The Tongva Sacred Springs are a group of
springs located on the campus of
University High School in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
.
The springs, called Kuruvungna by the native
Gabrieleno Tongva people, were used as a source of natural fresh water by the Tongva people since at least the 5th century BC and continue to produce of water a day.
[Motion (Department of Transportation) for installion of ceremonial street signs](_blank)
/ref> The springs are also sometimes referred to as the Gabrieleno-Tongva Springs, the Tongva Holy Springs, and the Sacred Springs. (The deprecated toponym Serra Springs was for Catholic missionary Junípero Serra
Junípero Serra y Ferrer (; ; ca, Juníper Serra i Ferrer; November 24, 1713August 28, 1784) was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Order
, image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg
, image_size ...
who supposedly performed mass at the site in 1770.)
The springs are found at two separate locations on the campus.
The larger group of springs is now closed off from the rest of the campus and is under the care of the Gabrielino/Tongva Springs Foundation. For many years this area was referred to as the “horticultural” or “agricultural area” of the campus. This group includes an “ lagoon.”
The other spring “feeds into a charming man-made waterfall” at the northeastern edge of the upper athletic field.
A third spring was located farther north, near Texas Avenue, but it ceased to flow during the 1940s when a local water company began drawing from the aquifer.
Water from all of the extant springs drains into the Santa Monica Bay.
History
The name Kuruvungna, which means "a place where we are in the sun," comes from the name of a village that was located at the site of the springs. The Portolá Expedition of 1769, one of the two expeditions that led to the founding of Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, camped at that village, while traveling along the route that would become known as El Camino Real. The Tongva gave them watercress
Watercress or yellowcress (''Nasturtium officinale'') is a species of aquatic flowering plant in the cabbage family Brassicaceae.
Watercress is a rapidly growing perennial plant native to Europe and Asia. It is one of the oldest known leaf ve ...
, '' pashí'' (chia) and fresh water from the spring.
The Tongva were described in an unpublished diary of Juan Crespí
Joan Crespí or Juan Crespí (1 March 1721 – 1 January 1782) was a Franciscan missionary and explorer of Las Californias.
Biography
A native of Majorca, Crespí entered the Franciscan order at the age of seventeen. He came to New Spain in ...
, who traveled with the Portolá Expedition of 1769:
... as we arrived and set up camp, six very friendly, compliant tractable heathens came over, who had their little houses roofed with grass, the first we have been seeing of this sort. Three of them came wearing a great deal of paint; all of them, however, unarmed. They brought four or six bowls of usual seeds and good sage which they presented to our captain; on me they bestowed a good sized string of the sort of beads that they all have, made of white sea shells and red ones (though not very bright colored) that look to be coral, though of a very inferior sort.
The name Serra comes from Junípero Serra
Junípero Serra y Ferrer (; ; ca, Juníper Serra i Ferrer; November 24, 1713August 28, 1784) was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Order
, image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg
, image_size ...
, the founder of the Alta California
Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...
mission
Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to:
Organised activities Religion
*Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity
*Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...
chain, who is reported to have said mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
there.
Crespí renamed the springs "San Gregorio" while visiting the Tongva village at the springs with the Portola Expedition in 1769, but the expedition soldiers called them "El Berrendo" after wounding a deer there. Later, around the turn of the 19th century, the two springs began to be called "The Tears of Santa Monica" because they brought to mind the weeping eyes of the saint as she cried for her erring son. "Santa Monica", as an official place name, was first recorded in 1827 on a grazing permit, next in 1828 when the Rancho Boca de Santa Monica was granted to Marques and Reyes.
Later, in 1839, the name was used again for Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica when it was granted to Sepulveda and Machado. Kuruvungna Springs was included in this rancho, the first time it had been "owned" by anyone other than the indigenous inhabitants. Jose Delores Sepulveda, one of the sons of the rancho's owner, lived in the Sepulveda adobe which once stood on the high ground near Bundy Ave and Wilshire Blvd overlooking the Kuruvungna village site and the springs.
The canyon, the ranchos, the city, the bay, the mountains, the boulevard, the airport and the freeway are all called after a former turn-of-the-19th-century name for Kuruvungna Springs.
In the 1800s, the spring served as the water supply for the city of Santa Monica
Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...
.
University High School
Shortly after the annexation of Sawtelle, construction began at the springs to build Warren G. Harding High School, later renamed University High School. Construction at the school in 1925 unearthed evidence of an Indian village. The springs were landscaped to make them a feature of the campus. The waters of the upper spring were made to cascade down a small waterfall (still extant) and also fill a wishing well (demolished).
