Indigenous Peoples Honored With Tongva Monument in Rancho Palos Verdes

Several years ago, Rancho Palos Verdes resident Tom Steers had the idea to place a monument honoring the Tongva people on the Palos Verdes coastline. Steers approached the city about the monument dedicated to the peace-loving hunter-gatherers who inhabited the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands.

The plan came to fruition and on Oct. 16, the city of Rancho Palos Verdes unveiled the monument in a ceremony honoring the Indigenous people of Los Angeles at a site where they once fished for abalone, at Abalone Cove Park.

Designed in collaboration with the Gabrieleño/Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, the stone monument displays interpretive bas relief plaques sculpted by artist Geri Jimenez Gould.

The monument joins a series of similar nearby installations highlighting Catalina Island, the natural habitat of the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Portuguese Bend.

The project won the support of the Gabrieleño/Tongva SanGabrielBand of Mission Indians, Los Serenos de Point Vicente and the Rancho de los Palos Verdes Historical Society before it was approved by the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council in March 2020.

Tribe leaders and elders took part in the design process to ensure historical and cultural accuracy, including Chief Anthony Morales, the late Tribal Council Elder Julia Bogany, Geri Gould, and Jesus Gutierrez, who are both Tongva-descendant elders.

The monument — a concrete block faced with Palos Verdes stone and bronze plaques — includes a central scene depicting a Tongva village with Catalina Island visible in the background. The location at Abalone Cove was selected for both its historical significance and its high visibility, as the park sees thousands of visitors each month.

In the precolonial era the Tongva people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands, inhabited an area covering about 4,000 square miles. During colonization, the Tongva were referred to as Gabrieleño and Fernandeño. These names were derived from the Spanish missions built on their land: Mission San Gabriel Arcángel and Mission San Fernando Rey de España.

The Tongva along with the Chumash, were the most influential people at the time of European arrival. They developed an extensive trade network through te’aats or canoe’s and a vibrant food and material culture based on an Indigenous worldview that positioned humans as one strand in a web of life.

At Abalone Cove Park, Sup. Janice Hahn presented Chief Anthony Redblood Morales with an official scroll.

“On behalf of the County of Los Angeles honoring the legacy of the Gabrieleño/Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians … today we are honoring you by unveiling this monument.” Hahn said.

Chief Morales extended greetings and welcomes to everyone before leading the crowd in a traditional prayer.

“Our songs are also our prayers,” he said. “We are the direct descendants of the ancestry that built the San Gabriel Mission over 250 years ago. I’m not going to go into the bad treatment and history that was imposed on our people. We the know the atrocities, slavery and abuse. That’s a chapter of our history that we can not ever let that be forgotten. In today’s time, it’s our opportunity to be heard.”

The chief mentioned the late Tribal Council Elder Julia Bogany who was going to be at the unveiling, but unfortunately died this past spring. Bogany’s vision was and she said, “Now, not only do we need to be verbal or heard, now is the time for us to be visible. We are the least heard people.”

Chief Morales said the city council and President Joe Biden did a good thing in acknowledging Indigenous Peoples Day, as well as the president signing the proclamation to recognize the day. He noted that alongside the president sat the first Native American woman to serve as a cabinet member, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland.

“It’s an honor that finally, finally we are going to be visible.”

The president signed the first-ever presidential proclamation Oct. 8, for Indigenous Peoples Day, refocusing the federal holiday for Christopher Columbus toward appreciating the native people of America.

The Tongva monument was funded by more than 50 private donors. Marilyn Long, President of the Long Family Foundation, offered encouragement and initial financial support for this project.

Steers said he is pleased to see the monument shared with the public, especially during the same week as Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Geri Gould, a Santa Fe, New Mexico-based painter and sculptor specializes in bas relief portraits for medals, coins, awards, and public works. For the monument, Gould focused on family and village life, which is central to Native American culture. The main plaque depicts a traditional Tongva village, a ki, or reed home, a young family, and fishermen preparing the daily catch. Two side panels tell the story of the Tongva and the coastal region known as Shwaanga. A fourth plaque lists the donors who made the monument possible.

“The Gabrieleño/Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians is honored that the city of Rancho Palos Verdes is acknowledging us as the local tribe of the Los Angeles Basin and allowing this sculpture to be erected on the bluffs of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, the site of Native American villages and where our people lived off the ocean,” said Chief Morales.

“When you look across the water to Catalina Island, there are burial sites there,” the Chief said. “Our ancestors lived there. When you see this monument and the waters and the Island, imagine our ancestors with their te’aats, their canoe’s, probably taking off from these shores and going back and forth.”

Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor Eric Alegria encouraged everyone to visit and appreciate the monument.

“I hope this beautiful monument serves to educate generations of Angelenos about the Tongva people, both locally on the Peninsula, and regionally.”

The monument is located just south of the parking lot at Abalone Cove Park at 5970 Palos Verdes Drive South.