The California Mission system was established from 1769 to 1833 under the Spanish Colonial regime, which focused on converting local peoples into Christians. Stretching from San Diego to San Francisco, these Missions came across as triggers of cultural and religious upheavals among the Native American tribes. However, the Mission degradation in the local Native American communities was far more than just noticeable. This thesis seeks to discuss the destructive aspects of the California Missions’ imposition on the Native Americans. By examining historical narratives and scholarly writings, this research paper will advocate that the mission system had culture suppression, forced labor, and exploitation, as well as the terrible effects of bringing diseases to the Native Americans. After researching these areas, we can comprehend the intelligence through which the colonial powers battled and faced disfranchisement.
Cultural Suppression
The California mission system is the outstanding historical period of Colonialism and its influences on the natives. Founded to change the culture and customs of Native American people in California and make them believers of Christianity, the people’s transformation brought by the Mission System was huge. This section seeks to discuss the multiple ways in which the Mission system oppressed the culture of the Natives and the negative consequences of this on all the Indigenous communities of Canada.
The most significant part of cultural persecution present in the Mission system was giving Christianity as the religious way to Native American tribes. Conversion to Christianity was one of the main principles of Mission to the Natives, which meant that many original people were baptized. A tax was put on them to adopt European religious customs (Schneider et al. 99). The result of this change was twofold: Firstly, their spiritual beliefs were undermined, and secondly, a substantial part of the traditional Indigenous religion and practices disappeared. Indigenous people were made to take up the concept of Christianity, at times, the threat of being punished or even withholding basic things they needed, such as food and housing. The introduction of Christianity into the mission system, by its nature, was an effort to remake the aborigine’s identity and their traditional ways of life with the Catholic values of urban Europe.
In addition, the Mission authority had imposed rigorous rites on the Indigenous cultural activities within the Mission buildings. Indigenous languages were often forbidden, with Spanish being the first to stand as a language of instruction and communication. Some customs just disappeared – neither allowed nor able to survive. Same – Indigenous peoples were forced to change their way of life and would have never adopted European ways. This purposeful quashing of the traditional Indigenous cultures within the mission welfare mechanisms carried severe consequences for the Indian communities. It also played a slimming role in Indigenous titles and reduced traditional knowledge and habits that were carried out (Akins et al.). These were rooted in the minds of ancestors. Banning the Indigenous languages along with cultural practices helps to break this link between Indigenous communities and their cultural heritage, which, therefore, makes them more and more detached from their traditions and ways of life.
Furthermore, the Mission kept a story of a cultural heritage that Spanish colonial governors viewed the expressed culture of the Indiana people as inferior and morally un-civilized that necessitated they were exposed to the elements of the Christian religion and, thus, to the detriment of the Indiana culture (Akins et al.). However, the Eurocentric depiction did not consider the depth of indigenous cultures and the disastrous outcomes that displacement and suppression of cultures cause for indigenous societies.
Besides the destruction of the Indigenous social and familial patterns, the Mission system worsened the process of acculturation. Under the Spanish crown, indigenous communities were forced to live at Mission Compounds, thereby separating many family units and destroying the primary kinship groups. The dislocation was not only physical but also severed the indigenous peoples from their ancestors’ lands and the social ties and networks that were a vital link to them and central to cultural and social cohesion. Thus, Indigenous social organization and autonomy were suppressed apart from the extreme regulation of the life structure and its components like the space for living and the work method (Akins et al.). Mission systems forced heirs on the indigenous people through a rigid and hierarchical structure. This marginalized the old, traditional forms of governance and leadership. In general, the Mission disrupted and crushed the already existing Indigenous social structures and familial relationships more to the extent that the Indigenous domination lost its ground and they had to endure further cultural oppression.
Forced Labor and Exploitation
The Californian Mission chain, which spanned from 1769 to 1833 when Spain still held the sovereign power, was constructed on the back of the labor of the Native American population, which was supposed to support its infrastructure. On the other hand, this utilization of the Indigenous people’s labor also commonly coincided with bite-and-snap forced labor and exploitation, which manifested through coercive means, harsh labor conditions, and an economic dependency that was in place within the Native people’s communities. This part sheds light on the different aspects of forced labor and exploitation under the Mission system. Indigenous communities have been the subject of the study, which discusses specific instances of the experiences endured by this historically disadvantaged group.
