers chattering cheerfully as they walked down the dusty trail that is today Honolulu Avenue, heading east to visit their […]
CV’s First Inhabitants – The Neighboring Villages of Tujungna and Hahamongna Last week I talked about our local village of Wiqangna. Historically it is described as being in La Tuna Canyon, although no archeological remains have ever been found. I took a guess that the site of today’s Verdugo Hills Golf Course may have […]
CV’s First Inhabitants – The Village of Wiqanga Last week I introduced the Tongva, focusing mainly on how scattered and elusive the historical records are. Falling right into that pattern of elusiveness is the location of their village sites. We have many village names recorded in Mission records, but no locations. The locations we […]
Finding CV’s First Inhabitants is Difficult Writing about the native people of our valley, the Tongva, has been among the most frustrating research work I’ve done. The sources of info are scattered, and some of what exists can be suspect in accuracy. There are really no contemporary historical accounts of what the Tongva were […]
Tujunga’s Cross of San Ysidro On a hilltop of the Verdugo Mountains overlooking Tujunga is a tall white cross. Standing an impressive 30 feet tall, it can easily be seen from Foothill Boulevard, although many hurrying down the boulevard never notice it. It is the Cross of San Ysidro, and it is an important […]