Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, the area around Rosemead was populated by Native Americans known as the people of the willow houses or better known as the Kizh (pronounced Keech), or as the Spaniards renamed them, the Gabrieleños. In 1771, the Spanish founded the first Mission San Gabriel Arcángel in the area that was formally known as the village of Shevaangna or Siba what is Angeleno William McCawley 1996 now known as La Mision Veija or Whittier Narrows on the border between Montebello and Rosemead. In 1775, the mission moved to avoid the spring floods that ruined the first crops, to its present location in San Gabriel formally known as the village of Tovisvanga .