The mission stations placed most of the Native American population in the agricultural work or labor category. The Indigenous population was responsible for nourishing the Mission settlements based on crop cultivation, which included wheat, corn, or barley. Tillable work in agriculture used to be intensive, and therefore, the natives had many daytimes harvesting under the boiling sun without any rest periods or money from what they produced; thus, labor was one of the main problems (Edwards et al. 55). Likewise, historians detail how Persons of Non-White ethnicity were mustered into work from sunrise till sunset without respite; soil was tilled, and crops were tended.
Furthermore, not only are the agricultural activities burdened upon Indigenous people, but also they have been used as workers for the continuation and expansion of Mission construction. The structures created were mainly comprised of adobe such as buildings and churches that were also imperative to farming. Native Americans were usually required to work on their backs. This might be bringing the massive weight of adobe bricks or just digging ditch always for the irrigation channels. It was incredible to see those projects, but Indigenous people had to deal with extreme conditions with outerwear or safety equipment without any precaution.
Besides that, indigenous women and children liked to be servants around the mission compounds and did a big part of housework, such as cooking, cleaning, and laundry. Females were assigned to preparing food for the inmates, a challenging task at the Mission and poorly equipped cooking facilities. Adults and children from the late stone and early bronze ages have taken on the role of water fetching and firewood collecting at a very young age and contributing to some essential household chores. The Mission system’s exploitation of Indigenous women and children, in addition to that being part of mainly the slave labor system’s systematic nature depicted.
Indigenous people, especially men, were forced to work in the Mission system, and their lives were miserable. This labor burden was a humiliation, bullying, and exploitation of Indigenous people. Native People were sometimes given very physically demanding tasks to do with nothing but bad food, insufficient clothes, or shelter from the Missions (Edwards et al. 56). Additionally, the rationing existing during the Mission’s era was severely tight for the Indigenous laborers whom most times were given tiny amounts of food, leaving them weak and susceptible to diseases. In the meantime, the aboriginal workers were allocated inadequate accommodation, which was tightly packed and dirty, and as a result, they were ill and in a pathetic state.
Even though the Indian men and women were forced to work under inhumane conditions, their accumulated knowledge and skills were incorporated into the system to make a profit for the Mission. The products of Indigenous labor were utilized for trade and profit by the Missions and colonial authorities. They included crops and livestock, also used to interact with different groups within the colonial leadership or authority system. Many products of abundance were sold to neighboring villages or even exported to the crack of the world; such delivery, of course, was the foundation of the economic growth of missions. On the other hand, most of the colonized natives who toiled did not get any pay, which contributed to this aggravated sexual imbalance and economic inequality, which was the norm within the colonizing society (Madley 26).
Furthermore, by establishing the Mission, the perpetuation of a system of dependency and exploitation, the Europeans left for the Indigenous peoples. Indigenous people were automatically made politically, economically, and socially dependent by the Missions, and they had to rely on them for basic needs in their lives, which just added up to negative struggles related to Colonialism (Madley 26). For instance, control over essential resources such as food authorities practiced clothing to control the native people. These resources were seen as mediums for forcing the Natives into labor/services. Indigenous communities were made to live on the Mission as dependent on international aid and had to deal with the constraints of a growing economy.
The Mission system imposed firstly upon Indigenous communities’ labor force is not only responsible for the physical and emotional torment among those people but also for economic inequality and exploitation of the same system. When the Spanish authorities exploited the care, and in extreme cases, even abuse, of the Indians as mission workers, their oppression spread sharply. Moreover, the cultural bond created by the Mission plan severed the chances of the Indigenous peoples pursuing different livelihoods that could open new self-sufficiency opportunities.
Spread of Diseases
The transmission of diseases responsible for the death of native inhabitants due to the California mission systems through Colonialism is one of the most unfortunate and horrifying events that rocked the region historically. The Mission compounds close to one another, and unsanitary environments often make transmission of diseases an inevitable process in Indigenous communities (Manning et al.). Epidemics such as measles, smallpox, and flu, which European settlers brought along and unknown to the Indigenous peoples before, were then transmitted among the Indians. These diseases decimated the Indigenous people quickly and remarkably.
