CURRENT LIST OF SUGGESTED TOPIC AREAS FOR CRITICAL MISSION STUDY PROJECT

Framework organized using broader categories:

I. Discussion of the Land that each of the Missions occupies should be first and foremost–what are the names of these village sites/areas

A. Oral Stories can go here that are separate and autonomous from Mission influence to show our intrinsic social, cultural, and political sovereignty.

B. Processes of shaping geography and environment.

C. Interaction of land, language, humans, and other-than-humans.

II. CA Indian vs. Catholic Philosophies and Worldviews

A. 1.Papal Bulls – influence on mission

1. Also origin of the colonial mission structure, influence of De La Casas and the integration of military and church into an effective tool for conquest.

2. Concept of “reducciones” where neophyte culture, language and religion were destroyed in favor of the Spanish instruction. Control of the neophyte from dawn to dusk and control of children was the preferred colonial operational structure.

B. Comparative pieces about the diverse Indigenous worldviews and spiritual (religious) beliefs to show differences

C. 8.Intentionality

1. You often hear that the Missions were doing what was socially normal for the time, but socially normal for who? The social norms of tribes were considerably different, including tolerance for different beliefs, sexual identity, brutality toward children, etc. This should be compared and not simply ignored in favor of the norms accepted for the Spanish of the time.

2. The hypocrisy of their norms is another aspect that should be investigated.

D. Also the Oral Stories should frame all projects at the start and end to assert our voices, experiences, and survivance

III. Invasion and Encroachment

A. 4. Slavery

1. The evolution of slavery as the “colonial missions” gave way to the “commercial missions” after 1810 and up to the 1830s in some places.

B. 6. Incarceration

1. There’s some good research already on the development of the California penal system from the Indian vagrant/prisoner roots. Should expand on this and tie into the subsequent effects.

C. 10. Forced conversion to Catholicism.

1. So many different ways. Destroy the food supply with cattle and tree cutting and force the local Indians to turn to the priests for food, then require conversion.

2. Take in the children and pressure the parents to “voluntarily” convert. In the San Diego area many Indians were allowed to stay in their traditional villages if they converted. So they probably did it to get the priest and soldiers to leave them alone.

IV. Genocide

A. 2. Ties in with the “reducciones” philosophy in the U.N. definition of genocide.

B. The Spanish had access to health care and vaccines that they reserved for the neophytes. How much of the death is the result of intentional health care denial and not the commonly accepted idea of genetic weakness of Indians to European disease?

C. 3. Massacres – Orestimba Tribe – over 200 women and children were slaughtered by Spanish soldiers because they refused to continue their walk to the mission

D. 5. Brutality – punishment for speaking native language, running away, at mission SF they tattooed a cross on the Indian’s forehead that ran away, etc.

1. Also the evolution of the brutality over time. Did brutality increase with the commercialization of the missions? Did it decrease in response to tribal uprisings?

E. 7. Rape (I think something like “Gender and Sexuality” should replace this topic title – Olivia) (Or perhaps changing it to Sexual Violence)– for example, Mission was first built across street from Presidio, because of continuous rape of Indians, the mission was moved to Carmel // see mission records – “father unknown.” // soldiers did not bring wives or female companionship // rape of children – at San Juan Bautista, General(?) Castro was a pedophile, when the soldiers would bring in new Indians he, or a person from his rancho, would go to the Mission and pick out the prettiest girls and give a donation to the church and take the girls to his home. They were never heard from again.

F. 9. Foods – what diet were they forced to eat – look at mission longs, “Interogarios(?)” to see what crops were grown, they were not native plants. Document how native plant resources were considered inferior to European plant resources and they sought to replace native plants with European plants. – Grazing grasses are in important example.

1. Many Indians starved because over the years they lost their knowledge of tradition foods. When Serra was marching to San Diego he encountered converted Indians on the road who were starving because they didn’t have any food at the missions and they were trying to find food in the countryside but didn’t know how to obtain it because they grew up in the missions.

E. 13. How sacred sites were desecrated: For example, The creation story of the Chocheno takes place in Pleasanton, the Priests names the mountain Mt. Diablo and referred to it as a mountain of the devil. In San Juan Bautista they put temp church in Sacred Cave until the Mission was built.

F. 14. Environment – both Spanish and Mission would put their cattle near springs that were important resources for the Indians. The first disease epidemic in California after first contact took place near Mission Santa Clara. About 25 babies under the age of two died from drinking contaminated water.

Prohibitions on burning
Grazing animal impacts
Loss of traditional harvest and planting activities.
Killing off of keystone species (grizzlies, antelope, elk, etc.)
Native philosophies of oneness with the animals and plants and the European view of dominance of nature.

G. Discussion of what was happening outside the missions, pueblos and presidios. Tsim Schneider and Lee Panich’s work on the hinterlands may be a guide.

H. 15. Oral Stories – A lot of tribes have stories of mission times, these should be captured.

We need them in a citable format to assist in countering misinformation. We should talk about various options to do this.

I. 16. Review of each priest – for example, the Indians killed Fr. Quintana at Mission Santa Cruz. Quintana put metal barbs on the whip to tear the flesh from Indians when whipped. Other stories as well

J. 17. Father Payeres – how his letter to superior in Spain led to the alibi’s and lies about the wonderful conditions at the missions and how they became an integral part of California School curriculum.

