Skip to main content

Central Question

Native Americans of California during the mission period: How did Native people resist and persist in the face of extreme adversity?

Introduction Slideshow

Introduction Slideshow (PDF)
Slide 1 of 18: California Native American Survival and Resilience During the Mission Period (1769-1834): A Source Investigation
Slide 2 of 18: What are some common misconceptions about Native Americans in the Spanish missions of California? Let's look at two images.
Slide 3 of 18: Etching depicts a bald, older man dressed in a priest's robe, seated on a tall, ornate chair outside, near a stone wall and a table with a crucifix. A small child with long dark hair stands before him, partially dressed. They both have hands on a round object held between them.
Slide 4 of 18: Oil painting depicts Native men kneeling or standing on the bank of a river. Higher on the bank, standing above them, is a group of white men. One dressed in a priest's robe and near a large crucifix, gestures in the air and toward the Native men.
Slide 5 of 18: Indigenous peoples have called the region known today as California home for many thousands of years, since before living memory and before written accounts prepared by European colonizers. Scholars estimte that before the arrival of European colonists, present-day California was home to between 500,000 and 1 million diverse Native peoples.
Slide 6 of 18: 1769: Spain sent soldiers and priests to colonize present-day California to prevent the Russians, British, and Dutch from laying claim to the area. The Spanish also sought a 'spiritual conquest' of California by converting Native Americans to Catholicism through a mission system.
Slide 7 of 18: Missionaries eventually created a network of twenty-one missions from San Diego to Sonoma. While Native conversion to Catholicism was a primary goal of the missions, the priests relied heavily on enslaved Native labor to build and run the missions successfully.
Slide 8 of 18: The mission system led to high death rates among Native peoples due to: disease - unsanitary, crowded conditions in which the missionaries forced Native converts to live often resulted in disease; starvation - missionaries did not always provide Native laborers with adequate amounts of food; mental and physical abuse - there are numerous eyewitness accounts of Spanish missionaries and soldiers abusing baptized Native Californians.
Slide 9 of 18: 1773: Decree from the viceroy of New Spain: 'Just as a father of a family has charge of his house and of the education an dcorrection of his children, the management of, control, and education of the baptized Indians belongs to the missionary fathers.' 1789 Report from a former mission priest: 'For any reason, however insignificant it may be, Indians are severely and cruelly whipped, placed in shackles, or put in the stocks for days on edn without receiving even a drop of water.' 1780 California governer Felipe de Neve: 'the Indians fate was worse than that of slaves.'
Slide 10 of 18: Scholars estimate that before the arrival of European colonists, present-day California was home to between 300,000 and 1 millian diverse Native people. By the end of the mission period (1830s), tat number had decreased by half to around 150,000. Consider these numbers: By 1833, Spanish missionaries had baptized around 81,500 California Native Americans. In the same amount of time, they had buried over 62,000 baptized California Native Americans.
Slide 11 of 18: A bar graph titled 'Native Population Decline' shows an estimated Native population of 350,000-1 million during pre-European contact and 150,000 in the Post-Mission period.
Slide 12 of 18: Despite severe abuse and oppression, Native Americans resisted the mission system and their cultures continued to thrive, adapt, and evolve. Today, we will use primary sources to answer the following question:
Slide 13 of 18: Central Question of Today's Lesson: Native Americans of California during the mission period: How did Native people resist and persist in the face of extreme adversity?
Slide 14 of 18: What does resistance mean to you?
Slide 15 of 18: Eight overlaid images depict symbols and examples of activism, including a photo of Rosa Parks, a badge that reads 'American Indian Movement' and a rainbow-colored flag.
Slide 16 of 18: What does persistence mean to you?
Slide 17 of 18: Three images depict a man speaking at a podium, daisies growing through a crack in a brick walkway, and people weaving natural materials.
Slide 18 of 18: Definitions: To Resist - to exert force in opposition; synonyms - to defy, to oppose, to fight, to withstand; To Persist - to go on despite opposition or warning; to continue to exist, especially past a usual or expected time; Synonyms - to carry on, to persevere
Thumbnail link for Slide 1
Thumbnail link for Slide 2
Thumbnail link for Slide 3
Thumbnail link for Slide 4
Thumbnail link for Slide 5
Thumbnail link for Slide 6
Thumbnail link for Slide 7
Thumbnail link for Slide 8
Thumbnail link for Slide 9
Thumbnail link for Slide 10
Thumbnail link for Slide 11
Thumbnail link for Slide 12
Thumbnail link for Slide 13
Thumbnail link for Slide 14
Thumbnail link for Slide 15
Thumbnail link for Slide 16
Thumbnail link for Slide 17
Thumbnail link for Slide 18