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Southern California Branch [underlined]

A. GABRIELINO. [underlined]

True tribes being wanting among the Shoshoneans, as among most of the Indians of California, names can be given only to the villages or rancherias, and in some cases to such groups of these as speak the same dialect.  The word GabrieliƱo, meaning the people of San Gabriel, the Franciscan Mission near Los Angeles, has generally been applied by the Spanish speaking people of California to the majority of the Indians of this Southern California group, and in the lack of a term used by them for themselves is as convenient as any.  The term Tobikhar cannot be identified.  It the word for neither man nor person in this dialect.  Gatschet's interpretation of "settlers" seems to be only a surmise.  It is probable that, as pointed out by Barrows, the word is the name of the mythological "first man."

The GabrieliƱo territory comprised all of the present Los Angeles county south of the San Bernardino mountains, except probably the narrow coast strip west of Santa Monica.  It covered also the greater part of what is now Orange county, extending as far as Alisos creek north of San Juan Capistrano.  To the east it extended a short distance beyond the limits of Los Angeles county, but without reaching San Bernardino or Riverside.  It will be seen that the Mission San Fernando was included in this territory.