Gabrieleño -Kizh Tribal Territory
Bean & Smith
The Gabrieleño (gabreal’eno) are, in many ways, one of the most interesting-yet least known-of native California peoples . At the time of Spanish contact in 1769 they occupied the “most richly endowed coastal section in southern California” (Blackburn 1962-1963 :6), which is most of present-day Los Angeles and Orange counties, plus several offshore islands (San Clemente, Santa C. Talina, San Nicolas). With the possible exception of the Chumash, the Gabrieleño were the wealthiest, most populous, and most powerful ethnic nationality in aboriginal southern California, their influence spreading as far north as the San Joaquin valley Yokuts, as far east as the Colorado River, and south into Baja California. Unfortunately, most if not all Gabrieleño were dead 1,) before systematic ethnographic studies were instituted; and, as a result, knowledge of them and their lifeways is meager.