Did LA ever have indigenous people?
Did any of them ever come into contact with Columbus?
They came into contact with Gaspar de Portola.
I thought the same thing.
AFAIK, even Columbus himself never set foot on the now continental US.
I'm certain there were indigenous people who lived in LA, but they were NOT "native" to the area.
They all came from Asia originally.
Maybe an anthropologist can explain why Native Americans may *resemble* what we think of as "Asian", but they really DO have their own distinct appearance.