Attendees of the Rancho Los Cerritos exhibit of the Tongva tribe peered through a glass display Friday to gaze at a doll that represented the tribe’s spiritual leader, Redbird.
Community members gathered in the Rancho Los Cerritos exhibit opening of the “Tevaaxa’nga (Tevahanga) to Today: Stories of the Tongva People” event Friday night and admired various artifacts, images and stories from the local Tongva (Gabrielino) community.
Sara Wolk FitzGerald, the curator at Rancho Los Cerritos, organized the exhibit. The purpose of the showcase is to honor and acknowledge the history and culture of the Tongva (Gabrielino) people.
The Tongva people are a Native American tribe who inhabited the Los Angeles Basin and the Channel Islands as early as 7000 BCE. They maintained a thriving trade economy with neighboring tribes such as the Cahuilla and Chumash. The Tongva people have no written records, so modern knowledge about them was passed down through oral history and archaeology.
“The reason why we wanted to focus on the Tongva is because here at Rancho Los Cerritos we talk about the history of this land and the Tongva were the first people on this land,” FitzGerald said. “They had a village on land that would become Rancho Los Cerritos called Tevaaxa’nga and that inspired the name of the exhibit.”
The items displayed were loans of personal and family objects. They ranged from an awl, doll, cobstone, necklace, stone tools and a big basket created from plant materials among other things.
Lindsey Philpott, 70, talked about the stone tools the Tongva people would use and their efficacy.
“Seeing the exhibition of the Tongva people here in this location was very important to me because I have a great appreciation for the natural fibers that were used by Native Americans by a very long time to create tools for themselves,” Philpott said.
Admission was free and open to the public for anyone who wanted to come and learn about the community. Guests were able to enjoy snacks and beverages such as cookies, crackers, cheese, black tea and wine.
“The exhibit was to honor the history and the culture of the Tongva, but also make sure we’re talking about the Tongva today because the Native Americans in general are not just people of the past and are part of our community today,” FitzGerald said.
According to FitzGerald, another goal of the exhibit is to inspire people to learn more, read, go to other exhibits and go to public programs as a way to raise awareness.
Audience members learned more about the Tongva community while looking at the information posted about the images and artifacts on display as well as the stories that were told about them.
“They’ve been marginalized since the very beginning with having their land taken away from them and becoming laborers being paid in alcohol only to be arrested for being drunk,” said attendee Caitlin Sauer, 31. “It’s a scary similarity to our society today and the way that minorities are not only underrepresented but there are certain systems put in place to keep them down. Just learning over and over I think it’s important to look back at how things have been so that we can stop this cycle of repetitive subjugation.”