Chapters 1 - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Refuge Resources
4.4.2.5 Ethnohistory
Anthropologists (e.g. Bean and Smith 1978, Kroeber 1925, White 1963) have generally placed
the project area within the traditional territory of the Native American group known as the
Gabrieliño. At the time of contact with the Spanish, Gabrieliño territory is thought to have
extended from the San Fernando Valley to Aliso Creek, just south of Laguna Beach. Their
territory’s east-west boundaries extended from Topanga Canyon to present San Bernardino
(Bean and Smith 1978, Kroeber 1925). To the south were the Luiseño (White 1963). The
Spanish called them Juaneño, after their mission at San Juan Capistrano. But they had
essentially the same language and culture as the Luiseño (White 1963). Juaneño descendents,
as well as Gabrieliño, have expressed traditional cultural interest in the Seal Beach area.
The Gabrieliño, and the closely related Luiseño, Cahuilla, and Cupeño spoke languages within the
Takic family of the Uto-Aztecan stock (Shipley 1978). This group is also known as the southern
California Shoshonean speakers (e.g., Kroeber 1925). The Gabrieliño lived in large primary
villages situated near water sources, with secondary hunting and gathering camps occupied
seasonally. Their houses were circular, semi-subterranean, domed structures covered with tule or
fern. According to Costanso, a diarist with the Portola Expedition of 1769, some were as large as
60 feet in diameter, housing several families (Teggart 1911). Subsistence focused on hunting,
gathering, and fishing. Groundstone implements, primarily mortars/pestles and manos/metates,
were used for grinding both animal and plant foods. Trade was also important, with the
distribution of goods focused on shell beads, dried fish, sea otter pelts, steatite, deerskins, and
various kinds of seeds (Reid 1939[1852]).
4.4.2.6 Historic Period
Spanish settlers arrived in Orange County around 1600 and established large cattle ranches. The
mission at San Gabriel was founded in 1771, and the pueblo of Los Angeles was founded ten years
later in 1781. Large tracts of land grants were issued to military veterans who established ranchos
(Robinson 1979). An area of about 300,000 acres, which included the wetlands from Alamitos Bay
to Bolsa Chica, was granted by a Spanish concession to an early Spanish settler in 1795 (U.S. Navy
2011). The missionaries and Spanish military disrupted the Gabrieliño lifestyle and forced them to
provide cheap labor for the ranchos and missions (Phillips 1980, Reid 1939[1852], Wilson
1952[1852]). Cattle ranching continued to dominate the economy of Orange County until the late
19 th century.
In 1821, Mexico won independence from Spain, and in 1833 the missions were secularized by the
Mexican government. Hundreds of land grants were issued to encourage settlement in Alta
California (Phillips 1980, Reid 1939[1852], Wilson 1952[1852]). An area that included the
Alamitos Bay wetlands and part of the Anaheim Bay was encompassed by the 27,142-acre Los
Alamitos Rancho established by Manuel Nieto in 1784. Abel Stearns, an American
businessman, bought the land in 1842. The American Period began with the end of the
Mexican War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. By 1881 the rancho had been
divided into three parts with three owners (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 2001). Sheep and
cattle ranching dominated the economy of the area in the late 19th century; however, crop
cultivation gradually became more important.
From about 1833 to 1868, Anaheim Bay and its associated wetlands were left relatively
undisturbed, although it is likely that some freshwater sources that historically flowed into the
wetlands were diverted to provide water for agriculture and human use. By about the 1850s,
towns and small farms began to replace large cattle ranches.
Draft Comprehensive Conservation Plan/Environmental Assessment 4-79