In what they called a “groundbreaking act of reparative justice,” Presbyterian church leaders from the San Gabriel Valley returned centuries-old ancestral Indigenous land to its original caretakers.

The Presbytery of San Gabriel returned original Tongva land, once the site of a sacred village later used by the church, back to the Gabrieleno Tongva tribe , part of the San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians.

The historic return marked the first-ever land transfer from a church to a recognized Indigenous tribe in California history, officials said.

The returned land, around a half-acre parcel, is less than one mile from the newly restored Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, and is the current office headquarters for the Gabrieleno Tongva Tribal Council.

Leaders called the site Siban’gna, part of

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