Mapipinga was a

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 ...

village now located in the Vasquez Rocks Natural Park Area. People from the village were known as ''Mapipibit'' (singular) and ''Mapipivitam'' (plural). The village declined with the arrival of the Spanish and the establishment of

Mission San Fernando Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

in the area.

Village life

The village was organized as an independent

city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...

government. The villagers engaged in collective economic and ceremonial activities and traded with nearby villages. Like many Tatatviam villages, the primary social responsibility of the village people was to their village. Primary food sources for the village were

Yucca ''Yucca'' is a genus of perennial shrubs and trees in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae. Its 40–50 species are notable for their rosettes of evergreen, tough, sword-shaped leaves and large terminal panicles of white or whitish ...

Juniper Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' () of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from the Arcti ...

, and

Sage Sage or SAGE may refer to: Plants * ''Salvia officinalis'', common sage, a small evergreen subshrub used as a culinary herb ** Lamiaceae, a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint or deadnettle or sage family ** ''Salvia'', a large ...

.{{Cite web , last=Carlson , first=Timothy , date=2019-10-11 , title=Vasquez Rocks: Movie Shoot Hiking in the High Desert , url=https://hikethepla.net/vasquez-rocks/ , access-date=2023-01-07 , website=Hike The Planet! , language=en-US

Decline

With the arrival of the

Franciscan missionaries , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

backed by soldiers of the

Spanish Empire The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...

, the village was consistently put under stress from the demands of

for converts and labor. People were taken from the village in the early 1800s. Over time, the village was depleted of people and ceased to function as it had for thousands of years. In the records of the Spanish missions, it is documented that "a thirty-five year old man, said to be chief of Mapipinga" was baptized.

References

Former Native American populated places in California History of Los Angeles County, California