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Mission Indians of California
Mission Indians of California. The
first settlements in California were not made until more than a century
after the earliest colonization of the peninsula of Lower California. The
mission of San Diego, founded in 1769, was the first permanent white
settlement within the limits of the present state; it was followed by 20
other Franciscan missions, founded at intervals until the year 1823 in the
region between San Diego and San Francisco bay and just north of the
latter. With very few exceptions the Indians of this territory were
brought under the influence of the missionaries with comparatively little
difficulty, and more by persuasion than by the use of force. There is
scarcely a record of any resistance or rebellion on the part of the
natives resulting in the loss of life of even a single Spaniard at any of
the missions except at San Diego, where there occurred an insignificant
outbreak a few years after the foundation.
The influence of the missions was probably greater
temporally than spiritually. The Indians were taught and compelled to work
at agricultural pursuits and to some extent even at trades. Discipline,
while not severe, was rigid; refusal to work was met by deprivation of
food, and absence from church or tardiness there, by corporal punishments
and confinement. Consequently the Indians, while often displaying touch
personal affection for the missionaries themselves, were always inclined
to be recalcitrant toward the system, which amounted to little else than
beneficent servitude. There were many attempts at escape from the
missions. Generally these were fruitless, both on account of the presence
of a few soldiers at each mission and through the aid given these by other
Indians more under the fathers' influence. The Indians at each mission
lived at and about it, often in houses of native type and construction,
but were dependent for most of their food directly on the authorities.
They consisted of the tribes of the region in which the mission was
founded and of more distant tribes, generally from the interior. In some
cases these were easily induced to settle at the mission and to subject
themselves to its discipline and routine, the neophytes afterward acting
as agents to bring in their wilder brethren.
The number of Indians at each mission varied from a few
hundred to two or three thousand. There were thus in many cases
settlements of considerable size; they possessed large herds of cattle and
sheep and controlled many square miles of land. Theoretically this wealth
was all the property of the Indians, held in trust for then by the
Franciscan fathers. In 1834 the Mexican government, against the protests
of the missionaries, secularized the missions. By this step the property
of the missions was divided among the Indians, and they were free from the
restraint and authority of their former masters. In a very few years, as
might have been expected and as was predicted by the fathers, the Indians
had been either deprived of their lands and property or had squandered
them, and were living in a hopeless condition. Their numbers decreased
rapidly, so that today in the region between San Francisco and Santa
Barbara there are probably fewer than 50 Indians. In southern California
the decrease has been less rapid, and there are still about 3,000 of what
are known as Mission Indians; these are, however, all of Shoshonean or
Yuman stock. The decrease of population began even during the mission
period, and it is probable that the deaths exceeded the births at the
missions from the first, though during the earlier years the population
was maintained or even increased by accessions from unconverted tribes. At
the time of secularization, in 1834, the population of many missions was
less than a decade earlier. The total number of baptisms during the 65
years of mission activity was about 90,000, and the population in the
territory subject to mission influence may be estimated as having been at
any one time from 35,000 to 45,000. At this proportion the population of
the entire state, before settlement by the whites, would have been at
least 100,000, and was probably much greater. See California, Indians of,
with accompanying map, also Missions; Population
Additional Mission
Resources
The books presented are for their
historical value only and are not the
opinions of the Webmasters of the site.
Handbook
of American Indians, 1906
Indian
Missions of the United StatesFree
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