Helpful or Harmful, Delving into California Missions by Catherine McKiever
Pictured above is a stereograph of the Mission Church of Santa Cruz, photographed in 1866, published by Lawrence & Housworth in a series of 900 stereographs taken along the coast of California, meant to capture and highlight the natural beauty of the state. Lawrence & Houseworth was a San Francisco-based photography studio that operated in the 19th century. They were known for their production of stereographs, which were two nearly identical images mounted side by side, designed to be viewed through a stereoscope, creating a three-dimensional effect. This mission still stands today and is a very popular site for tourism.
The image, “Gems of California scenery, no. 44” depicts a small native american boy sitting in front of a Roman Catholic church, established in 1791 as the twelfth mission in a series of twenty one along the coast of California. Although the picture may seem innocent in nature, it highlights the underlying aspects of the California missions and the detrimental effects that they had on the native american populations at the time. It may not have been the intent of the photographers, but the lone boy becomes a symbol of how colonizers wiped out entire histories of native tribes in such a short period of time, leaving very few still standing today. Colonizers grouped together tribes of various backgrounds and forced them into religious learning centers, far from their land, and far from their own beliefs. It is important to remember that, “the Pacific Indigenous times are not just smaller sections of larger histories, but dimensions of their own” (Salesa, 32). This means to say that the struggles of minority groups, especially those during colonial times are oftentimes combined into one big history of a group of similar individuals. However, each group has a history of their own, and it can not be jumbled into the same hegemonic era, rather a series of events that was occurring over a vast area of land within the same period of time. Each with their own struggle, and each with their own history. Many groups experienced similar forms of domination, however, each was unique to their own geographical area, cultural beliefs, and relationships with outsiders who were enforcing rule upon them.
California missions created new “communities” where native americans were to go through religious reform and education by Spanish missionaries. Although during the time, white colonizers looked upon missions as positive and progressive spaces where they could “culturally assimilate” native americans into their societies and bring them into civilization, in all actuality, missions served as a space of domination, stripping natives of their cultural identities and harming them in physical, mental, and emotional ways.
In the missions, natives were converted to Christianity, baptized, and then forced into a form of near slavery. After the Spanish felt the natives were far enough assimilated, they were “released” into society and became known as neophytes who worked in towns created by the missionaries. These people were then assigned labor jobs, oftentimes farming for men and cooking for women, but also trades like carpentry, building, and weaving. Farming was essential to the development of these missions, and was enforced by Spanish soldiers who oversaw these areas. The Spanish believed that they were civilizing these areas, yet in the process thousands of natives died due to poor working conditions, subjugation, and most drastically European born disease. It is estimated that prior to the missions there were about 300,000 natives in the California area, but by the time the mission system ended, only around 21,000 native americans remained (Reynolds). The detrimental effects on the natives highly overshadowed any good that came out of the missions.
The experience of the Natives living within California was similar to that of the Makah tribe further north in the Puget Sound Area later on in the development of North America. As described in Joshua Reid’s book, “The Sea is My Country”, Makah natives were forced off of their lands as the United States government began to intervene with their affairs. For years the natives had helped to settle the lands, providing labor, food, and shelter for colonizers in foreign lands. They also traded with them, taught them fishing and whaling techniques, and were central to economic development and success in the region. Many native goods were highly sought after and helped to run not only the European economy, but also that of the newly expanding colonies in North America. For years the natives were central to the survival and continuation of European expansion, but the more that it grew, the more that the colonizers took. They forced natives into reservations, which that natives had agreed to upon the terms that they would still be able to have access to the ocean, which they felt was vital to their culture, and that they would still be independent from other tribes whom they were not the same as. Instead of following the terms, the colonizers felt that the natives were asking for too much as the United States now held control over the land. The natives did put up a fight, but like their counterparts of many other native tribes across the country, European bred disease proved to be far too detrimental to fight against. Hundreds of thousands were wiped out by illness, and the natives were unable to secure their lands. Those who had once helped the colonizers now fell victim to their domination. The natives were then forced onto reservations, similar to missions, with a mix of people from various tribes, stripped of their lands and culture. Domination of the natives was happening all over the Pacific Coast.
History tries to hide the fact that native Americans did not go easily into this new form of life. Colonizers tried to skew the script that they were, “educating” the natives, or bringing them into “civilized” societies. However, these people already had intricate forms of cultural beliefs, religion, government, and economic practices. For example, they had their own rituals that praised the natural world and how they were able to use it to their advantage. They had languages that varied from group to group. They were able to construct large structures or boats that could carry hundreds of pounds worth of goods for trading. There was trade amongst groups, and a hierarchy within tribes. There were community events, and rules followed in order to settle conflict. Each tribe was culturally different and had their own beliefs and values. They had their own forms of civilization (Castillo). However, because this differed from the Eurocentric view of civilization brought about by the colonizers, they were stripped of their own identities and forced to learn a new way of life.
Although many minority groups experienced similar subjection from outside forces, they can't all be grouped into the same history. It is important to remember that each has their own unique history, but their similarities do often tie to the common theme of domination by foreign forces. Although these outsides may believe they are “helping” or “furthering” the development of civilization in these regions, that is often not the case. California missions were meant as a center of teaching and spreading the word of God for the Spaniards while securing new lands for their mother country, yet in doing so they wiped out mass amounts of native Americans, displaced them from their homes, and took them away from their own histories.
Works Cited
Bolton, David. California Missions Foundation, californiamissionsfoundation.org/mission-santa-cruz/.
Castillo, Edward. “Californian Indian History.” California Indian History – California Native American Heritage Commission, nahc.ca.gov/native-americans/california-indian-history/.
“Discover the Library of Congress : Library of Congress.” The Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/discover/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2024.
Houseworth, Lawrence. Gems of California Scenery, No. 44. Santa Cruz, CA, 1866.
Reid, Joshua L. The Sea Is My Country. Yale University Press, 2015.
Reynolds, Christopher. “A History of California’s Missions.” Los Angeles Times, timelines.latimes.com/missions-timeline/.
Salesa, Damon, and David Armitage. Pacific Histories: Ocean, Land, People. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
