Chowigna (also, Unaungna) is a former

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 ...

-Gabrieleño Native American settlement in Los Angeles County,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. It was located in modern-day

Palos Verdes The Palos Verdes Peninsula (''Palos Verdes'', Spanish for "Green Sticks") is a landform and a geographic sub-region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, within southwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. Located in the S ...

Palos Verdes Peninsula The Palos Verdes Peninsula (''Palos Verdes'', Spanish for "Green Sticks") is a landform and a geographic sub-region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, within southwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. Located in the S ...

. 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 American Indian The Southwest Museum of the American Indian is a museum, library, and archive located in the Mt. Washington neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, above the north-western bank of the Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County) canyon and stream. The muse ...

and the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

. Among the thousands of artifacts retrieved were "arrowheads, mortars and pestles, scrapers and spoons made from abalone, beads and art objects, bone tools, shells," including

olivella Olivella is a municipality in Catalonia, in the province of Barcelona, Spain. It is situated in the comarca of Garraf. History The first known village in the area was founded in 992 around a castle known as ''Castell vell''. The inhabitants l ...

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

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