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HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA

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What effect did the mission system have on the Native population? Should missionaries be

venerated in California with statues and monuments? What do you make of the frequent

vandalism of statues and historical sites memorializing the mission system?

Three centuries ago, what is now present day California was once a land predominantly

occupied by Native Americans. However, this did not last for too long as the Franciscan

missions run by Spain and the Roman Catholic Church decided to settle down in this region. As

a result, they impacted the lives of the locals in many ways. The primary aim of the missions was

to enlighten the Native Americans on Christianity and also teach them new and better farming

methods practiced back in Europe. These missionaries deserve recognition in California with

statues and monuments as a way of acknowledging their contribution towards the development

of the region even though some things were not positive. The missionaries deserve some bit of

appreciation because of their transformative role in history.

The Franciscans who came from Spain converted some of the Native Americans to

Christianity. When they first arrived, many Native American occupants in this state were

attracted to the surplus food and the material wealth that the missionaries offered. However,

when all these resources were depleted, the missionaries used soldiers to force the Native

Americans to stay within the missions. Additionally, they were also determined to influence the

Native Americans to adopt their way of life, which they effectively did through their constant

push for intermarriages. In father Francis Guest’s words, “Spanish, their whole idea was to

convert the Indians to Christianity, bring them into the Spanish way of life. They would become

citizens of the Empire. They encouraged inter-marriage. ” Besides, they also influenced the

change of order in the lives of the Native Americans. The missionaries had noticed that the

natives, during this period survived on hunted and gathered foods, an order they struggled hard

to change through various means. The missionaries trained the natives to wait for food to be

prepared before eating just like they always did. Moreover, the priests in the missions taught the

Native Americans how to cultivate crops and also take care of livestock from Europe. As Agody

2010 puts it, “settlers relied on Indian laborers to help cultivate their small plots of corn, wheat,

melons and other fruits and vegetables; poultry and livestock roamed freely.

” The most effective

way of appreciating this civilization is through honoring those missionaries through statues and

monuments.

Finally, I would take the frequent vandalism of the statues and the historical sites as a

protest from those who feel that the statues are symbols of oppression that deserve no space of

commemoration in the modern world. To them, it is a way of protecting the dignity of the native

occupants from people who had once discriminated against them. Though it is controversial, the

protesters have a point and so are justified. The missionaries invaded them and forced them to

adopt their ways of life arguing that theirs were far more civilized and superior to the lifestyles

of the natives. Historically and logically, no invasion is ever peaceful. Most come with

oppression and other unpleasant actions to force those conquered into submission. A similar case

occurred with the Spanish missionaries when they invaded California. There were instances

when they used the military to force people into submission, which is indeed oppressive. Such

memories are what provoke such vandalism. That said, the negative aspects of this history can be

taught without ignoring the importance of the Franciscan missionaries in the history of this

region.

Response:

Rice, Richard B, William A Bullough, and Richard J Orsi. The Elusive Eden. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2002.

It is true that the missionary activities in California significantly impacted the lives of the

Native Americans in the area economically and socially. Therefore, there should be no problem

venerating the work of these missionaries through monuments and statues. The writer thinks that

the Native Americans should also be venerated because they were also the part of the dramatic

change in the Californian life, and I agree. They arguably witnessed the greatest changes in the

region, because the missionaries came in to have them adopt their lifestyles. The writer has

explicitly pointed to the Native Americans as the ones who tirelessly worked for the

missionaries.

Foremost, the coming of the Spanish greatly changed the lifestyle of many locals in line

with the expectations of the missionaries. The missionaries, for instance, brought the element of

patriarchy among the Native Americans. They could now distinctly separate the duties of a man

from those of women. Instead of hunting and gathering, the men were put to work on the farms

for more extended hours, as the priests taught the females how to take care of the farm animals

and the family. Another element of patriarchy that might have been missed was how priests

regarded themselves as the parents of the indigenous believers. In other terms, they were tasked

with “management, control, punishment and education of baptized Indians

.”

The author of this piece is also right to note that the arrival of the missionaries changed

the religion of the Native Americans. In the missions, the Native Americans were given time to

go to the fields and then got an additional two hours of Bible teachings from the priests. With

time, most of the assimilated Native Americans adopted the Christian culture, which was

forcefully imposed on those who did not want to convert. When the missionaries came, their

fundamental objective was to get many of the Native Americans to convert to Christianity. The

Rice, Richard B, William A Bullough, and Richard J Orsi. The Elusive Eden. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2002.

Native Americans were convinced to stay in the missions in the guise of providing for them, and

later they were forcefully held against their will by the Spanish soldiers and made to proclaim

Christianity. While it is important to remember the role of the Franciscan priests in California

history, it is equally important to remember the even larger role of the Native Americans at this

time.

Bibliography

Rice, Richard B, William A Bullough, and Richard J Orsi. The Elusive Eden. Boston: McGraw-

Hill, 2002.

Sandos, James A. Converting California: Indians and Franciscans in the Missions. Yale

University Press, 2004.

Guest, Francis F., and Francis P. Guest. "Junípero Serra and His Approach to the Indians."

Southern California Quarterly 67, no. 3 (1985): 223-261.

Rudolph, Catherine, and Elaine Miller. Documenting Everyday Life in Early Spanish California:

The Santa Barbara Presidio Memorias y Facturas, 1779-1810. Santa Barbara Trust for

Historic Preservation, 1998.

Denis, Alberta Johnston. "Spanish Alta California." (1927).

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