My Tongva Home

MY TONGVA HOME

By Christopher Nyerges


[written 011910 for the Franklin High School Mural Project presentation]







It’s winter solstice in the Valley of Smokes

I’m thinking about things under the oaks

It’s that dark time of year

When we reflect on what we’ve done

But nowadays a parade comes through

Marching bands, modern people having fun



My tribal land – now called Pasa-Adena

Is paved and housed and no more wild

Every New Year you see crowded masses

Waiting for parade with screaming child



I deep desire my tribal home

To gather acorns, dig roots in loam

To gather asphaltum where the ocean does foam

Where the deer and cougar are free to roam



I’m lost in this urban crazy sprawl

Used to have sweats, now massive mall

I strive to stand on sacred rocky spall

Call my family to ceremony, to come and stand tall



But the land is all lost, no longer my home

My heart wants to find my Tongva home

Seems I’ve been seeking it all my life long

But my mind is mixed up, and I can’t hear the song



I dream at night of my ancestral spot

To swim in the stream when the day is hot

To learn the things that my elders have taught

To be with my family, I’d like it a lot



But my Tongva land is all devoured

In my sacred land is now skyscraper tower

No traditional food, my stomach has soured

Too many elders from invaders have cowered.



It’s time to re-find my Tongva roots

It’s time to take off my restrictive boots

Its time to get out of my tie and suits

It’s time to get back to eating fish and roots



This Tongva homeland is here, now at last

I can mind-see it, as I look into past

I want to dwell in Tongva land at long last

My spirit soars when I look forward to the past



My home is heaven, but my body’s on earth

This Pasa-Adena land where I was given birth

I can’t wait to get back to my real home

I’m so tired of my civilization roam

I long to live in the sweet black loam

I’m going  back to my Tongva home.