The Gabrielino Indians at the Time of the Portola Expedition

20th century efforts to uncover the indigenous past of Southern California.

This uncommon map of the area around modern-day Los Angeles was designed by historian Allen Welts and copywritten in 1962 by the Southwest Museum. The sketched image shows the location of alleged archaeological sites belonging to the Gabrielino Indians near the end of the 1760s, around the time of Spaniard Don Gaspar Portola’s expedition into the region.

The ‘tribe’ was named for the Mission San Gabriel established nearby by Father Junipero Sierra just a few years later, though in reality it was a designation applied to a variety of indigenous peoples most commonly known today as the Tongva. The route of the Portola Expedition is noted. A variety of historic sites, native villages, and archaeological excavations are identified according to the legend in the lower right.

Here can also be seen a prescient caveat about the ultimate futility of making an ‘accurate’ map. “An exact map showing these sites can never be made, but one can be projected, as has been done here, from archaeological data, historical records, and tradition.” According to an article in the LA Magazine,

“The center of the Tongva settlement was called Yangna, very near where the original pueblo was founded and where the old and sacred sycamore tree “El Aliso” became the gathering place for tribal decisions on all manner of issues. In a portent of things to come, Yangna was sold to a pioneer in 1831, and the sacred tree was cut down for firewood in 1891.

This map is covered with familiar places now known by other names: Maungna is around Los Feliz, Hahamongna is JPL, Sonangna is downtown L.A., Otsungna is Alhambra, Sibangna is the San Gabriel Mission, Houtngna is El Monte, Toibingna is Pomona, Tuhungna is Tujunga and Chokishngna is Bell Gardens. Some of the old Tongva names have survived, though, and exist on today’s maps as Pacoima, Tujunga, Topanga, Azusa, Cahuenga and even Rancho Cucamonga.”

Source: L.A. Mag