Tongva Steps at UCLA: History, Significance, and Renaming Efforts
UCLA, like all campuses in the UC system, is a land-grant institution. It resides on land provided by the state that was historically the homeland of Indigenous peoples. The Tongva Steps, formerly known as Janss Steps, are a prominent staircase on the UCLA campus. These steps have been the subject of discussions and proposals for renaming, reflecting a broader movement to acknowledge and honor the Indigenous history of the land on which the university stands.
Historical Context: The Tongva People and UCLA's Land
The land on which UCLA is situated was originally inhabited by the Gabrieliño Tongva people, traditional caretakers of this land. The Tongva, known to have been in Southern California for thousands of years, were the people who canoed out to greet Spanish explorer Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo in 1542 upon his arrival off the shores of Catalina Island and San Pedro. Cabrillo declined their invitation to come ashore to visit. They inhabited the southern portion of what is today Los Angeles County, the northern portion of Orange County, and some western portions of both San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, living in autonomous villages comprised of related lineages with populations numbering 50 to 100 people and larger villages containing 300 people.
The UCLA Office of Equity, Diversity and Equality provides information about native peoples and UCLA’s connection to them. The land on which UCLA sits was colonized in a series of land grants and deeding of property under Western legislation; first, Tongva land was claimed through “discovery” by Spain. After gaining independence, Mexico issued the Rancho San Jose de Buenos Aires to Maximo Alanis. The first American title in 1866 went to Benjamin D. Wilson and W. T. B. Sanford, who eventually sold the land to the developer Arthur Letts.
By 1840, only a few native villages remained in the Los Angeles area, as nearly the entire Indigenous population had been forcibly relocated to Spanish missions in San Juan Capistrano, San Gabriel and San Fernando. More than a century after this period of relocation, in 1994, the State of California officially recognized the Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe. As of 2008, over 1,700 people were documented as members of the tribe. Los Angeles now has the largest population of Native American and Indigenous people of any city in the United States and was a relatively early adopter (2017) of “Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” a movement that only started to gain serious momentum in 2014.
The Janss Steps: A Brief History of the Name
The famous staircase that connects Wilson Plaza to Dickson Court, the area where Royce Hall and Powell Library are, was originally named after Harold Janss and Edwin Janss Sr., as well as their Janss Investment Company. The steps are a common place to see people picnicking, napping and hanging up hammocks or slack lines. On warmer days, some opt to set up a slip-and-slide or ice block, sledding down the slopes on giant blocks of ice. However, a Daily Bruin article notes the exploration of the history of racial biases of the brothers and their company, which prompted a name change.
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Renaming Proposals: Tongva Steps and Kuruvungna Steps
In 2020, the Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC) passed a resolution on July 28, 2020, to rename UCLA Janss Steps to Tongva Steps. The name Tongva comes from the Indigenous Gabrielino-Tongva people who inhabited the lands of UCLA, added the Daily Bruin.
The Bruin ran another article on Barrigan on November 20, but provided no further details on an actual resolution. “Renaming the steps would reflect UCLA’s values and be a symbolic step in mending wrongdoings of the past,” Arasasingham told the campus paper.
However, the Daily Bruin has followed the resolution, adding how students from the American Indian Student Association and USAC also revised the plan in November 2020 to rename UCLA Janss Steps to Kuruvungna Steps instead of Tongva Steps; Kuruvungna is a word from the Gabrieleño language, meaning Kuruvungna, intended to be a more inclusive and accurate title for the steps. “Both the Kuruvungna name and the Tongva name were meant to honor Indigenous people who originally inhabited Los Angeles and the UCLA land,” the campus paper the Daily Bruin reported in early November, paraphrasing comments from American-Indian Student Association Vice President Desirae Barrigan.
While UCLA has not officially recognized either of these names, you can hear them being used in Bruins’ everyday lexicon.
UCLA's Acknowledgment and Collaboration with Native American Communities
UCLA has demonstrated its commitment to cultural respect and collaboration by recognizing the historic culture and contemporary presence of Native Americans, particularly the Gabrieliño Tongva tribe, whose ancestral lands the campus now occupies. UCLA has integrated this acknowledgment into campus events and official communications, emphasizing the importance of understanding and awareness.
