History of L.A.

The area now called Los Angeles was settled in about 9,000 bc by Native American people related to the Shoshone.

By the time of their first contact with Europeans in ad 1542, these people were divided into three principal groups: the Tataviam, the Chumash, and the Tongva.

The Tataviam, whose territory lay north of the San Fernando Valley, numbered perhaps 1,000.

The Chumash, with a population of greater than 5,000, lived along the coastal areas in settlements centered in present-day Santa Barbara, west of Los Angeles.

The Tongva people had the largest population—perhaps 10,000—and lived along the Los Angeles River. They called their village—the future site of downtown Los Angeles—Yang-Na.

These Native Americans lived on seasonal hunting, gathering the plentiful acorns of the evergreen California live oak tree, and fishing the rich coastal waters.

Traveling in canoes and on foot, they traded with other indigenous peoples far to the north along the coast and far inland.

After 1519 news traveled along these long-distance trade routes of a strange new people conquering Mexico: tall, light-skinned men who wore beards and rode horses.

So when the first Spanish explorers landed in 1542 on the beaches of Los Angeles under the command of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, the Tongva and Chumash were not surprised.

Cabrillo, searching the area for deepwater harbors and potential riches to plunder, stayed only briefly, and died on the nearby Channel Islands after being wounded in a battle with the Chumash.

After this early encounter, there was little further European interest in the region for 200 years.

(1) SPANISH COLONIAL LOS ANGELES
(2) AMERICAN COW TOWN
(3) WATER AND GROWTH
(4) ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
(5) RACIAL TENSIONS
(6) BOOM YEARS
(7) TODAY'S LOS ANGELES