California Indians in the time of Spanish Colonization

Judy Juarez

LBS 375
Professor Cheek
February 25, 2015

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The California mission life style began in 1781 when the Spanish people realized that

Russians were coming down through, what is known today as, California. Scared that their nonuseful lands were about to be taken over by the Russians, the Spanish built missions, presidios,
and pueblos all throughout the coast of California, which was where the Russians were spotted
while hunting seals for their furs. Headed by Father Junipero Serra, the first nine missions were
built. Unfortunately, the Spanish did not tend to build their own establishments, they were used
to having the lowly uneducated folks around them to do their dirty labor. While the exploration
of California was going on between 1532 and 1603, Spanish explorers had met the California
natives who seemed not at all threatening and decided to use these same people to erect the
Spanish settlement alongside the coast. Of course, the Spanish, like any other European
civilization, could not simply take the people. Instead they used the cover of spiritual conversion
to the right religion, Catholicism, to lure the California natives to work for the Spanish. The
question at hand now, is whether or not this plucking and pulling of natives and forcing them to
live life in the missions created a positive or negative lifestyle change in their lives. In my
opinion, I believe that life on the missions was more negative than, if any, positive for the
California natives. This negative lifestyle can be seen through the skills and jobs that the
California natives had to learn to do, the outcome of wanting to leave a mission to go back to
their old lifestyle, and the profit that was created.
When manual labor is required: signs are put up, word-of-mouth is spread and
networking starts to happen. Regrettably, in this scenario the Spanish took their opportunity to
grab any native in sight that looked capable of hard labor, tore up his or her family and took them
to the mission site to start building. According to Mir Tamin Ansary, Serra and his followers
built a missionmissionaries offered gifts to people [Native Americans] for coming to learn

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about Christianity. However, those who came to the mission were not allowed to leavethey
became slaves.1 This is a clear summary of what the Spanish were really looking for, slaves to
do the hard work. While the term slave is usually associated with the African American slavery
of the south, it also reflects the status that the California natives had while living in the missions.
Native men were forced to work from the time the sun rose to the time the sun set, native women
were considered free to the soldiers who patrolled the missions, and the native children were a
bonus to the Spanish because they would grow up understanding the Spanish language and the
way the work around the missions went around. Ansary also states, [Native Americans] farmed
the land, made wine, and tended cattle. All the missions had buildings for shops for
blacksmithing, tanning, candle making, basket weaving, leather working, and furniture
makingOn large areas of land they grew grains and fruits, including palms, olives, grapes, figs,
oranges, and pomegranates. They also had herds of cattle and horses and huge flocks of sheep.
Not only did the Spanish make the natives do all the work, they also completely switched their
ways of collecting food. Before the Spanish came to California, the natives were huntergatherers, but when they were introduced to their new lifestyles in the missions, they were
moved toward a more agricultural lifestyle and not for their necessity but for the necessity of the
Spanish. Father Serra also stated in a report of the on goings of the missions, [American
natives] work at all kinds of mission labor, such as farm hands, herdsmen, cowboys, shepherds,
milkers, diggers, gardeners, carpenters, farmers, irrigators, reapers, blacksmiths, and then
everything else that comes along for their physical and spiritual welfare.3 Although I do not
agree with the last bit of Father Serras report, for their physical and spiritual welfare it asserts
that the natives were doing all sorts of jobs, most which were not common to them sans Spanish
arrival.

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When a native grew tired of the treacherous and tiresome life of the missions and decided

they wanted to go home, they were faced with very severe consequences. Going back to
Ansarys statement about the natives basically being slaves to the Spanish when they got to the
missions, one can assume that the possibility of leaving would get treated as some type of
treason. To put into perspective, Padre Antonio de la Concepcion Horra of Mission San Miguel
reported, for the slightest things, they [natives] receive heavy flogging, are shackled, and put in
stocks, and treated with so much cruelty that they are kept whole days without water.4
According to this, an educated guess of finding out that a native tried to flee the mission
compound would be greeted with a bullet to the head, or something as horrible as that.
According to Lansford W. Hastings, the nativesin Californiaare in a state of absolute
vassalage [slavery], even more degrading, and more oppressive that that of our slaves in the
southIt is quite certain, that the labors of Indians will, for many years, be as little expensive to
the farmers of that country, as slave labor.5 This statement does not explicitly show or detail the
outcome of a native trying to run away or quit the mission lifestyle but it does show why a native
would want to leave, even if it does include a risk of death. George von Langsdorff describes,
the runaway is almost always brought back to the mission, wherean iron rod a foot-and-a-half
long and an inch in diameter is fastened to one of his feet. 6 This atrocious method is done to
prevent further runaways. I mentioned risk of death because, according to Frederick William
Beechey, the end of the church was occupied by a guard of soldiers under arms with fixed
bayonets.7 Why would guards be needed to surround a religious compound? Questions like,
were they there protecting the people inside or were they protecting that their cheap investments
not escape?

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Profit in the missions came solely for the Spanish. It is true that the natives did learn a lot

of new skills and were able to master many jobs but they would not be able to use said skills at
other places unless they were able to transfer to another mission, which essentially leaves the
natives profitless. In the grand scheme of the missions, presidios, and pueblos the only thing the
natives got was a change of culture, separation from their families, and a change in religion. In
terms of profit, it was the Spanish who got the better end of the stick. According to Ansary,
many missions grew quite wealthy, thanks to the hard work of Native Americans.8 With
compliments form Hastings, Its is quite certain, that the labors of Indians will, for many
years, be as little expensive to the farmers of that country, as slave labor.9 Reading these two
reflections side by side, it is evident that that labor of the Native Americans was extremely bad
with little or no compensation for their work. This is further reflected in the ignorance of them
when Mexico takes over California and the Spanish lands are promised to the natives but they
receive nothing.
In conclusion, life at the missions for the California natives was horrible. They were
forced to learn new skillsets, work foreign jobs, never have the freedom to leave the abuse
inflicted by the Spanish, and got no compensation even after the Spanish were forced to
relinquish their lands. From this they got fatal diseases, tortured, raped, and harassed daily. Juan
Rodriquez Cabrillo said on his visit to the California coast and learning about their living
situations in 1542 states, They [Natives] live well.10 It was never the choice of the natives to
go out looking for new jobs and religion. The natives lived peacefully and in harmony for years
before the Spanish came ashore.

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Works
1. Ansary, Mir Tamim. California History. Chicago: Heinemann Library, 2010.
2. Ibid
3. Serra, Father Junipero. In-class source. 1784.
4. Padre Antonio. In-class source. 1799.
5. Hastings, Lansford W. In-class source. 1845.
6. von Langsdorff, George. In-class source. 1806.
7. William, Frederick William. In-class source. 1826.
8. Ansary, Mir Tamim. California History. Chicago: Heinemann Library, 2010.
9. Hastings, Lansford W. In-class source. 1845.
10. Rodriguez Cabrillo, Juan. In-class source. 1542.