There is probably an assumption that when Native American inhabitants of villages in the Santa Clarita Valley and environs were taken by Spanish missionary and military men to the mission to live and work in the late 1700s and early 1800s, the mission was San Fernando. But that was not necessarily the case. Some were taken into the San Gabriel Mission, which predated the San Fernando Mission by 26 years.

Fr. Zephyrin Engelhardt, a Franciscan priest, was the historian of the missions of Alta California in the early 20th Century. In a series of books about the missions, he includes, from examinations of mission records, the names of the ancestral villages of the Indians brought to each mission.

Some of the villages listed by Engelhardt from San Gabriel Mission records were in the Santa Clarita Valley. No dates are associated with his list, so we don't know if they relate to people who arrived at San Gabriel before or after the San Fernando Mission was built in 1797.

Also, in at least one instance, Engelhardt refers to the villages (which were called rancherias) as "the birthplace" of Indians brought to the San Gabriel Mission. It is possible that one's birthplace is not necessarily where one was living just prior to removal. Native American communities in the Santa Clarita Valley were matrilocal societies (unlike most other California Indians), meaning when people married outside of their own village, which was common, the man would move to the wife's village. So it is possible that some of the villages listed by Engelhardt for San Gabriel were the birthplaces of men who lived elsewhere.

There are numerous duplicates within Engelhardt's lists due to different variations of the same village name. Some of the listed names of villages in the Santa Clarita Valley are: Chaguayabit (Choquayabit, Chaguayanga, etc.), at Castaic Junction; Tochonanga (Tochenanga, Tochojana), somewhere in Newhall; Tochonabit (Tochanabit), which might be the same as Tochonanga; Camulos; Piru (Pirubit, Piirucbit, etc.); Jujunga (Juiunga), Saugus area; Giringa, Agua Dulce area; Najabatanga (Najabatabit, etc.), north of DWR Castaic Reservoir; Chibuna and Puninga, Lake Elizabeth area; Quissaubit (Quisaobit, Quisaubit, possibly Quisanga), near Quail Lake; Topipabit (Tipipabit, Totipabit, etc.), which is in Victorville, but certain individuals from Topipabit are related to individuals from Chaguayabit.

Engelhardt's lists and his descriptions of the lists follow.

San Gabriel Mission (Est. 1771).
Engelhardt, Fr. Zephyrin O.F.M. "San Gabriel Mission and the Beginnings of Los Angeles." San Gabriel, Calif.: Mission San Gabriel,1927, pp. 355-356.

The examination by the author of the Baptismal Register of Mission San Gabriel resulted in the discovery of the names of Rancherias frequently noted and claimed as the birthplace of children and adults brought to the Mission for Baptism. The following are the names clearly recorded:

The Rev. Eugene Sugranes, C.M.F., a member of the community of San Gabriel, after a more close search in all the Mission Registers, discovered the following rancherias, many of which may, however, we suspect, indicate the site of a single cabin or two.

San Fernando Mission (Est. 1797).
Engelhardt, Fr. Zephyrin O.F.M. "San Fernando Rey: The Mission of the Valley." Chicago.: Franciscan Herald Press,1927, pp. 142-143.

Indian Rancherias That Supplied the Converts in the District