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On July 10th, the church signed the act of transporting half-acres of land hosting a community center in the heart of San Gabriel. This is within a mile of Mission San Gabriel Arkanger to an Indigenous nonprofit.
On paper, it was a relatively normal transaction (except the $0 price tag probably). But it was nothing for the San Gabriel Band, a Mission Indian based in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. For centuries, a portion of their ancestor territory belongs to them.
“When my daughter was in grammar school and high school, there was a book that stated that we were extinct,” said Art Morales, a tribal elder and historian. For Morales, endurance of its long and painful history is what makes agreement so important. The tribes are “basically on the map now.”
Previously owned by the Presbyterians of San Gabriel – the Presbyterian Church (USA), one of the largest Presbyterian churches in the United States, hosts offices, kitchens, community spaces, outdoor patios and green spaces.
Gabrieno Tonva Tribal Centre in Sibanguna, San Gabriel.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
Currently under tribal ownership, led by the Gabriele Notonva Tribal Council, the space will host cultural ceremonies, government meetings, programming for tribal youths and community food banks.
Unlike tribes with federal awareness, hundreds of people who do not have it have no direct legal action to negotiate with the US government for reservations. Instead, they often establish nonprofits to acquire land through agreements with private organizations or states.
In California, many tribes find it difficult to ensure federal awareness. They had to survive through three different occupying governments: Spain, Mexico and the United States.
The US government negotiated numerous agreements with the California tribes. That means it has repeatedly failed to support it. In the second half of the 19th century, federal efforts to dispatch statewide surveyors to create reservations for California’s mission tribes began in San Diego, but by the time they reached Los Angeles they lost steam.
As a result, until this July, landless tribes, including the San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, had to find venues (often local parks) and obtain all appropriate permissions and permits whenever they wanted to hold public meetings.
“Everything is very labor-intensive on our part so that we can actually be involved in our culture,” said Kimberly Johnson, the tribe’s secretary. “This breaks that barrier and people know that they can go and be together anytime. I think people need each other more than anything else.”
Chief Anthony Red Blood Morales of Mission Indian San Gabriel Band walks the former food pantry at the Gabriel Leno Tontova Tribal Center in Sibanguna.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
Long before Lott became a community centre, he sat in Shibanguna.
Shibanguna was the first village of people in the area. It was located along the river and housed hundreds of individuals. Dome-shaped houses covered in Tule called Ki dots across the landscape.
In 1771, a Spanish priest, tasked with establishing a church foothold in the area, decided to build what would become a San Gabriel mission near the village. “When the Padres went through… they used the word “rich land.” They use words like “flowing water,” “food,” and “happiness,” Johnson said.
To carry out mission projects, they conferred control over the native community, and many of their descendants now call Gabrieleno, a term derived from the mission – became labor to build and maintain the mission.
After the US took over in the 19th century, it began to use alternative methods of control. The Red Line Map discouraged residents from underrated areas to get mortgages and discourage businesses from investing in areas where Indigenous people lived.
In fact, the newly recovered San Gabriel band of Mission Indians received the lowest rating of the time. The assessment said the neighborhood was described as a “threat to this whole section,” and “pressure is being put on hold to keep the population and prevent other districts from entering.”
In July, the Presbyterians of San Gabriel returned the land that was previously used as a tribal community center.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
Now, more than 250 years after the Spanish first settled in what is now Los Angeles, the Mission Indian San Gabriel Band (one of several Gabriellenos recognized by the state) has finally acquired toes.
“It’s very powerful to be able to connect to the land that our ancestors walked,” Johnson said. “The land we lived in and the land we worked on was told, “it’s illegal to own that land.” So, to see it come back to us completely again, it is very soothing. ”
When San Gabriel Presbyterians began exploring options, a former community center site, Monarecoade, who runs tribal community outreach and is deeply involved in the church, asked if they would consider returning the land.
“When Mona asked for…for almost every Presbyterian, it immediately recognized how much sense this was made,” said Wendy Tajima, the church’s executive pressbeater or spiritual leader.
For Tajma, it seemed like a way to make something good with the promise of land approval. Churches may not only pay lip service to past land grabs, but also improve some of the Christian institutions, such as missions that have actually been triggered in the past.
The tribe hopes that other religious institutions (including Mission San Gabriel Arkanger just below the street) will follow the elders’ lead.
The church and tribe held a ceremony to commemorate the agreement at the tribe’s new Gabrieno Tonva Tribal Centre in Sibanguna on August 2nd.
Just as Presbyterian rituals gave way to Gabrienus, the emotional Tajma couldn’t help but feel the deep tribal connection to the land rekindling in real time.
“When the tribe started burning the wise man… that’s when it hit me,” she said. “This was the first public witness they could practice their traditions. They were who they are and they might not have to ask others.”
Art Morales, Chief Anthony Red Blood Morales, Mona Morales Reckorde and MJ Yang of the San Gabriel Band of the Mission Indians have portraits at the Gabrieno Tonva Tribal Centre in Sibanguna.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
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