The source of the lower springs was left open, as it still is, so one could see the water bubbling up through the sand. The overflow fills a large pond with a small island before being directed into a storm drain. The pond was surrounded with manicured lawns and served as a gathering place for students and the setting for group graduation photos. However, the springs corner of the campus fell into disrepair in the 1980s and began to be used as a dump. After the Gabrielino Tongva Springs Foundation removed tons of trash from the site in the 1990s, the area around the springs was planted with tule reeds and other native plants.
In 1975, a grave containing a small skeleton and soapstone bowls was discovered by students and a science teacher from what archaeologists now believe to be a burial site. This grave was dated to approximately 4000 BCE
4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures.
In mathematics
Four is the smallest c ...
and the character of the bowls suggested kinship with the culture of Santa Catalina Island in the same era.
In 1980 Indian Springs Continuation High School
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
, which is housed on the part of the campus where the springs are, was opened.
In 1992, developers proposed an underground parking lot one block north of the springs which would have cut off the spring's water. In response, tribal descendants, community members and teachers and students from the school founded a non-profit foundation, the Gabrielino/Tongva Springs Foundation, and after a two-year fight, the proposed parking structure was voted down.
The foundation currently leases the site from the Los Angeles Unified School District
Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a public school district in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the 2nd largest public school district in ...
in order to use the location for their monthly ceremony and guided tours, and received a $7,000 grant from Los Angeles' Environmental Affairs Department to enhance the area with different types of trees, vines and herbs.
In 1992, the newly established Gabrieleno Springs Foundation held the first annual Life Before Columbus Day event. The event takes place just before Columbus Day every year and celebrates the history of the land and of the Tongva people. Previous events have drawn more than 600 people, including Native Americans from various tribes, local politicians, community members and students and faculty from the school. The event includes tours of the Kuruvunga Village site and springs, performances by dancers from the 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 ...
and Aztec
The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...
tribe and storytelling from the Chumash Chumash may refer to:
*Chumash (Judaism), a Hebrew word for the Pentateuch, used in Judaism
*Chumash people, a Native American people of southern California
*Chumashan languages, indigenous languages of California
See also
* Chumash traditional ...
tribe. There are also hands-on activities like corn-doll making, rock painting, and tortilla making, offered by authentic Native American vendors.
In 1998, Governor Pete Wilson signed senate bill SB 1956. The Bill, introduced by Senator Tom Hayden, required the California Department of Parks and Recreation
The California Department of Parks and Recreation, more commonly known as California State Parks, manages the California state parks system. The system administers 279 separate park units on 1.4 million acres (570,000 hectares), with over 280 ...
to, "seek to establish a permanent cultural and ecological site at the
Gabrielino/Tongva Springs", and called for the creation of a task force created by University
High School's administration, "in consultation with the Gabrielino/Tongva
Springs Foundation and the Los Angeles Unified School District". The bill appropriated $50,000 to the department to be spent on a local assistance grant to the task force, "to plan for the preservation of
the Gabrielino/Tongva Springs, and property adjacent thereto...in order to enhance environmental, cultural, and
educational opportunities."[SB 1956 Amended](_blank)
California Historical Landmark
The marker at the site reads:
NO. 522 SERRA SPRINGS - The Portolá Expedition of 1769 encamped at this spring, and it is reported that in 1770 Father Serra said Mass here to the Indians of this area. This spring was also the former water supply of the town of Santa Monica. The site is now the campus of the University High School.
The springs have a UCLA Archaeological designation of CA-LAN-382. They are designated by California Historical Landmark
A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance.
Criteria
Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...
#522.
See also
*Tongva people
The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous peoples of California, Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Channel Islands of California, Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . Some descendants of the people p ...
*Population of Native California
The population of Native California refers to the population of Indigenous peoples of California. Estimates prior to and after European contact have varied substantially. Pre-contact estimates range from 133,000 to 705,000 with some recent schol ...
*Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans, also known as American Indians, First Americans, Indigenous Americans, and other terms, are the Indigenous peoples of the mainland United States ( Indigenous peoples of Hawaii, Alaska and territories of the United State ...
References
External links
Gabrielino/Tongva Springs Foundation
Video
Kuruvungna Springs video
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{{Traditional Narratives (California groups)
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Tongva
Tongva populated places
Native American history of California
Religious places of the indigenous peoples of North America
Springs of California
Sacred springs
Archaeological sites in California
California Historical Landmarks
History of Los Angeles
Bodies of water of Los Angeles County, California
University High School (Los Angeles)
History of Los Angeles County, California
Native Americans in Los Angeles
Junípero Serra