Chowigna (also, Unaungna) 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 ...

-Gabrieleño Native American settlement in

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 ...

. It was located in modern-day Palos Verdes Estates,

Palos Verdes Peninsula The Palos Verdes Peninsula () is a peninsular subregion of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, located within southwestern Los Angeles County, California. It is often called simply "Palos Verdes", and is made up of a group of cities in the Palos ...

. Name variations include: Chowiinga, Chowi, Unaungna, Chowigna, and Chowingna (near San Pedro). The Chowigna Village site at Malaga Cove has been inhabited for at least 7,100 years. It was first described by the Cabrillo Expedition in 1542. It was excavated in 1936–37 by the Southwest Museum of the Native Americans and the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

. Among the thousands of artifacts retrieved were "arrowheads, mortars and pestles, scrapers and spoons made from

abalone Abalone ( or ; via Spanish , from Rumsen language, Rumsen ''aulón'') is a common name for any small to very large marine life, marine gastropod mollusc in the family (biology), family Haliotidae, which once contained six genera but now cont ...

, beads and art objects, bone tools, shells," including olivella and giant keyhole limpet shells, "and bones from food animals like mussels and birds ... An estimated 150 people lived at the site in its last days, about 1775." "The site

stratigraphy Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithost ...

and

material culture Material culture is culture manifested by the Artifact (archaeology), physical objects and architecture of a society. The term is primarily used in archaeology and anthropology, but is also of interest to sociology, geography and history. The fie ...

assemblage provided the central framework of early cultural chronological sequences for the region." Artifacts of the Chowigna Native Americans are held by the Southwest Museum of the Native Americans and the Redondo Beach Historical Museum.Welcome to the Redondo Beach Historical Museum: A self-guided tour
/ref> The Chowigna Natives used the site of today's Hopkins Wilderness Park, formerly Nike missile site LA-57 from 1956 to 1963, in

Redondo Beach Redondo Beach (Spanish for ) is a coastal city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located in the South Bay region of the Greater Los Angeles area. It is one of three adjacent beach cities along the southern portion of Santa Mo ...

as a lookout place. The wetlands located at the site of today's AES power plant in Redondo Beach were a source of foods including halibut, lobster, and sea bass, and also of salt. In the 18th century, the Chowigna bartered salt from the old Redondo Salt Lake, "a spring-fed salt lake about 200 yards wide and 600 yards long situated about 200 yards from the ocean", with other tribes. Their village by the lake was called "Onoova-nga", or "Place of Salt." The Chowigna were relocated to missions in 1854, when Manuel Dominguez sold 215 acres of Rancho San Pedro, including the lake, to Henry Allanson and William Johnson for the Pacific Salt Works. The Chowigna rancheria was associated with the

Mission San Gabriel Arcángel Mission San Gabriel Arcángel () is a Californian mission and historic landmark in San Gabriel, California. It was founded by the Spanish Empire on the Nativity of Mary September 8, 1771, as the fourth of what would become twenty-one Spanish mi ...

References

*Walker, Edwin Francis. (1936) Malaga Cove Field Notes; Southwest Museum Archives. Manuscript #220, Box #3. *Walker, Edwin Francis. (1952) Five Prehistoric Archaeological Sites in Los Angeles County. Reprinted in 1973. Los Angeles: Southwest Museum.

External links

Photo of plaque commemorating Chowigna Village excavations
* * Former settlements in Los Angeles County, California Former Native American populated places in California Former populated places in California Tongva populated places {{LosAngelesCountyCA-geo-stub

See also

References

External links