The Tongva are one of only two New World peoples who regularly navigated the ocean (the other was the Chumash, a neighboring tribe located just to the north). They built seaworthy canoes, called ti'at, using planks that were sewn together, edge to edge, and then caulked and coated with either pine pitch, or, more commonly, the tar that was available either from the La Brea Tar Pits, or as asphaltum that had washed up on shore from offshore oil seeps. These titi'at could hold as many as 12 people and all their gear and all the trade goods they were carrying to trade with other people, either along the coast or on one of the Channel Islands. The Tongva canoed out to greet Spanish explorer Juan Cabrillo when he arrived off the shores of San Pedro in 1542.
The Tongva language is in the Uto-Aztecan family of languages.
Modern place names with Tongva origins include: Pacoima, Tujunga, Topanga, Rancho Cucamonga, Azusa, and Cahuenga Pass.
The name of their creation deity, Quaoar, has been used to name a large object in the Kuiper belt. A 2,656-foot summit in the Verdugo Mountains, in Glendale has been named Tongva Peak. The Gabrielino Trail is a 32-mile path through the Angeles National Forest.
In the 1990s, Kuruvungna Springs, a natural spring located on the site of a former Tongva village on the campus of University High School in West Los Angeles, was revitalized due to the efforts of the Gabrielino/Tongva Springs Foundation. The spring, which produces 22,000 gallons of water each day, is considered by the Tongva to be one of their last remaining sacred sites and is regularly used for ceremonial events.
Living in such a high growth area, many controversies have naturally arisen around land use issues relating to the Tongva. Balancing the needs of the approximately 300 member tribe with the millions of inhabitants of Los Angeles has often had to be resolved in the courts. Burial grounds have been inadvertently disturbed by developers. The tribe has complained about bones being broken by archeologists studying the site.
Another widely known controversy was over an area called Puvungna, which is believed by the Tongva to be the place of creation. The site, formerly home to a Tongva village and also containing an active spring, is located on the grounds of what is today California State University, Long Beach. While a portion of Puvungna (a burial ground on the western edge of the campus) is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, nevertheless developers have repeatedly attempted, beginning in 1992, to build a strip mall in the area. They were blocked by the courts after petition by the Tongva for relief. Undoubtedly, an undeveloped area this large in the Los Angeles basin will be coveted by developers again.
Historically, the Tongva, like most Native Americans, have lost many of their battles to preserve their lands and culture. Whether or not the Tongva will be able to maintain their culture and historic lands in the future is somewhat uncertain.