The Gaspar de Portolá land expedition in 1769 resulted in the founding of Mission San Gabriel by Catholic missionary Junipero Serra in 1771. Under the mission system, the Spanish initiated an era of forced relocation and virtual enslavement of the peoples to secure their labor. In addition, the Native Americans were exposed to the Old World diseases endemic among the colonists As they lacked any acquired immunity, the Native Americans suffered epidemics with high mortality, leading to the rapid collapse of Tongva society and lifeways.
They retaliated by way of resistance and rebellions, including an unsuccessful rebellion in 1785 by Nicolás José and female chief Toypurina. In 1821, Mexico gained its independence from Spain and secularized the missions. They sold the mission lands, known as ranchos, to elite ranchers and forced the Tongva to assimilate. Most became landless refugees during this time.
In 1848, California was ceded to the United States following the Mexican-American War. The US government signed 18 treaties between 1851 and 1852 promising 8.5 million acres (3,400,000 ha) of land for reservations. However, these treaties were never ratified by the Senate.[13] The US had negotiated with people who did not represent the Tongva and had no authority to cede their land.[14] During the following occupation by Americans, many of the Tongva and other indigenous peoples were targeted with arrest. Unable to pay fines, they were used as convict laborers in a system of legalized slavery to expand the city of Los Angeles for Anglo-American settlers, who became the new majority in the area by 1880.
In the early 20th century, an extinction myth was purported about the Gabrieleño, who largely identified publicly as Mexican-American by this time. However, a close-knit community of the people remained in contact with one another between Tejon Pass and San Gabriel township into the 20th century. Since 2006, four organizations have claimed to represent the people:
· the Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe, known as the "hyphen" group from the hyphen in their name;
· the Gabrielino/Tongva Tribe, known as the "slash" group;
· the Kizh Nation (Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians); and
· the Gabrieleño/Tongva Tribal Council.
Two of the groups, the hyphen and the slash group, were founded after a hostile split over the question of building an Indian casino. In 1994, the state of California recognized the Gabrielino "as the aboriginal tribe of the Los Angeles Basin." No organized group representing the Tongva has attained recognition as a tribe by the federal government. The lack of federal recognition has prevented the Tongva from having control over their ancestral remains, artifacts, and has left them without a land base in their traditional homelands.
In 2008, more than 1,700 people identified as Tongva or claimed partial ancestry. In 2013, it was reported that the four Tongva groups that have applied for federal recognition had more than 3,900 members in total.
The Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy was established to campaign for the “re-matriation” of Tongva homelands. In 2022, a 1-acre site was returned to the conservancy in Altadena, which marked the first time the Tongva had land in Los Angeles County in 200 years. see: https://www.tongva.land/
Source: Wikipedia