We are the People of the Willow House. The small houses made by the Kizh People were woven from the branches of the willow tree, like inverted baskets. These homes are called Keech in the Garbieleno language. When the Spanish first encountered the Gabrieleno Villages with hundreds of these houses, they heard this word and adapted into Spanish and called the People the Kichereños, meaning the People who live in the willow houses (kich or quich or quichi in Spanish). A German ethnographer rediscovered this term in old Spanish documents and used it to describe all of the Indigenous People of the Los Angeles Basin. He phonetically spelled it in German as Kizh (hence the spelling).

 

The Kizh are the only Gabrieleno Band that can show their direct ancestors to the original inhabitants of the Los Angeles Basin. While others can legitimately claim Indigenous ancestry, they are not Indigenous to the Los Angels Basin and most were likely brought with the Spanish in there 18th century, mostly from Northern Mexico. Like the Kizh, many of these Natives were baptized Mission San Gabriel thereby, technically, making them “Gabrieleno,” but it still does not make them Indigenous the LA Basin. The Kizh are all that remains of the Indigenous  People of the Los Angeles Basin.