Measles, the smallpox-like infection a contagious virus causes, is known for high fever, cough, and rash and was among the killer diseases that decimated Indigenous communities in California. The spread of measles from the mission station to the indigenous communities caused a generation of epidemics that was responsible for high morbidity and mortality among the indigenous population. The absence of any immunity among Indigenous People had them exposed and infected with this virus, which left them no choice but to be the victims of its fatal impact on their health and their livelihoods (Manning et al.).
Likewise, smallpox, a contagious viral infection whose symptoms include fever, rash, and fluid-filled blisters, has impacted the Californian native groups. The introduction of smallpox by Spanish colonizers itself was so devastating that hundreds of thousands of people among Mission communities died, especially in those areas where residential facilities and tribes had been settled closer together. The death rate for smallpox outbreaks was exceptionally high, which affected the social, cultural, and demographic makeup of Indigenous communities, causing the loss of a significant number of human lives and ensuring that their culture was shaken as their usual way of life was disturbed.
With the arrival of Europeans in California and their colonization efforts, deadly diseases were transferred from them to the Indigenous population, giving rise to massive deaths. Thus, the Spanish colonizers were responsible for the enormous loss of the native American population in California (“California Indian History – California Native American Heritage Commission”). Immense crews of illness were witnessed in missionaries among the communities of the native population. The mortality rate among the natives reached a level that is hard to imagine. Historical accounting for those periods also describes the destruction brought by these diseases when written in the villages in a secondary role for smallpox, measles, and influenza outbreaks.
Diseases and death affected not only the society of the Indigenous but also the cultural traditions and population of these communities. The excessive death rates linked with epidemics caused significant demographic loss among Native communities, destroying their everyday lives and social structure (“California Indian History – California Native American Heritage Commission”). This meant countless people lost their lives while, at the same time, the previously prevailing social structure tumbled. Loved ones died at the hands of the dreadful disease, and the relatives were forced to be left behind; the dispersion of the family members and the disappearance of the cultural heritage-bearing traditions caused this.
In addition, the diffusion of sicknesses in the Mission system was the problem progressing existing health divides and injustices between Indigenous communities. Indigenous people were in the disadvantaged position of an unrealistically inaccessible healthcare system within the Mission structure. At the same time, colonial governing bodies have always been known to describe European settler interests over Indigenous community health and well-being. Such disregard and insensitivity to the whole range of Indigenous sufferings have been a significant factor in the further health deficiency of the Mission residents.
Conclusion
The California Mission system’s influence had a devastating effect on the indigenous communities, leading explicitly to cultural suppression, forced labor and exploitation, and the spreading of infectious diseases among the natives. The Mission system aspired to integrate Indigenous people into Spanish society as an outcome of which the Indigenous identities were eliminated, and their traditional knowledge was broken. The coerced work and the harassment gave slavish treatment to the Indigenous people who have been experiencing economic impoverishment and exploitation, which have been modernized as systems of inequality. In addition, the prospect of infectious diseases that hit the Indigenous populations was fatal as their numbers dwindled, resulting in death, widespread illnesses, and declining demographics. After the year had passed, the California mission system had permanent effects on the Aboriginal residents in California, making them the enslaved people and forgotten tribes in the colonial society.
Works Cited
“California Indian History – California Native American Heritage Commission.” Nahc.ca.gov, nahc.ca.gov/native-americans/california-indian-history/#:~:text=The%20impact%20of%20the%20mission. Accessed 10 Mar. 2024.
Akins, Damon B., and William J. Bauer. We are the land: A history of native California—University of California Press, 2021.
Edwards, Tai S., and Paul Kelton. “Germs, Genocides, and America’s Indigenous Peoples.” Journal of American History 107.1 2020: 52–76.
Madley, Benjamin. “California’s first mass incarceration system: Franciscan missions, California Indians, and penal servitude, 1769–1836.” Pacific Historical Review 88.1 2019: 14–47.
Manning, Middleton, Beth Rose, and Steven Gayle. “Enslaved in a Free Country: Legalized Exploitation of Native Americans and African Americans in Early California and the Post-Emancipation South.” Journal of Law and Political Economy 3.2 2022.
Schneider, Tsim D., Khal Schneider, and Lee M. Panich. “Scaling invisible walls: Reasserting Indigenous persistence in mission-era California.” The Public Historian 42.4 (2020): 97-120.
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