They were separated by three waves. The first wave was the Spanish Mission System that happened from 1770-1821 that separated indigenous women and two spirited people. The second wave is the Mexican land grant System and secularization. Rather than give the land back to the indigenous people, “gente de razon” were granted huge land tracts that they began to ranch, employing indigenous people as workers but not giving the land back. The third wave was the Anglo-American government sponsored genocide. The state of California along with assistance from the US Army organized militias to raid indigenous villages and outposts. This encouraged local vigilantes to do the same. Local Governments often paid bounties for Indian heads, scalps or body parts. There has also been patriarchal violence and settler colonialism, the Spanish introduced patriarchy, a system where women are inferior to men; they introduced the belief that women should be submissive to men and serve men’s’ needs.

European colonization left us with internalized colonial discourse, which includes racist ideas, and ideas gender and sexuality. The age of decolonization gave independence, but left borders in place that were created arbitrarily by Europeans. These borders were organized to serve colonial needs, so huge barriers to building economics and infrastructure that support the people who live there.

Women historically resisted colonization by, running away from mission and from enslavements, leading defensive and offensive wars, voluntarily resettling in area in the hopes they would be left alone, adopting western cultural norms in the hopes they would be viewed as equals, practicing cultural traditions in secret and pretending to be “civilized” in front of settlers, passing down cultural traditions and languages to children. They also collaborated with western anthropologists and linguist to record cultural practices and languages and burning down missions and other settler buildings.

Decolonization means giving the land back. Dr. Cutcha Rising Baldy’s lecture gives non-indigenous people a good definition when it comes to decolonization. Its more than just land acknowledgement. The decolonial process is possible but until people start talking about it and envisioning it, it’s not ever going to happen, so we need to start saying that giving the land back is possible. There is no environmental justice, social justice, racial justice or food justice of climate justice unless there is land return. We can do all this work but people need to start addressing indigenous dispossession so land return can start. There are no more settler excuses.

The land that I am on today was stolen from the Tongva People. “Gabrielino- Tongva villages were located in the Los Angeles basin for thousands of years. These villages were located near and around the ever changing Los Angeles River, San Gabriel River, Santa Ana River and the costal areas” (http://www.tongvapeople.org). The Tongva people sometimes overlapped at the boundaries with the Chumash, Tataviam, Serrano, Cahuilla, Juaneno and Kuiseno Indians. During the relocation and the assimilation years, many found refuge with other tribes.

I find it important to acknowledge this land because even though I am not indigenous, I grew up on the land of the Tongva people without knowing I did until a few weeks ago while taking this class. I don’t know the history behind this tribe, the people of this tribe deserve to be recognized because they were here first and had no choice other than to blend in with western society or blend in with another tribe. There are over 3,000 Gabrielino- Tongva arc archeological sites in LA County, Orange County and the Channel islands. These indigenous people along with other Southern California tribes should be required to be taught in California schools. There is not enough knowledge and appreciation into this part of history. The tribe was finally recognized under state law in 1994. “there were approximately 5,000 in the Tongva population in Southern California when Europeans made contact with their land”… “as of 2008, 1,700 are documented as members of the Gabrielino- Tongva Tribe” (https://laist.com/2017/10/09/a_brief_history_of_the_tongva_people.php).