While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Dolores. A Spanish Franciscan mission established in California within the
site of the city of San Francisco on Oct. 9, 1776. When Gov. Portola, in
searching for Monterey, came to the bay of San Francisco, that had remained
hidden to all previous explorers, Father Junipero Serra regarded it as a
miraculous discovery, for the visitador-general in naming the missions to be
established at the havens of the coast had said to the mission president, who
was disappointed because the name of the founder of the order was omitted, that
if St Francis de sired a mission he must show his port. The missionaries
impatiently brooked the obstacles that delayed planting a mission at the port
that their patron saint had revealed. The site was beside the lagoon of Nuestra
Senora de los Dolores, hence the mission of San Francisco de Assisi came to be
known as Dolores mission. There were no natives present when the mission was
opened. The inhabitants, the Romonan, had been driven from the peninsula by a
hostile tribe who burned their rancherias and killed all who did not escape on
rafts. When the fugitives returned to find their home occupied by the Spaniards
they were disposed to contend for its possession. In the first fight the
soldiers fired in the air, in the next they shot a native, upon which the
savages begged for peace, but fled when the Spaniards released after a whipping
those that they had captured, and were not seen again until spring. The
missionaries gradually won their confidence after they returned and in October
baptized 17 adults. At the end of 5 years there were 215 converts, and in 1 796
they numbered 720. The neophytes when harshly treated could escape easily by
water, and after 280 had run away and the soldiers were unable to stay the
exodus the head missionary sent out a party of 15 Christian Indians, of whom 7
were slain by the Cuchillones. A priest, Father Fernandez, brought charges
against the missionary fathers, and Gov. Borica demanded that they reform their
treatment long tasks, scant rations, and cruel punishments, evidenced by 200
escapes and as many deaths within a year. Although Father Lasuen, the mission
president, promised and endeavored to remedy the alleged evils, the Indians
continued to run away, and the missionaries, in 1797, sent out another party of
neophytes to gather in the lost flock, but the former barely escaped the fate of
the preceding party. The Saclan harbored the fugitives and threatened to kill
the mission Indians if they continued to work and the soldiers if they
interfered. The governor sent a detachment of troops to punish them, and in the
fight 2 soldiers were wounded and 7 natives killed. The Cuchian were also
attacked and the soldiers returned with 83 of the fugitive Christians. During
the decade 1,213 natives were baptized and 1,031 buried, and at the end of the
18th century the neophyte population was 644. The cattle increased to 8,200
head, and the crop in 1800 was 4,100 bushels, half of it wheat. The land about
the mission was sterile, and fields 12 in. distant were planted. The neophytes
first dwelt in rude huts of willow poles and tule, but between 1793 and 1798
adobe houses were built for every family and the thatched roofs of the church
and mission buildings were replaced with tiles. On looms made by the Indians
woolen cloth was produced in quantities sufficient to clothe the converts and
blankets were woven for the presidio. In 1796 the manufacture of coarse pottery
was begun. In 1820 the neophyte population was 622, but the mortality continued
to be greater than in any other mission. In 1830 the population was 219. The
sheep fell off to one-fifth of the former number and only a third as much grain
was produced as in 1810. The decline was due to the division of the mission when
San Rafael was founded in a healthier location in 1817 and San Francisco Solano
in 1823. While the baptisms were exceeded only at San Jose, there were 2,100
deaths at San Francisco Dolores and San Rafael, whither half the neophytes were
removed, in the 10 years ending with 1820. Solano, founded with the intention of
transferring the entire mission, received half the neophytes of the parent
mission, but returned a part when it was constituted an independent
establishment. The buildings fell into ruin, except the church, which is still
standing as part of the Dolores mission church of San Francisco. The number of
neophytes fell to 204 in 1832, and in 1840 there were 89 at San Mateo and about
50 scattered about the district. The civilian administrator found little
property in 1834 and soon none was left. The neophytes received nothing; they
were never organized in a pueblo, but were apportioned among the settlers and
held in servitude against their will. In 1843 the last remnant, 8 aged
starvelings, appealed to the Government for help.
The tribes that came first under the influence of the Dolores mission were the
Ahwaste, Altahmo, Olhon, Romonan, and Tulomo, all speaking the same language,
the Costanoan, as did some other tribes, not so numerous, that lived on or near
the thickly peopled shores of San Francisco bay. They subsisted by hunting and
fishing. Both sexes often wore their hair short, having the custom of cut ting
it when afflicted by sorrow or misfortune. Those of the s. allowed their hair to
grow and wore the long carefully dressed braids adorned with beads and trinkets
wound about the head like a turban. The medicine-men, through their
incantations, pretended to be able to bring fish as well as to cure the sick. Of
the blubber of stranded whales and of seals they were extremely fond, and they
ate nuts, berries, and camas bulbs, and made bread of seeds and acorns. The
people who came to the mission from the opposite shore of the bay and the
estuary were of lighter hue and more corpulent than the coast Indians. The men
went naked, coating themselves with mud on cold mornings; the women wore an
apron of sedge or rushes reaching before and behind to the knees and a cloak of
the same material over their shoulders. People are said to have married and
parted without ceremony, mothers taking their children with them, and men often
took whole families of sisters for their wives. These Indians burned their dead.
The following list of rancherias and tribes from which the mission drew its
neophytes is adapted from those recorded in the parish books (Taylor in Cal.
Farmer, Oct. 18, 1861):
This site
includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. These
items are presented as part of the historical record and should not be
interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes
implied .
Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Frederick Webb Hodge, 1906
