Moyongna, alternatively spelled Moyonga, was a coastal

Tongva The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . Some descendants of the people prefer Kizh as an endonym that, they argue, is more historically ...

village or landmark site located near the entrance of Newport Bay in

Newport Beach, California Newport Beach is a coastal city in South Orange County, California. Newport Beach is known for swimming and sandy beaches. Newport Harbor once supported maritime industries however today, it is used mostly for recreation. Balboa Island, Newport ...

near

Corona del Mar Corona del Mar (Spanish for "Crown of the Sea") is a seaside neighborhood in the city of Newport Beach, California. It generally consists of all the land on the seaward face of the San Joaquin Hills south of Avocado Avenue to the city limits, as ...

. As a coastal village, the usage of '' te'aats'' was likely important to the village's people. Nearby coastal villages included Genga, located on Newport Mesa, and

Lupukngna Lupukngna was a coastal Tongva village that was at least 3,000 years old located on the bluffs along the Santa Ana River in Huntington Beach near the Newland House Museum. Other nearby coastal villages included Genga, located in West Newport Be ...

, located near the mouth of the

Santa Ana River The Santa Ana River is the largest river entirely within Southern California in the United States. It rises in the San Bernardino Mountains and flows for most of its length through San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, before cutting through ...

. The root word ''Moyo'' in the

Tongva language The Tongva language (also known as Gabrielino or Gabrieleño) is an extinct Uto-Aztecan language formerly spoken by the Tongva, a Native American people who live in and around Los Angeles, California. It has not been a language of everyday conve ...

has been linked with Corona del Mar, similar to ''Lupuk'' being linked with Bolsa Chica. The site may have been too disturbed by

urbanization Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly t ...

to note any precise location. Some researchers have placed the location at the Newporter Inn in Corona Del Mar, which was built in the early 1960s, although others have referred to this as based on scanty evidence. As noted in 1962, signs of Indigenous inhabitance along this area of the coast was common: "Almost every ridge that ends at the sea between

and

Dana Point Dana Point () is a city located in southern Orange County, California, United States. The population was 33,107 at the 2020 census. It has one of the few harbors along the Orange County coast, and with ready access via State Route 1, it is a po ...

has its soil flecked with charcoal, marine shells, and bits of bone." In one map of the area published in 1978, the village was incorrectly labeled as Mocuachem, a Payómkawichum village that was otherwise recorded in most other sources as located in the Las Pulgas area.

References

{{Indigenous peoples of California Tongva populated places Former Native American populated places in California History of Orange County, California Newport Beach, California

See also

References