Genga, alternative spelling Gengaa and Kengaa, was a

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 ...

and

Acjachemen The Acjachemen () are an Indigenous people of California. Published maps often identify their ancestral lands as extending from the beach to the mountains, south from what is now known as Aliso Creek (Orange County), Aliso Creek in Orange County, ...

village located on Newport Mesa overlooking 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 County, California, San Bernardino and Riversid ...

in the

Newport Beach Newport Beach is a coastal city of about 85,000 in southern Orange County, California, United States. Located about southeast of downtown Los Angeles, Newport Beach is known for its sandy beaches. The city's harbor once supported maritime indu ...

and

Costa Mesa, California Costa Mesa (; Spanish language, Spanish for "coastal tableland") is a city in Orange County, California, United States. Since its incorporation in 1953, the city has grown from a semi-rural farming community of 16,840 to an urban area including ...

area which included an open site now referred to as Banning Ranch. Archaeological evidence dates the village at over 9,000 years old. Villagers were recorded as Gebit in Spanish Mission records. The village may have been occupied as late as 1829 or 1830. An attempt in 2001 to preserve a nearby 9,000 year old village site from commercial development failed. A similar attempt to save a burial site of Genga in the 2010s also failed. This has initiated concerns over preservation in the area. A large part of the contemporary site of Genga situated in Banning Ranch may be transformed into a public open space as of 2022. The Tongva and Acjachemen support having a voice in the process.

History

Indigenous

Genga was in close proximity and had influence over Newport Bay, as reflected in the bay's original name given by the Spanish ''Bolsa de Gengar''. The village's influence may have extended up to the northern

San Joaquin Hills The San Joaquin Hills are a low mountain range of the Peninsular Ranges System, located in coastal Orange County, California. They extend in a northwest–southeast direction, starting in the northwest in Newport Beach, California, Newport Beac ...

. One estimate placed the village population at around 100–150 at the time of contact. The village was multiethnic and multilingual, being shared by the Tongva and Acjachemen. Archaeological evidence dates the village to be at least 9,000 years old. As a coastal village, the usage of ''

te'aat A ''tomol'' or ''tomolo'' ( Chumash) or ''te'aat'' or ''ti'at'' (Tongva/ Kizh) are plank-built boats, historically and currently in the Santa Barbara, California and Los Angeles area. They replaced or supplemented tule reed boats. The boats were ...

s'' may have been important to the village's people. It is also likely that, similar to the nearby village of

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, California, Huntington Beach near the Newland House Museum. Other nearby coastal villages included Genga ...

, villagers primarily subsisted on acorns, seeds, berries, small game, fish and shellfish. Shell mounds were a part of village life. Cog stones have been found in the village area as well.

Spanish mission period

After the arrival of the Spanish colonizers, villagers were baptized at San Gabriel and

San Juan Capistrano San Juan Capistrano (also known colloquially as San Juan or SJC) is a city in southern Orange County, California, United States. The population was 35,253 at the 2020 Census. Named for Saint John of Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano was founded ...

missions and had marriage ties with villagers from

Hutuknga Hutuknga (alternative spellings: Hotuuknga or Hutuukuga) was a large Tongva village located in the foothills along the present channel of the Santa Ana River in what is now Yorba Linda, California. People from the village were recorded in mission ...

Puvunga Puvunga (alternatively spelled Puvungna or Povuu'nga) is an ancient village and sacred site of the Tongva nation, the Indigenous people of the Los Angeles Basin, and the Acjachemen, the Indigenous people of Orange County. The site is now locate ...

, and settlements around San Juan Capistrano. The

Diego Sepúlveda Adobe The Diego Sepúlveda Adobe, sometimes called the Costa Mesa Estancia or the Santa Ana Estancia, is an adobe structure in Costa Mesa, Orange County, California. It is the second-oldest building still standing in the county. History The adobe w ...

was built overlooking

and Genga from between 1817 and 1823 as an outpost "to watch over cattle and Indians." In 1827, missionaries considered whether to move their entire operation to the location. Like many surrounding Tongva and Acjachemen villages, the village declined with the growth of the missions, where Indigenous labor was exploited to construct mission facilities and tend to the mission's grounds. By the early nineteenth century, the village was being depleted and may have been occupied until 1829 or 1830. Yet, the place name carried forward in the nineteenth century, with the bay being labeled the ''bolsa de gengara'', an alternative spelling of the village, on an 1853 map.

Preservation attempts

Human remains from the village were uncovered in the 2010s. Although Tongva and Acjachemen people campaigned to stop the development of a site where six hundred of their ancestors' remains were found, their attempt failed. The remains were moved from the original burial site, which now sits under a parking lot next to a bank, to a dirt lot about a half-mile away. Lack of

federal recognition This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes are legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United States.

of the Tongva and Acjachemen prevents them from controlling their ancestral remains and artifacts. In 2013, the city of

Costa Mesa Costa may refer to: Biology * Rib (Latin: ''costa''), in vertebrate anatomy * Costa (botany), the central strand of a plant leaf or thallus * Costa (coral), a stony rib, part of the skeleton of a coral * Costa (entomology), the leading edge o ...

may have approved plans to construct over a site near the village location in nearby Fairview Park, despite archaeologists and Indigenous people speaking against further development in the area given the significance of the site, as well as its listing on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

since 1972. There were further concerns that the archaeological survey was being conducted by the Scientific Resource Surveys, Inc. (SRS), which has a poor track record in the area for preserving

village sites, being fined $600,000 for digging trenches into a 9,000 year old village site in Bolsa Chica in 2001. Banning Ranch, part of the site of Genga, which had been a large coastal oil field since 1943, may be transformed into a public open space as of 2022 after many years of organizing to preserve the site both as green space for the city as well as for historic preservation. City leaders of the project have said that "tribal descendants of the area’s earliest residents will also have a voice" in how the park is developed.

References

External links