THE ORIGINAL CARETAKERS OF THE LOS ANGELES BASIN
ABOUT US
Once led by the late Sky Chief Ya'anna Vera Rocha, the Gabrielino-Shoshone Nation led the right to protect some of the area's most important and sacred areas such as the Ballona Wetlands, Los Cerritos Wetlands, and helping to establish the North Etiwanda Preserve.
The mission of the Gabrielino-Shoshone Nation is to uplift, empower, and protect indigenous communities in our ancestral lands by advancing our sovereign rights as the original Peoples of our territory to create a sustainable future for generations to come through the revitalization of our lands, culture, language and self-determination as a nation.
ABOUT US
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Our commitment as a tribe is to always protect and uplift the voices that colonization has harmed and suppressed throughout history. Our youth, our women, our LGTBQIA+ relatives and our elders are the pillars in our community and consider them as priority.
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Preservation and protection of our homelands calls for everyone and the Gabrielino-Shoshone Nation calls for a unified effort from all tribal nations, identities, community members and cultural knowledge keepers. Respecting each person's autonomy and individual family stories, we hold space for all those with ancestral roots planted here on our lands.
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The Gabrielino-Shoshone respects every life form. We advocate for restoring and preserving our environment so that every living relative from the skies, waters, and earth can thrive in their natural habitats. We advocate for the incorporation of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in order for those to develop a better and deeper understanding of our lands that goes beyond western learning.
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The Gabrielino-Shoshone Nation values and upholds the knowledge, traditions, and resilience passed down from our ancestors, and we honor them by walking the right path in the all the work we do. We will not allow bad politics, attempts at division, and corruption into our organization.
OUR NAME
While the Gabrielino-Shoshone may not identify under other tribal monikers that other fellow sister bands go by, we understand and honor their identities and reasons. Even though we also acknowledge that we might fall under those specific monikers with no offense, we believe that each family has the self-determination and sovereignty to identify as each tribal entity sees fit.
We choose to be Gabrielino-Shoshone because our families were raised under this identity because of our language and lineage roots (Shoshonean) as well as honoring our direct ancestors who were killed and survived the California mission system, more specifically the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel.
Just like Native American / Indigenous identities are not a monolith, so are the beautiful families, stories, traditions, and territories that make up the Gabrielino community and each should be respected and acknowledged.
