Gabrielino
The Gabrielinos are a Native American group historically associated with the Los Angeles area, specifically near the San Gabriel Mission, which is pivotal to their identity. They are part of the Shoshonean branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family and share cultural traits with other coastal California communities, including distinctive basket weaving and simple agricultural practices. In the late 18th century, their estimated population was around five thousand, including their close affiliates, the Fernandeños. Unlike many other Native American cultures, the Gabrielinos traditionally do not recognize a central leadership figure, which has led to factionalism and disputes over cultural representation and heritage issues. Today, Gabrielino communities exist mainly in southern Orange County and northern San Diego County, often referred to as Gabrielino-Tongva or Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians. In recent years, they have begun to address cultural heritage and land rights, having received an acre of land for conservation in 2022.
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Gabrielino
Category: Tribe
Culture area: California
Language group: Shoshonean
Primary location: Northern San Diego County, southern Orange County
Population size: 634 (1990 U.S. Census); 2,000 (twenty-first century estimates)
The Gabrielinos are among the small California tribal groupings that once occupied the land where modern-day Los Angeles is located. The name “Gabrielino” derives from the fact that the people once lived around the San Gabriel Mission, one of the early Catholic missionary stations founded in the Southern California region. (This is also the case with the name “Fernandeño” for those peoples once surrounding the San Fernando Mission in the present San Fernando Valley, just northwest of urban Los Angeles.) The Gabrielinos are thus closely affiliated with the Fernandeños as part of the Shoshonean branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family.
Anthropologist Alfred Kroeber estimated the Gabrielino population in 1770 was approximately five thousand, including the Fernandeños as well. California Indians generally are not to be understood as “tribes” but rather as small “tribal groups” of a hundred persons at most (groups were usually not permanent) that surrounded a centrally recognized permanent village. The Gabrielinos shared many common cultural traits with other village communities up and down the California coast, including a style of basket weaving, simple agriculture, and architecture. As with other Southern California natives in this near-tropical climate, the Gabrielinos typically dressed very lightly, if at all.
The Gabrielinos are among the few native peoples of the Los Angeles region. The Gabrielinos are divided in modern California along extended family lines. Unlike many other Native American cultures of California, who have accepted the usefulness of the nontraditional office of “chief,” the Gabrielinos recognize no central leader. Rival factions among the Gabrielinos have created problems in settling cultural questions and in being able to deal with issues of heritage, such as finding archaeological sites and approving construction projects. A representative of one family or faction may approve a project, thereby creating a great protest from those who do not recognize the authority of the Gabrielinos working on the project. There are even conflicts over the number of Gabrielinos because of the same factionalism and an inability to agree on who is and is not Gabrielino. In the twenty-first century, Gabrielinos live in the southern Orange County and northern San Diego County areas, and they are recognized by several names in combination with the Tongva—Gabrielino-Tongva, Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians. In 2022, the group was given an acre of land for conservancy.
Bibliography
“After Nearly 200 Years, the Tongva Community Has Land in Los Angeles County.” Los Angeles Times, 11 Oct. 2022, www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-10/after-nearly-200-years-the-tongva-community-has-land-in-los-angeles-county. Accessed 19 Mar. 2023.
Kroeber, Alfred. “The Indians of California.” In The North American Indians: A Sourcebook, edited by Roger Owen, James Deetz, and Anthony Fisher. Macmillan, 1967.
Miller, Bruce W. The Gabrielino. Sand River Press, 1991.