Tongva tradition reasserts identity

By Michael Ashcraft --

With hands clasped interlaced by a strip of otter skin and a strip of rabbit skin, bride Christy Villaseñor and Alex Loera received blessing on their marriage through Tongva tradition Saturday on the southwest edge of University High at their sacred site.

While water gurgled out of the idyllic springs under the shade of a Mexican Cypress tree, Andrew "Guiding Young Cloud" Morales burned sage, danced a traditional dance, sang in native tongue and performed symbolic rituals for the newly united couple.

The Tongva lost their land and freedom to the Spanish colonizers, who forced them into the equivalent of plantation slave labor and "eliminated Indians with the effectiveness of Nazis operating concentration camps," according to author lawyer Carey McWilliams.

Originally spread out in villages around the Los Angeles basin, the Tongva lived off the richness of the land until Gaspar de Portola with Junipero Serra established Spanish presence in the area. The springs, which gush about 25,000 gallons of fresh water daily, were a center for existence and gave rise to the name of "Santa Monica" because the Spaniards, seeing the water flow, were reminded of the tears Monica cried for her errant son Augustine.

Today, the Tongva, who number around 3,900, are deeply divided over those who favor establishing a reservation casino and those who oppose it. The Tongva were never federally recognized or never granted land like other tribes.

Instead, California has conceded a smattering of sites for the Tongva, including one on the California State University Long Beach campus and one on Uni High. The Santa Monica contingent of Tongva, numbering 500, oppose the gambling ambitions of their fellows, believing the disadvantages outweigh the supposed benefits of generating income each tribe member.

While competing petitions for federal recognition from different contingents wend their way through federal bureaucracy, self-identifying tribes people keep alive their traditions at the sacred sites.

The springs are a charming oasis in the wearisome development of concrete and materialism just 100 yards away on Barrington and Ohio Avenues. It would make an enticing wedding venue but is not open as such to the public.

As Saturday demonstrated, the ambitions for a land base -- a reservation -- is only one concern of the Tongva. Another is keeping the culture alive.

Andrew burned incense and performed ritualistic movements with a bird's wing attached rigidly to a handle. He presented a bow and an arrow, the bow symbolic of the woman, the arrow of the man, each useless without each other, powerful together.

He intertwined their hands with a strip of otter's skin and one of rabbit's. "The otter represents of course the ocean. It also represents unity, the joining together," Andrew said. "The rabbit represents love and future children and peace."

Onlookers number 20 and formed a circle around the couple while the flute played softly. Towards the end, Andrew performed a ceremonial dance representing the hunt.

The Tongva Springs are a Shangri-La in the hubbub of West Los Angeles, an undiscovered emerald. In all its pristine natural beauty today, the Springs offers an educational museum and a native garden, with a grass hut example of how the Spaniards found the Tongva (who are also called wrongly Gabrielenos).

The Springs owe their current state to the indefatigable labors of Angie "Whispering Waters" Behrns, who at a Uni High school reunion wanted to show them off to her new husband Don Behrns.

As she led Don down the slop towards what had once been the horticultural building next to the Springs, she was horrified to find they had become a dumping grounds. The horticultural building, long abandoned, was broken down and had become home to several homeless.

Angie was outraged that a cultural treasure had been so utterly trashed. She immediately began a campaign to kick out the drug users from the building and secure funds for restoration of the sacred site.

It was Angie's granddaughter, Christy, who received tribal blessings on her marriage Saturday.

Michael Ashcraft teaches journalism at the Lighthouse Christian Academy in Santa Monica.