The Tongva are those Native Americans who inhabited the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately 4,000 square miles. There are 31 known sites believed to have been Tongva villages, each having had as many as 400 to 500 huts. Yaanga village was one of the largest and was located in present-day Los Angeles, along the Los Angeles river, which is a few blocks from where you are standing now. Along with the neighboring Chumash, the Tongva were the most powerful indigenous people to inhabit Southern California. The Tongva are also known as the Gabrieleño, Fernandeño, and Nicoleño —Europeanized names that ...

The Chumash and Gabrielino-Tongva peoples were the first human inhabitants of the Channel Islands and Santa Monica Mountains areas. They are known to have lived here for thousands of years and are believed to first come to the area in 30,000 b.c.; numerous archaeological sites have been uncovered in the past decade. The Chumash and Gabrielino-Tongva peoples visited present-day Azusa Street and downtown Los Angeles regularly to visit the Los Angeles river, however, they are not thought to have established a village in the area because the Los Angeles River flooded the valley regularly prior to being altered by future settlers. There were about ...