Otsungna 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 ...

village located in what is now the El Sereno neighborhood of

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and

California State University, Los Angeles California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) is a public research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is part of the California State University system. Cal State LA offers 142 bachelor's degree programs, 122 m ...

. It was referenced as the "Otsungna Prehistoric Village Site" in the construction of State Route 710. The village has alternatively been referred to as Ochuunga, derived from the

Tongva language The Tongva language (also known as Gabrielino, Gabrieleño, or Kizh) is an extinct and revitalizing Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Tongva, a Native American people who have lived in and around modern-day Los Angeles for centuries. It has n ...

word for "wild rose" and possibly translating to "Place of Roses."

History

The village was located north and west of the large village of

Yaanga Yaanga was a large Tongva (or Kizh) village, originally located near what is now downtown Los Angeles, just west of the Los Angeles River and beneath U.S. Route 101 in California, U.S. Route 101. People from the village were recorded as ''Yabit ...

connected via a trail with the other village of

Shevaanga Shevaanga or Sibagna (or Sibanga) is a former Tongva village located at the area of what would become San Gabriel, California. It was closely situated to the village of Toviscanga. It lay at an elevation of 430 feet (131 m). It was located near Mi ...

. Spanish priest José Zalvidea noted that the village was located "on the road from San Gabriel to Los Angeles." This was a

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

trail that was used extensively prior to the arrival of the Spanish colonizers. Although evidence of the village has been largely destroyed, it has been proposed that El Sereno was established adjacent to Otsungna as an early Spanish colonial settlement in the Los Angeles area since Tongva laborers were essential to the construction of the city and early settlements were often constructed near preexisting Tongva villages.

References

{{Tongva villages Tongva populated places Former Native American populated places in California