Guashna was a Tongva village located at Playa Vista, Los Angeles at the mouth of Ballona Creek.[1][2][3] The site has also been referred to as Sa'angna (or some variation thereof), with various sources debating whether Sa'angna, meaning "place of tar," was a regional referent rather than a village name or whether it was a separate nearby village.[1] The initial place name was said to be Sa'an; the village suffix "ngna" was added by Bernice Johnston to her 1962 map of Gabrieleño villages "despite her having found no mention of the term in baptismal records."[4] Sa'angna is also not to be confused with Suangna.[1] The Tongva referred to the Ballona Wetlands as Pwinukipar, meaning "full of water."[5] Another alternate name may Waachnga.[4]
Prior to the arrival of European settlers, tar located near the village, possibly at what was later renamed Baldwin Hill, was an important resource for the village in the construction of te'aats and for trade.[6][7][8] In 2004, four-hundred burials in the area were unearthed in the construction of a drainage ditch in the Playa Vista development. The Tongva had little power to prevent the desecration despite numerous protests.[8][9]
- ^ a b c Village at Playa Vista: Volume III (PDF). City of Los Angeles. 2009. pp. 21–24.
- ^ Abdollah, Tami; Song, Jason (December 14, 2008). "Restoring harmony with reburial". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
- ^ "Ballona Discovery Park". Friends of Ballona Wetlands. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
:3was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Gumprecht, Blake (2001). The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth. JHU Press. p. 218. ISBN 978-0-8018-6642-5.
- ^ Lepowsky, Maria (2012). The restless anthropologist : new fieldsites, new visions. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. pp. 60–61. ISBN 978-0-226-30497-7. OCLC 780446639.
- ^ Rochlin, Michael Jacob (1999). Ancient L.A. and other essays. Los Angeles: Unreinforced Masonry Studio. p. 69. ISBN 0-9648304-1-8. OCLC 43657353.
- ^ a b Lin, Sara (March 21, 2004). "State Decries Removal of Remains". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
- ^ Williams, Jennifer L (2007). "Grave Disturbances: Been Digging Lately". Public Resources.