old growth, improving forage for game animals. They also made oceangoing canoes (ti'at) using wooden planks held together with asphaltum or tar from local oil seeps. At least 26 Tongva villages were located along the San Gabriel River, and another 18 close by. One of the largest Tongva villages, Asuksangna (meaning "place of the grandmothers") was located at the mouth of the San Gabriel Canyon. The West Fork of the San Gabriel River Canyon formed part of a trade route that crossed the San Gabriel Mountains, enabling the Tongva to trade with the Serrano people in the Mojave Desert to the north. Many other villages were located near the San Gabriel River. The San Gabriel Valley, with its fertile soils and higher rainfall than the coastal plain, had the highest population density. Villages in the San Gabriel Valley included Alyeupkigna, Amuscopopiabit, Awingna, Comicranga, Cucamonga, Guichi, Houtgna, Isanthcogna, Juyubit, Perrooksnga, Sibagna, and Toviseanga. The village of Sejat was located at the Whittier Narrows. Puvugna was situated around present day Long Beach, near the river's mouth. The first explorers to make contact with the Tongva described them as a peaceful people. Anthropologists believe the Tongva may have been some of the more advanced native inhabitants of California, establishing currency and complex trade systems with neighboring tribes, cultivating trees and plants for food, and having a formal government structure. Indian Agent B.D. Wilson wrote in 1852 the Tongva knew "how to meet the environmental challenge without destroying the environment." Exploration and settlement The abundant water available in the San Gabriel River basin, a rarity in arid Southern California, was noted by early Spanish explorers and made it an attractive place for Europeans to settle later on. Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed past the mouth of the San Gabriel River in 1542; although he did not land here, he did make contact with the native Tongva, who rowed out in their canoes to greet the expedition. The first Spanish party to actually cross the river was the Portolà expedition, led in 1769 by Captain Gaspar de Portolà. Juan Crespí, a missionary traveling with the expedition, described their first impression of the San Gabriel River: The expedition had to build a bridge across the river because the channel was too swampy and muddy, making it difficult to move their horses and supplies. The area came to be known as "la puente" (the bridge), from which the