Achooykomenga (''

Hispanicized Hispanicization ( es, hispanización) refers to the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by Hispanic culture or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-Hispanic becomes Hispanic. Hispanicization is il ...

'': Achoicominga or Achoycomihabit) is a former settlement that was located at the site of

Mission San Fernando Rey de España Mission San Fernando Rey de España is a Spanish mission in the Mission Hills community of Los Angeles, California. The mission was founded on 8 September 1797 at the site of Achooykomenga, and was the seventeenth of the twenty-one Spanish mi ...

before it was founded in 1797. Prior to the mission's founding, in the 1780s, it functioned as a shared native settlement for an agricultural rancho of

Pueblo de Los Ángeles El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles (English language, English: ''The town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels''), shortened to Pueblo de los Ángeles, was the Spanish civilian ''Municipality, pueblo'' settled in 1781, which ...

that was worked by Ventureño Chumash,

Fernandeño The Tongva language (also known as Gabrielino or Gabrieleño) is an extinct Uto-Aztecan language formerly spoken by the Tongva, a Native American people who live in and around Los Angeles, California. It has not been a language of everyday conv ...

(Tongva), and

Tataviam The Tataviam (Kitanemuk: ''people on the south slope'') are a Native American group in Southern California. The ancestral land of the Tataviam people includes northwest present-day Los Angeles County and southern Ventura County, primarily in th ...

laborers. The nearby

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 historica ...

village of Pasheeknga (alternatively Pasecgna, Pasheckno, Pasheckna, or Passenga) was located just upstream and is also included as part of the site of the mission's founding due to its close proximity. The village may have been the most populous native village in the San Fernando Valley.

History

Prior to the arrival of Spanish soldiers and missionaries, the sites of Achooykomenga and Pasheeknga were at the northwestern edge of Tovaangar, or the Tongva world, closely located to the nearby traditional homelands of the

to the north and the village of

Tochonanga Tochonanga was a Tataviam village now located at the area of what is now Newhall, Santa Clarita, California, along the Santa Clara River. People baptized from the village were largely moved to Mission San Fernando Rey de España and referred to i ...

Hubert Howe Bancroft Hubert Howe Bancroft (May 5, 1832 – March 2, 1918) was an American historian and ethnologist who wrote, published and collected works concerning the western United States, Texas, California, Alaska, Mexico, Central America and British ...

identified the village of Pasheeknga as a distinct clan from the nearby clans of Okowvinjha, Kowanga (Cahuenga), and Saway-yanga.

Agricultural rancho

The Spanish likely entered the area in the 1770s. Before the founding of Mission San Fernando, Achooykomenga already functioned as a labor camp of Ventureño Chumash,

, and

agricultural workers established by Juan Francisco Reyes, who was an early citizen of the Spanish settlement

founded in 1781. In 1797, the agricultural rancho was selected as the site of

by Spanish missionaries. As a result, it was relocated to the area of Mission La Purísima to the north in what is now

Lompoc, California Lompoc ( ; Chumash: ''Lum Poc'') is a city in Santa Barbara County, California. Located on the Central Coast, Lompoc has a population of 43,834 as of July 2021. Lompoc has been inhabited for thousands of years by the Chumash people, who call ...

. Upon visiting the site, missionaries recorded: "In this place we came to a rancheria chooykomenganear the dwelling of said Reyes – with enough Indians."

Mission San Fernando

The mission was founded at the site on September 8th, 1797 by Friar

Fermín de Lasuén Fermín de Francisco Lasuén de Arasqueta (Vitoria (Spain), 7 June 1736 – Mission de San Carlos (California), 26 June 1803) was a Basque Franciscan missionary to Alta California president of the Franciscan missions there, and founder of nine ...

. By the end of the year, 55 people were baptized at the mission, while by the end of the century 352 people had been baptized. The first people baptized at the mission after its founding were all native children of the agricultural workers who labored for Reyes, many of whose parents were from Achooykomenga and the nearby

village of Momonga located in what is now

Chatsworth, Los Angeles Chatsworth is a suburban neighborhood in the City of Los Angeles, California, in the San Fernando Valley. The area was home to Native Americans, some of whom left caves containing rock art. Chatsworth was explored and colonized by the Spanis ...

. "The first group of ten children baptized on the day the mission was established were said to be from Achooykomenga." 22 people from Achooykomenga and 32 people from Pasheeknga were baptized at Mission San Fernando between 1797-1801, indicating that the settlements were quickly absorbed after the founding of the mission. In 1803, the founder of the mission

indicated that attempts at conversion were largely unsuccessful, and thus the presence or threat of violent force was necessary:

Generally the neophytes have not yet enough affection for Christianity and civilization. Most of them are excessively fond of the mountains, the beach, and of barbarous freedom and independence, so that some show of military force is necessary, lest they by force of arms deny the Faith and law which they have professed.

In 1819, the native population at the mission peaked at 1,080 people. By the time of secularization in 1833, 1,367 native children had been baptized at the mission, in which 965 died at the mission (or over 70% of the children) in childhood. "It was not strange that the fearful death rate both of children and adults at the missions sometimes frightened the neophytes into running away."

References

{{Indigenous peoples of California Tongva populated places Former Native American populated places in California Ranchos of Los Angeles County, California History of Los Angeles County, California California Mission Indians

History

Agricultural rancho

Mission San Fernando

See also

References