California

An area with an initially large and diverse indigenous population, California eventually became the often ignored northwest fringe of the Spanish Empire in North America.

Before contact with Europeans, California contained a diverse and large indigenous population that suffered significant losses after the Spanish moved into the region and divided California into the two mission territories of Baja (currently part of Mexico consisting of the peninsula below modern-day California) and Alta California (the area presently encompassed by the modern-day state of California). Initially, the JESUITS controlled Baja California and the FRANCISCANS moved into Alta California, but the Spanish ruled both regions as a single administrative unit until 1804. The Spanish first explored California when an expedition led by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo arrived on the coast in the summer of 1542. Cabrillo sailed up and down the coast of California making contact with various Native groups until he died in an accident on San Miguel Island in January of 1543. Missionaries first moved into Baja California after 1697, and by 1840 they had developed 27 missions in the region. The Jesuit period of influence in Baja California lasted from 1697 to 1768, when the Franciscans replaced them after the Spanish Crown expelled the Jesuits throughout the Spanish empire. During their time in Baja California, the Jesuits created a series of mission farms, villages, and ranches that covered the length of the peninsula. The Franciscans further developed the region from 1769 to 1773 until the Dominicans gained control of the missions from 1774 to 1840. The Spanish did not finally move into Alta California until 1769, and both Alta and Baja California remained outside the economic sphere of New Spain throughout the colonial era.

Before the arrival of the Spanish, the indigenous populations of Baja and Alta California combined exceeded 350,000 people speaking up to 80 different languages divided into several hundred dialects. The gentle climate of Alta California with its plentiful supplies of food created an environment in which large populations lived sedentary lifestyles linked together through networks of trade. They lived in small, autonomous communities of minitribes or bands that included either transient camps, semipermanent villages, or permanent villages of 50 to 500 people. The family formed the primary social unit, with groups of related families living in villages together. Several allied villages loosely organized themselves into egalitarian minitribes or bands that remained relatively isolated from other communities. Their subsistence consisted of fishing, hunting small game and birds, and the gathering of wild vegetables, fruits, and root plants. Those who lived on the coast or in northern Alta California ben-efitted from the most diverse subsistence in the region. Like their neighbors to the north in the Pacific Northwest, many of coastal Alta California’s people became master seamen by building oceangoing plank canoes to harvest the rich supplies of fish, mollusks, and sea mammals. Those to the south in Baja California and to the east of the Sierra Nevadas survived in harsher, drier conditions that limited food options. Survival in this region depended upon an ability to remain mobile in order to collect seasonal food supplies quickly. Therefore, Baja California’s aboriginal inhabitants lived in small bands rather than in large communities.

Most people in California lived in domed wickiups made of pole frames covered with brush, grass, or reeds with a smoke hole left at the top. Others lived in semisubterranean houses in which long poles supported earthen walls and ceilings. The only opening was a smoke hole that also served as the entryway. The most prominent groups in Baja California from south to north were the Pericu, Guaycura, Cochimi, Kaliwa, Paipai, and Nakipa, and those in Alta California from south to north were the Tipai, Mohave, Chumash, Salina, Yokuts, Costanoan, Miwok, Wappo, Pomo, Maidu, Wintu, Yuki, Yana, Yakima, Hupa, Wiyot, Yurok, Shasta, and Karok. Eventually, the situation of many California groups rapidly deteriorated as the Spanish forced many people to live and work in their missions.

After the establishment of the missions in Baja California, the Native American population in the region decreased from approximately 50 to 60 thousand in the 1690s to 2,000 by the 1840s. The introduction of European DISEASES into the region, a tragic component of the Columbian Exchange, initiated this rapid decline in the indigenous population, and the reduction of Natives into mission towns along with harsh labor requirements imposed by their Spanish rulers exacerbated the misery and death rate of the Native people in Baja California. Few colonists ventured into Baja California because of its harsh climate and limited resources, but some did practice limited commercial farming. Additionally, after the mid-18th century, some Spaniards launched limited mining efforts, but for the most part the territory remained the domain of missionaries and their ever decreasing population of mission Indians during the period of Spanish rule.

The Spanish began to settle Alta California, the area encompassed by the current state of California, in 1769. They wanted to reinforce their claim to the western coast of North America, prevent the Russians moving in from Alaska, and stop British movement into the region from Canada and the Pacific Ocean. The Franciscans developed 21 missions in Alta California from 1769 to 1823. The Spanish government established four presidios (military fortifications) and three villages. Just as in Baja California, Native people died from disease in alarming numbers wherever the Spanish established permanent residence. This was especially true for those indigenous people gathered into missions. From 1769 to 1832, 64,000 of 88,000 mission Indians died. Both Baja and Alta California remained part of the Spanish Empire until Mexico gained its independence in 1820. The two regions then became part of Mexico until the United States seized both Baja and Alta California during the Mexican-American War in 1846 and 1847. The United States returned Baja California to Mexico in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.

Further reading: Joseph L. Chartkoff and Kerry Kona Chartkoff, The Archeology of California (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1984); Sherburne F. Cook, The Conflict Between the California Indians and White Civilization (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976); -, The Population of the California Indians, 17691970 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976); Robert H. Jackson, “The Formation of Frontier Indigenous Communities: Missions in California and Texas,” New Views of Borderlands History, ed. Robert H. Jackson (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998), 131-156.

—Dixie Ray Haggard