Tongva Tribe to Share New Album Sunday at Tribal Center

A new album of Gabrieleno Tongva music, spoken word and language will be played Sunday afternoon at the tribe’s center in San Gabriel, two days after its release and while it ranked first among world music albums on iTunes.

The Hahamog’na, a Tongva band, settled in villages along the Arroyo Seco through what became Pasadena and Altadena, and Gaspar de Portolà’s expedition reached one of those villages in the 1770s. Pasadena named Hahamongna Watershed Park for them in 1993.

“Tongva Songs We Are Here (Ekwa Chem)” runs 13 tracks over 35 minutes and was released Friday by Studio Seven Media.

The Gabrieleno Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians describes the record as 13 original compositions and traditional works, and as the first album devoted to the music, spoken word and language of its people, who lived across present-day Los Angeles and Orange counties before Spanish colonization. The language has no first-language speakers in the 21st century.

The tribe renders the phrase in the album’s title as both “Ekwa-Shem” and “e’qua chem,” translating it “We are here” or “We are still here.” It says its ceremonies, songs and dances were forbidden during the mission era, feeding a mistaken belief that the people had died out.

Participants include Chief Anthony “Red Blood” Morales; composer, flutist and vocalist Andrew “Guiding Young Cloud” Morales; the Gabrieleno Tongva Ensemble; and spoken word artists Art Morales, Seth Johnson, Samantha MJ Yang and Elizabeth Recalde. Diné pianist Connor Chee and string musician Geneviève Gros-Louis are credited as featured guest musicians, both appearing on the album’s final track.

Nicole Zuraitis, Kitt Wakeley, Dale Chung and Greg Scelsa produced the album. Tony Correlli engineered it. The tribal council describes all five as Grammy winners or nominees. Zuraitis and Wakeley have won Grammy Awards.

Sunday’s listening is at the tribal center at Siban’gna, an ancestral village site, at 203 E. Mission Road. The Presbytery of San Gabriel returned land there to the tribe in August 2025, in a transfer the presbytery and the tribe have described as the first of its kind by a California church to a tribal government.

The album sharing event is sold out.

The tribe says California recognized it by joint resolution in 1994. It is one of five Gabrieleno-affiliated groups listed by the state’s Native American Heritage Commission.