Tooypinga

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Tooypinga, also spelled Toibinga, was a Tongva village located between the San Gabriel Mountains and Saddleback Peak, at the base of the San Jose Hills along San Jose Creek. Nearby villages included Pashiinonga and Wapijanga. The name is said to come from tojtsh, the “devil woman” associated with El Rincon near San José. People from the village were known as Toibipet.

When Mission San Gabriel was being established, Spanish soldiers killed and decapitated the village leader after his wife was raped. In broader raids across the Los Angeles Basin, children were taken to the missions and women were raped. The attack razed Tooypinga before 1785. Refugees fled to other villages, and many villagers were later baptized at Mission San Gabriel and Mission San Juan Capistrano. Marriage records show villagers’ marriages from 1784 to 1824.

The site of Tooypinga later became part of Rancho San José, established in 1837, near the area where the Los Angeles County Fair now stands.