TIME IMMEMORIAL-PRESENT

1771: MISSION ERA

Mission San Gabriel is founded at Isankanga and begins the process of "conversion". Conflict with local Tongva forces the church to move to present location at the village of Sibangna (1775-1776). Tongva name changed to "Gabrieleno" (an umbrella term imposed by the Spanish on the native population of the area, who hailed from multiple tribes, including Tongva) and the missionization process begins. Non-converts integrate into social and economic life, but not religious life.

1773-1833: GENOCIDE AND REVOLTS

• 1773: First revolt against San Gabriel mission

• 1786: Most "Gabrielenos" become a peasant class working for missions or the landed gentry. Apartheid policy dominates church-state relationships with the Gabrieleno.

• 1787: Revolts in surrounding areas terrify church and state officials. Spanish hold control on a 20-mile radius around Los Angeles (Yangna).

• 1796: Gabrielenos become the major labor force in Pueblo de Los Angeles and for the outlying ranches and farms.

• 1800: Most Gabrieleno are either missionized, dead, or have fled to other areas and are intermarried with Kokoémkam (Serrano), Achjachemen (Juaneño), Cupa, or Kumitaraxam (Cahuilla) families. Some flee as far as Monterey.

• 1800-1833: Missions grow and ranches have expanded. Most Gabrieleno are either in slave labor or in peasant class. Many are fugitive runaways. Church and state send armed raids to capture escaped "converts" and also those who are not yet "converted". Diseases continue to spread.

1823-1833 DECLINE OF MISSION ERA

• 1823: The last mission, San Francisco Solano, is founded; San Diego is in decline.

• 1833: Missions are secularized after Mexico gains independence from Spain. Most Gabrielenos become laborers for the New Mexican rancheros. Many Gabrieleno families are now scattered from Monterey to San Diego; some are living with groups in the remote interior.

MEXICAN ERA

• 1833-1848: Mexican control of California

• 1840-1850: Gabrieleno-Tongva language still in use. Some rituals and games, traditional crafts still maintained. Tongva is used by both Europeans and Indians. Smallpox epidemics decimate all tribal peoples in the area. California becomes a state; Indians barred from any political participation. By the late 1840s the last Tongva towns are destroyed.

CALIFORNIA STATEHOOD

• 1852: Hugo Reid publishes Indians of Los Angeles County. He marries Victoria Comicrabit, Tongva from Comicrangna. She is buried in an unmarked grave at San Gabriel Mission and is an ancestor of the present chief.

• 1853: Juana Maria (The Lone Woman of San Nicolas) is taken to Santa Barbara; she dies a few months later. She is remembered as the main protagonist in Island of the Blue Dolphins.

• 1869-1900: Smallpox epidemics continue to kill Gabrieleno. Isolated families manage to survive and maintain traditions.