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At last year’s Spring Sing, the first event of UCLA’s Centennial Celebration, the first words heard by the thousands in attendance were, “UCLA, like all campuses in the UC system, is a land-grant institution. This means that it resides on land provided by the state that was historically the homeland of Indigenous peoples. Tonight, let us pay our respects and acknowledge the Gabrielino-Tongva peoples as traditional caretakers of this land. A message sent by Chancellor Block to the campus community in August of this year explained the purpose of this acknowledgement. Dr. The message was co-signed by Dr. Mishuana R. Goeman, associate professor of gender studies and chair of the American Indian Studies Interdepartmental Program, as well as Special Advisor to the Chancellor on Native American and Indigenous Affairs.
This acknowledgement, according to Goeman, serves as an introduction to the Tongva people; a first step in educating the world about the mistreatment and, in many cases, horrors visited upon native peoples. The names Gabrielino and Tongva may be unknown to many - and as unfamiliar as the idea that the seemingly barren land on which UCLA came to be situated was actually populated long before European settlers arrived.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Gabrielino Tongva tribe ensures the incorporation of traditional practices into campus landscaping, creating a collaborative approach to land stewardship. This inclusivity extends to ceremonial events, workshops, and community educational opportunities, providing a space for healing and understanding. Tribal chairman Anthony Morales emphasizes the importance of this partnership, stating, "When action is taken, healing can begin."
Education Initiatives for Native Students
UCLA has taken steps to expand access to education for Native students. In 2019, the university implemented an acknowledgment during campus events and official communications, recognizing the campus's location on the traditional, ancestral lands of the Tongva. Additionally, the university introduced the Native American and Pacific Islander Bruins Rising Initiative which works to create new faculty positions in American Indian and Pacific Islander Studies.
To further support Native students, the University of California announced the Native American Opportunity Plan in April of 2019. This plan ensures that in-state systemwide tuition and service fees for California students from federally recognized Native American tribes are fully covered by grants or scholarships, promoting accessibility to higher education.
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Cultivating Cultural Spaces
In a collaborative effort, local members of the Gabrieliño Tongva tribe designed and planted a basket-weaving garden in UCLA's Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden. This garden, home to 15 types of native plants used for basket weaving, not only preserves indigenous practices but also educates visitors about native plants, enhancing cultural awareness.
The Importance of Action Beyond Acknowledgment
While UCLA has begun taking steps towards acknowledging native cultures, mere recognition is not enough. More has to be done to foster a genuine partnership between major institutions such as UCLA and local indigenous communities in order to make a meaningful difference. By encouraging the development of these relations, both groups can continue to learn and grow from one another.
Goeman feels that this type of substantive step needs to happen throughout the country. “There are some universities that have particularly close relationships with native peoples, like the Arizona universities and Minnesota, but in the UC system we’re also somewhat ahead of the game. One important step is rescuing the native language from extinction. With the numbers of Tongva people so low, it was at risk of being lost, and, as noted by linguist David Pello, “Language is ethnicity. Language identifies you; it informs listeners who you are.” UCLA linguist Pam Munro has been teaching Tongva language classes in a San Pedro classroom for 15 years in an effort to save the language - and with it, a major part of Tongva culture.
Goeman writes, “The introduction is an anticolonial tool in this instance; it is not an apology for the past or a single thread to a past, it weaves a future forward. The introduction is a mechanism for the beginning of not only acknowledging your place in the world but also one of creating Indigenous and allied networks. It reframes landscapes and our relationships to them. She elaborates on why the acknowledgement is not an apology.
“An apology means nothing unless you have action behind that particular apologetic mode. You can’t apologize and still be doing the harm, whether that’s at Standing Rock, where they just had a huge oil spill, or the selling off of BLM [Bureau of Land Management] land, which is land that has never been ceded, or holding people as political prisoners for protecting their land base and sacred sites. Some states are going further than land acknowledgements. Oregon has introduced a bill that provides that public universities and community colleges must waive all tuition and fees for enrolled students who are members of Native American tribes historically based in Oregon.
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