Gabrielino

Gabrielino, also called San Gabrielino or Gabrieleño, self-name Tongva, any of two, or possibly three, dialectally and culturally related North American Indian groups who spoke a language of Uto-Aztecan stock and lived in the lowlands, along the seacoast, and on islands in southern California at the time of Spanish colonization. The Gabrielino proper inhabited what are now southern and eastern Los Angeles county and northern Orange county, as well as the islands of Santa Catalina and San Clemente; they were named after the Franciscan mission San Gabriel Arcángel (and thus have sometimes been called San Gabrielinos). The second group, Tataviam (Fernandeño), occupied areas in and around the San Fernando Valley and seacoast. A third, apparently related, group was the Nicolino (Nicoleño, or San Nicolinos), who inhabited San Nicolas Island.

The Gabrielino occupied some of the most fertile and pleasant land in California, and, because they were among the wealthiest and most technologically advanced Native Americans in the region, they exercised considerable influence on all their neighbours. In religion, for instance, the Gabrielino were the source of the jimsonweed cult, a widely practiced southern California religion that involved various sacred and esoteric rituals and the drinking of toloache, a hallucinogen made from the jimsonweed (Datura stramonium).

Traditionally, the interior and coastal Gabrielino lived in houses constructed of poles and tule-reed mats. Their economy was based on acorns and other wild plant foods, supplemented by fishing and hunting. Island Gabrielino, especially the Nicolino, often built dwellings of whale ribs covered with sea-lion skins or brush, and for food they relied on fish, sea mammals and birds, and mollusks. All groups made baskets, and a quarry on Santa Catalina Island provided soapstone that tribal members made into such items as pots and scoops, ceremonial vessels, artistic carvings, beads, and ornaments. Trade between islanders, coastal people, and interior residents was extensive and based on a currency of clamshell beads. Each Gabrielino village had a hereditary chief; shamanism was an important part of Gabrielino religion and healing practices.

Early 21st-century population estimates indicated some 2,000 Gabrielino descendants. See also Mission Indians.