MISSION INDIANS

The phrase Mission Indians is applied to many different Native peoples in North America converted by Christian missionaries and resettled on missions. Soon after the European discovery of North America, various churches sent out missionaries to seek converts among the Native population. At every stage of development thereafter, missionaries carried their work to the edge of the frontier.

Much of what is known about early Indians comes from the writings of missionaries. Some of the most famous North American explorers were churchmen, such as Isaac Jogues, who explored the eastern Great Lakes and New York’s Lake George; Claude-Jean Allouez, who explored the western Great Lakes; and Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, who reached the Mississippi River.

French Jesuit priests, members of the Roman Catholic Society of Jesus, were the most active of all the missionaries in colonial times, exploring Indian territory from bases in Quebec. Work by them and others like them among the ALGONQUIANS and Iroquoians—the IRO QUOIS (HAUDENOSAUNEE) and the HURON (WYAN DOT)—during the middle to late 1600s brought about settlements of Mission Indians, such as the MOHAWK at Kahnawake. Other Catholic orders had an impact on Indian history as well, such as the Franciscans and Dominicans, mostly based in Mexico.

Some of the Protestant denominations active in missionary work were the Puritans, Society of Friends (the Quakers), Moravians, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Baptists, and Methodists. These missionaries advanced into Indian country mainly from eastern coastal regions. Some of the better known mission settlements resulting from their efforts were Natick among the MASSACHUSET; Stockbridge among the MAHICAN; Conestoga among the SUSQUEHANNOCK; Gnadenhutten among the LENNI LENAPE (Delaware); and Metlakatla among the tsimshian.

Many of these peoples resettled on missions are referred to in history books as Mission Indians. The phrase, however, is most often applied to CALIFORNIA INDIANS, many of whom lost their tribal identities under the influence of Spanish missionaries.

After the Spanish had explored and settled ARAWAK (taino) lands in the West Indies in the Caribbean, they pushed on into Central and South America. The colony of New Spain (now Mexico) was founded in 1521 after the conquest of the AZTEC city of Tenochtitlan. Spain then gradually spread its dominion northward. In 1565, Pedro Menendez de Aviles founded St. Augustine in Florida, the first permanent European settlement in North America.

The territory that was to become the American Southwest also was soon developed by the Spanish. Explorers, the conquistadores, worked their way northward through Mexico. A military man and a priest often traveled together so that both state and church were represented. In 1598, Juan de Onate founded the settlements of San Juan de Yunque and Santa Fe in New Mexico in 1609 among the PUEBLO INDIANS. In 1718, Martin de Alarcon founded San Antonio in Texas. By the mid-1700s, the Spanish were establishing missions, presidios (forts), and rancherias in Baja California, which is now part of Mexico. The first Spanish settlement in the part of California that is now U. S. territory was San Diego, founded in 1769 by Gaspar de Portola and the Franciscan priest Junipero Serra.

Serra stayed on in California and along with other Franciscans founded many more missions—21 in the coastal region between San Diego and San Francisco. The Indians they missionized had been peaceful hunter-gatherers, and soldiers had little trouble rounding them up and forcing them to live at the missions. The friars taught them to speak Spanish and to practice the Catholic religion. They also taught them how to tend fields, vineyards, and livestock, as well as how to make adobe and soap, and forced them to work—to build churches and to produce food. If the Indians refused or if they ran away and were caught, they received whippings as punishment.

The Spanish brought Indians of different tribes to each mission, mostly from groups living near the Pacific coast. Intermarriage was encouraged to blur the distinctions among tribes. Before long, the Indians had lost their own language and religion as well as their tribal identity. Most came to be identified historically by the name of the mission. As a result, the tribal names that have been passed down through history sound Spanish: CAHUILLA; CUPENO; DIEGUENO

(tipai-IPAI); Fernandeno; GABRIELENO; Juaneno; LUISENO; Nicoleno; Serrano. All these peoples originally spoke a dialect of the Uto-Aztecan language family before being forced to speak Spanish, except the Diegueno, who spoke a Yuman language. Other tribes of different language families and living farther north—chumash, salinas, esselen, and COSTANOAN—were also brought under the mission system. The Chumash, Salinan, and Esselen spoke Hokan languages; the Costanoan spoke a Penutian

One.

The missions robbed the Indians of their culture and broke their spirit. The Mexican government closed the missions in 1834, 13 years after Mexican independence from Spain. Mission Indians who had not already been killed by diseases carried by non-Indians or poor working conditions, had a hard time coping without mission food. Their numbers continued to decline drastically. The United States took control of California after the Mexican Cession of 1848. The California gold rush starting in 1849 further affected Native peoples, even those who had avoided mission life during the Spanish occupation.

By the time the United States government finally began establishing reservation lands for the Mission Indians in the late 1800s, much of California had been settled by non-Indians. The Indians received numerous small pieces, sometimes called rancherias. Today, there are many different bands of Mission Indians living on these parcels. Some have integrated into mainstream American culture, holding jobs in industry and agriculture. Some have rediscovered the traditional ceremonies and crafts of their ancient ancestors.

MISSISSIPPIAN. See MOUND BUILDERS