The Native Americans of Los Angeles (video)

Xochitl, Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Pat Macpherson, Crystal Quintero, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Anahuac Aztlan (video); Nauiocelotl, Linda Gonzales; Sam Villa (video); RT

American Buddhists hold in awe and treasure Native Americans after reading Rick Fields' book: How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America.

Columbusing means "discovering something that is not new." Jennie Garth uses colored powder the way the Indian holiday of Holi is celebrated to give LA some "color" (npr.org).

The Worst Slaughter of Indian Peoples in US History: California Marysville and Honey Lake paid whites bounties for scalps. Shasta City offered $5 for each Indian head brought to City Hall. (L.A. paid 5 cents according to Linda Gonzales below). The California State Treasury reimbursed many of the local governments for their expenses. There were 150,000 Indians in California before the 49ers came. By 1870, there were fewer than 30,000 making it the worst slaughter of Native Americans in US history.

See below for video on what Europeans found

TOVANGAR (Los Angeles), California - This documentary is about the "Tongva," the Native American people and culture that was declared extinct after invasion by Europeans who wanted to make California a faraway colony to increase their riches relative to their European peers.

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

The title "empire" passed from country to country, the Italians (Romans), Spanish, British, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Russians, Germans, Americans.

After fighting one another to occupy this land, a land of over 100 million "Indians," the First Nations people of North America:

Tongva and other local tribes like the Chumash, Acjachemen, Paiutes, Mexicas, Shoshone, Cherokee, Hopis, Anasazi, and countless others were first displaced then annihilated. 

Amazing compilation of photos by Edward S. Curtis from The North American Indian (1907-1930). The Tongva, renamed "Gabrielinos" by invading oppressors, are a California Indian tribe now referred to as "The San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians" (gabrielinotribe.org).

Spanish steal then British-Americans

They were ethnically cleansed. It was the land's first genocide. Thank you, Christian white males, not that anyone would want to stereotype the terrorists, thieves, and war criminals.

The local culture of Tongva that inhabited Southern California, the Los Angeles basin and local islands, actually survived for many years in secret. Many fled to Mexico and returned to their land with their identities washed out of them. Now they were "illegals" and "migrants" in their own land.

 

How the Swans (Rick Fields)

Of course, Native Americans did not have a concept of personal ownership of land. But the invaders did -- and they had papers with writing to prove it.

Oh, well, if you have a paper that says you own this land, you must. We would ignore it, but you keep calling your military, militarized civilian police, lawyers, and courts to enforce your fancy documents. Who can trump that?

TONGVA HEADS WANTED: 5 cents each!

(Nauiocelotl) Interview with Tongva elder who remembers hidden history of annihilation of first inhabitants of place we now call L.A. as if the Spanish invaders had been the first people.

Native American Linda Gonzales talks about the Mission Era that decimated the Tongva. The Tongva were the First  Nation people of Los Angeles and California. 

What Europeans really found in "New" World

 
(RT video) After Columbusing these shores, Europeans like the Spanish and British decided to rape the land, its inhabitants, then slaughter and bury the corpses and memories of all who had been her and what they built. Finally, the truth is being exposed:

• VIDEO: Truth about US before European invasion

Journey to Tovangar: The European Incursion

GabrielenoTongva.com (Tongva History) edited for clarity by Wisdom Quarterly

Incursion is invasion with the intent of altering the culture of the invaded to conform to the culture of the invaders.

The first contrast is that of exposure. The majority of the California Indians in their tribal nations lived in relative isolation.

So Europe, and Spain in particular [followed by a British-American invasion], did not meet with a single group of people. They met with a multiplicity of “linguistic nations.” Each linguistic nation was made up of tribal communities rather than centralized nations.

"Insurgents" - anyone the U.S. dislikes (WQ).

[United we would have stood; instead, divided we fell.] Each had its own center of power. Each fiercely defended its independence and autonomy from other tribes.

The second contrast is that of worldview. Natural barriers kept many tribal nations relatively independent and isolated. It prevented the forming of large alliances and political entities with powerful leaders to unify vast numbers of people.

California’s Native communities never envisioned a world of European conquest or foreign domination.

The world of the Tongva was “the world to the Tongva.” The idea of invading and conquering others was foreign to the Tongva as it was to all of California’s tribal First Nations. More

• "The European Incursion" into Tongva's Tovangar