Abstract.

Who were the original peoples who were incorporated into the American Indian community at Mission San Fernando over the thirty-seven years of its existence and what became of them after secularization of that mission in 1834? Only recently have ethnohistoric sources become accessible that allow us to reconstruct the complex Native American history of Mission San Fernando. Besides the 'Ra 'wiyawi myth and other tidbits of Fernandeño lore now available in J.P. Harrington's anthropological papers, perhaps even more important are the mission's baptismal, marriage, and burial registers that document village names, family relationships and demographic patterns. With the advent of computers, these registers are being systematically studied, and when combined with other archival documents, provide us an opportunity to answer questions about Native American lifeways in "the Valley." A further source of information is the oral historical record surviving in families of Fernandeño ancestry. Woven together, these various strands of ethnohistoric information contribute to our knowledge of the Native peoples associated with Mission San Fernando at the time of its foundation, during its period as an active mission, and after secularization.