Crop of Huntington Ernest Marquez Collection Cahuenga Pass 1888

Cahuenga ( (also ''Kawé’nga'', Cabeugna, Kowanga, Kawengha, Kawee’nga, or Cabuenga) or "place of the hill" is a former

Tongva 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 . In the precolonial era, the peop ...

– Tataviam (''Fernandeño''–''Gabrieleño'') Native American settlement in the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. One source suggests ''kawe'' means ''mountain'' in

Tongva language The Tongva language (also known as Gabrielino, Gabrieleño, or Kizh) is an extinct and revitalizing Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Tongva, a Native American people who have lived in and around modern-day Los Angeles for centuries. It has n ...

. Recent linguistic work suggests an alternative meaning of "place of the fox". The Tongva-language suffix ''-nga'' indicates place, and the suffix ''-bet'' or ''-bit'' indicates person from place; people from Cahuenga were recorded in mission registers as ''Capuebet.'' The precise location of the village is unknown but it was near the

Mission San Fernando Rey de España Mission San Fernando Rey de España is a Spanish missions in California, Spanish mission in the Mission Hills, Los Angeles, Mission Hills community of Los Angeles, California. The mission was founded on September 8, 1797 at the site of Achooyko ...

, possibly near present-day Universal City. In a 2019 map, the village was placed near the Valley Village neighborhood in Los Angeles. Archeologists commissioned by the

Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), branded as Metro, is the county agency that plans, operates, and coordinates funding for most of the Transportation in Los Angeles, public transportation system in Los Ang ...

(Metro) to investigate the Campo de Cahuenga historic site state "this vicinity was important as the place traditionally identified as the ethnographic village of Kaweenga (various spellings)." The earliest record of a person from Cahuenga in the mission baptismal registers is from 1798.VILLAGE NANES IN TWELVE CALIFORNIA MISSION RECORDS. C. Hart Merriam - https://www.tongvapeople.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/village-names.pdf People associated with Cahuenga or similar village names are "listed 20 times between 1778–1815, in the San Gabriel Mission baptismal register and 62 times (1800–1806) in the San Fernando Mission register." Three people from Capubet/Cahuenga were baptized in the

Pueblo of Los Angeles Pueblo refers to the settlements of the Pueblo peoples, Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settleme ...

. The nearest other village was Siutcanga at the Encino Springs. Baptismal registers indicate a significant number of kinship ties between Siutcanga and Cahuenga, as well as fewer kinship ties between Cahuenga and Tuyunga, Hahamongna, Jautbit, Maobit, Acosiubit, Mauga, and others. The name Cahuenga was later applied to the historic Mexican

land grant A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...

Rancho Cahuenga Rancho Cahuenga, sometimes called the Cahuenga Tract, was a Mexican land grant in the San Fernando Valley, in present-day Los Angeles County, California given in 1843 by governor Manuel Micheltorena to José Miguel Triunfo. Rancho Cahuenga is n ...

, the Battle of Cahuenga Pass (1831), the Second Battle of Cahuenga Pass (1845), and Campo de Cahuenga, in Studio City, California, where the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed. The name survives today in Cahuenga Peak, Cahuenga Pass (between the Valley and

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

), Cahuenga Boulevard, and the Cahuenga Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library.

References

{{authority control Tongva Former Native American populated places in California San Fernando Valley Tongva populated places

See also

References