Toypurina: Native American Warrior Princess

Xochitl, Crystal Quintero, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; F. J. Vasquez; Pasadena Library

In 1785 a Tongva medicine woman leads a revolt against Spanish missionaries who forbid Native practices [language, pre-colonial freedom]. Her name is Toypurina (WQ).

.

Toypurina, California's Joan of Arc
Goodreads; Ernest P. Salas Teutimes, Andrew Salas, Christina Swindall Martinez, Gary Stickel

Indigenous resistance leader, Toypurina

Toypurina is not only the heroine of the Kizh/Gabrielino people but she is unique in California history and, indeed, in the history of the U.S.

This is because she is the only Native American woman to have led a revolt against foreign conquering powers.

Her story is remarkably like Joan of Arc; although both women met tragic ends, their remarkable accomplishments make them timeless and inspiring heroines.

Unfortunately, Toypurina's life story has been misrepresented in the historical writings to date.

Now for the first time, the Kizh/Gabrielino people present her factual story as well as her astounding legacy.

 

(Fernando J. Vasquez, Ralph Nabor) Toypurina, a Native American medicine woman in pre-Los Angeles of the 1700s at the San Gabriel Mission, started an Indian uprising against colonizers.

.

Event: Toypurina, California's Joan of Arc
7:00 pm, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017 (Central Pasadena Library) Donald Wright Auditorium

Toypurina, rebel leader, Los Angeles

Toypurina (1760-1799) was a Tongva (called Gabrielinos by the colonizers) Native American medicine woman and rebellion leader. She opposed the rule of colonization by Spanish Christian missionaries in Southern California.

Toypurina led an unsuccessful rebellion against them. She lived during a particularly historic time in early California, which was then a part of Mexico called Alta California as distinct from today's Baja California (alta=upper, baja=lower), which is still a part of Mexico.

Toypurina Kizh/Tongva: "Be Brave and Fight [the rapists]" (modern L.A. area mural)

.

Native American tribal lands of SoCal

Toypurina was 9 years old when the Spanish colonizers first arrived at what is now known as the Los Angeles Basin. She was 11 when Mission San Gabriel Archangel was completed, and 21 when Governor Felipe de Neve founded the Pueblo of Los Angeles, Alta California.

Toypurina: The Joan of Arc of California

In time, Toypurina rose to be a powerful spiritual leader, respected for her bravery and wisdom.

She was considered a great communicator, trading with dozens of villages in the many indigenous languages of pre-colonial California used from nearby Santa Catalina Island, visible from Santa Monica Beach (and the much farther out isle now known as San Nicolas or the Island of the Blue Dolphins, where lived the amazing Tongva woman "Karana," Christened "Juana Maria" by the Catholic missionaries in Santa Barbara who contributed to her death), through the eastern foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains to the northwestern San Fernando Valley.

• Presented by authors Dr. Gary Stickel and Dr. Christina Swindall Martinez. Q&A to follow. Books available for sale and signing. 7:00-8:00 pm.
• MAP: 285 E. Walnut St., Pasadena, 91101 (626) 744-4066

Toypurina: The Stage Show
Jonathan Salisbury (description edited by Wisdom Quarterly)

We are the Natives, the indigenous people of Los Angeles, before extinction.

 

Help bring this new stage show to life! It's about the remarkable Native American medicine woman Toypurina, who led her tribe, the Indigenous people of Los Angeles known as the Tongva, the "People," in a rebellion against the European militant Catholic concentration camp called "San Gabriel Mission" in 1785.