Page 13 - lareina1929

LA REINA LOS ANGELES IN THREE CENTURIES 9

Malcajetes and metates left by th e Yan g-na Indians
The Indians Called Los cAngeles "Yang-na"

LTHOUGH Father Crespi does not record the fact, he probably was told by
A the Indians that their village was called Y ang-na. It centered somewhere near
the corner of Commercial and Alameda Streets. It was one of 25 or 30 aboriginal
villages scattered over Los Angeles County and contained in the neighborhood of 300
inhabitants. If Crespi had been a trained ethnologist he would have noted that the
general cast of their features was more Asiatic than Indian. Rather than the dis-
tinctively American Indian, they resembled the Alaskan and Aleutian tribes which
crossed from Asia when that continent and North America joined. As human beings
they were not much removed from the animal plane. The men went entirely naked.
It is probable that they were in the same wild state two centuries before when Juan
Rodriguez Cabrillo, the Christopher Columbus of California, landed at San Pedro
Harbor to obtain water and found the Indians engaged in a great rabbit drive.
Portola and Crespi with their band of 62 persons were the first since Cabrillo to look
upon Southern California.
The Pueblo of Los Angeles was to differ as much from Y ang-na as the modern
city does from the original Spanish settlement. And eventually it was to be as com-
pletely obliterated. No trace of either Yang-na or the original Pueblo is to be found
today Only the early handiwork of the "Gringo" remains.
Felipe De Neve cAdopts the Pueblo Plan of Colonization
PAIN had adopted the old plaza plan, long used in European colonies. It con-
S sisted of a common square, each house, with its lot, facing upon it, cultivated lands
and pastures beyond. This plan afforded protection and sociability and was in use in
both North and South America.
The king located his settlers as he chose. The land belonged to the king. The
settler raised only that which he was permitted to raise. He also belonged to the
king. It was feudalism, pure and simple. If he, for any reason, failed to work his
land, he was deported.
Felipe De Neve was a man of ability force and foresight, second only to
Junipero Serra, so it was said, who worked earnestly for the upbuilding of California.
In February 1777 he took the reins as Governor of the Province.
California as a province had been in existence eight years, and eight of the 21
missions had been established. Its capital was Monterey Vessels from San Blas,
Mexico, brought the necessary supplies to support soldier and pnest. But De Neve