EFFECTS OF CALIFORNIA MISSIONS ON NATIVE AMERICANS

Marlene Martinez
LBS 375
Effects of California Missions on Native Americans
Synthesis Paper#1
4 pages
10/15/13

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Effects of California missions on Native Americans

Native Americans always had their own lifestyle. Their lifestyle varied from: large
settlement patterns, food, housing, clothing, marriage, and religion. Once the European culture
dominated after 1769, the Natives were assimilated into mission cultures and had to change the
lifestyle they were so used to. Everything changed for them drastically. The California Missions
was not the best idea. The California Missions had negative effects on the Native American
population.
The Natives lifestyle was that of hunting and gathering. The men hunted and fished and
after the advent of white settlement raided livestock herds. Women gathered the plant foods that
comprised the bulk of the Indian diet- acorns, seeds, roots, pine nuts, berries, and other staples
(Hurtado 1999, p. 3). Natives grew their own crops and were very peaceful people. Working
together as a group to survive and keep their traditions alive. They settled in village
communities. They had tribes with a name and dialect.
There were estimates that suggested a population size of: 325,000 people living
throughout California at the time Europeans had contact in the 17th and 18th century (Bean 1992).
To begin with, the relationship between the Natives and the Spanish was not a good one. Starr
comments, The Franciscans saw themselves as coming to California to save souls, and they
must be judged, in part, as the men they truly were- Spanish Catholic missionaries... (Starr
2007). In reality they were not really saving anyones life, they were taking the Natives life
away. They forced them into missions and changed the lifestyles they had for many years. Native
Americans had traditions, dreams, and cultures they lived by and the missions took that away.
Furthermore, there was no justice for the Native Americans. They were not treated fairly.
They were treated as if they were children. Starr states, As children, they could be beaten when
they proved recalcitrant or ran away from the missions, as if they frequently did, and were
recaptured (Starr 2007, p.40). There was no justice for women. Women were treated with no
respect by the Spanish soldiers. They were sexually exploited. The sexual exploitation of women
lead to, both personal violation and venereal disease, coming from the soldiers and other men
in the colonies (Starr 2007, p.41). Indian women were also raped and married off for land. This
caused the population to drop down in numbers. Native Americans dealing with injustice is a
negative effect of the missions.
In addition, priests wanted to change Native Americans sexual behavior. They wanted to
Christianize and Hispanicize them, but Natives were already accustomed to their sexual
behavior. Premarital sex and virginity were not important to Indians. Marriages usually depended
on their rank or power. Hurtado (1999) discusses how marriages usually occurred within
economic and social ranks to stabilize economic and power relationships. The way marriage
worked for them was as a way to secure them financially. For example, some Chiefs married
other women from small communities as a form of security in case of any food shortage. The

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spouses were selected by the parents. There also had to be an exchange of goods from the
husband side. The bride had to be hard working and men were allowed to have more than one
wife (Bean 1992). Overall, marriage was a very important aspect to the Natives.
Marriage had specific views coming from American immigrants toward Indian women.
They thought Indian women were not attractive marriage partners. Hurtado states, Studies of
the marriage record show that only a small fraction of Spanish and Mexican colonists married
Indians during the Spanish period (Hurtado 1999, p. 25). The American immigrants wanted to
marry California women because of trade and land.
Another sexual practice among Indians was male homosexual transvestism. It was also
called, berdache. Hurtado (1999), discusses how the berdache dressed and acted like women,
but they were not thought as homosexuals. Instead, Indians believed that they belonged to a
third gender that combined both male and female aspects (Hurtado 1999, p.4). Serra and the
colonizers thought in a contradictory way. Serra had a specific view and goal of marriage.
Hurtado (1999) states, Serras idealistic vision of colonization incorporated Spanish town
building and Catholic marriages that tamed the sinful natures of Spaniards and Indians and
harnessed them to Spanish imperial goals (Hurtado 1999, p. 6). He wanted it to be this way, but
it did not happen. He thought homosexual behaviors of the Indians were against the church. The
church only allowed certain things. This is another reason why they wanted to change the Indians
sexual behaviors.
Furthermore, when the secularization of the missions occurred in 1834, the Native
Americans were the least to gain something from it. Some Natives were never told they owned
land. The people who benefited the most out of it were commercial companies. Jose Figueroa, a
distinguished soldier and civil administrator, was who was trying to do secularization on the
mission lands so the Native Americans could own their own property (Starr 2007). He was of
Native American descent, so was also motivated by that. He believed in the Natives having the
right, because after all they were Indian land. He had the secularization all planned out but
unfortunately he died the following year and the process did not go through. It was ignored. Starr
states, Only a small percentage of mission Indians ever came into possession of the properties
they had their forebears had been working for half a century (Starr 2007, p. 48). Once the
missions were actually secularized a new institution came in. The land grant rancho came into
play after missions were secularized.
In conclusion, the California missions changed Native Americans lives in different
ways. Most Natives went into the missions unwillingly. They had to go through a lot of things
like: injustice toward men and women, giving up their housing, unfair labor, change of traditions,
among other things. The missions had negative effects on the Native Americans.

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References
Bean, L. J. (1992). Indians of California: diverse and complex peoples. California History, 71(3),
302-323. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25158646.
Hurtado, A. L. (1999). Intimate frontiers: sex, gender, and culture in old California.
Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.
Starr, Kevin. (2007). California: a history. New York, NY: The Modern Library.