K. 18. Capture information related to mission from the J.P. Harrington notes when they exist. San Juan Bautista info by Ascencion Solarsano exist, it just needs to be transcribed – very difficult. Do other Tribes have such records?

1. 19. Separation of families – put in three barracks, one for women, one for men and one for children. Lot of rape in women’s barrack

2. Here you can talk about the priests/military as the agents/architects

V. Survivance (resistance plus survival)

A. 28.Stories of Indians who resisted

1. This could be a huge section. Tribes resisted through armed combat, sabotage, assassination, rebellion, spiritual hexes, etc.

2 Also the stories of accommodation and collaboration as a way to survive.

B. Family histories (Ross)

C. Tribal histories (Ross)

D. 29.Contemporary/ongoing impacts of the mission system (Olivia)

1. Tribal engagement (or lack thereof) with the missions today, redressing the historical record and asserting balanced perspective about the role of the church and its ongoing impact in our communities (Theresa Gregor)

2. Social, political, cultural, economic, gender, etc. intersections; current relationship of tribes/California Indians with the Catholic Church.

3. Responses to the 2015 Junipero Serra canonization and previous reactions (Costo and Costo book)

E. 30.Demographics – A few demographers have noted that it could be very useful to our communities to have a more accurate account of the size of our almost certainly massively undercounted population. I’ve spoken about this in particular with Karthick Ramakrishnan, a professor of public policy and political science at the University of California, Riverside and a demographer who has also attended Tongva cultural events in the past to show support for our community. – Wallace

Here’s a first attempt at collaboration from Mike Connolly and Val Lopez.

I recommend we tell researchers what subject area we want studied. They can submit studies in areas that they are interested in, but it must meet one of our subject areas. (Val)

I like the idea of organizing these topics into categories. Let’s start that direction after we get more feedback.(Mike)

I agree–many of these are very specific that could be under a larger umbrella. (Olivia)

Are these applicable to the postdoc applicants as well? I think the “product” of the postdoctoral research will likely be different than what is suggested below. (Olivia)

Please don’t change the previous wording, just add your own comments or bullets and initial. If you feel strongly that something already mentioned is important then add a + with your initials at the end, (+MC)

Numbers are Val, letters are Mike [Items in italics have been incorporated above, the rest have not.]

1) Papal Bulls – influence on mission

Also origin of the colonial mission structure, influence of De La Casas and the integration of military and church nto an effective tool for conquest.
Concept of “reducciones” where neophyte culture, language and religion were destroyed in favor of the Spanish instruction. Control of the neophyte from dawn to dusk and control of children was the preferred colonial operational structure.

2) Genocide

This also ties in with the “reducciones” philosophy in the U.N. definition of genocide.
The Spanish had access to health care and vaccines that they reserved for the neophytes. How much of the death is the result of intentional health care denial and not the commonly accepted idea of genetic weakness of Indians to European disease?

3) Massacres – Orestimba Tribe – over 200 women and children were slaughtered by Spanish soldiers because they refused to continue their walk to the mission

4) Slavery

The evolution of slavery as the “colonial missions” gave way to the “commercial missions” after 1810 and up to the 1830s in some places.

5) Brutality – punishment for speaking native language, running away, at mission SF they tattooed a cross on the Indian’s forehead that ran away, etc.

Also the evolution of the brutality over time. Did brutality increase with the commercialization of the missions? Did it decrease in response to tribal uprisings?

6) Incarceration

There’s some good research already on the development of the California penal system from the Indian vagrant/prisoner roots. Should expand on this and tie into the subsequent effects.

7) Rape (I think something like “Gender and Sexuality” should replace this topic title – Olivia) (Or perhaps changing it to Sexual Violence)– for example, Mission was first built across street from Presidio, because of continuous rape of Indians, the mission was moved to Carmel // see mission records – “father unknown.” // soldiers did not bring wives or female companionship // rape of children – at San Juan Bautista, General(?) Castro was a pedophile, when the soldiers would bring in new Indians he, or a person from his rancho, would go to the Mission and pick out the prettiest girls and give a donation to the church and take the girls to his home. They were never heard from again.

8) Intentional

You often hear that the Missions were doing what was socially normal for the time, but socially normal for who? The social norms of tribes were considerably different, including tolerance for different beliefs, sexual identity, brutality toward children, etc. This should be compared and not simply ignored in favor of the norms accepted for the Spanish of the time.
The hypocrisy of their norms is another aspect that should be investigated.

9) Foods – what diet were they forced to eat – look at mission longs, “Interogatarios(?)” to see what crops were grown, they were not native plants. Document how native plant resources were considered inferior to European plant resources and they sought to replace native plants with European plants. – Grazing grasses are in important example.

Many Indians starved because over the years they lost their knowledge of tradition foods. When Serra was marching to San Diego he encountered converted Indians on the road who were starving because they didn’t have any food at the missions and they were trying to find food in the countryside but didn’t know how to obtain it because they grew up in the missions.

10) Forced conversion to Catholicism.

So many different ways. Destroy the food supply with cattle and tree cutting and force the local Indians to turn to the priests for food, then require conversion. Take in the children and pressure the parents to “voluntarily” convert. In the San Diego area many Indians were allowed to stay in their traditional villages if they converted. So they probably did it to get the priest and soldiers to leave them alone.

11)Conduct research on Father Sierra’s “Indian’s Bill of Rights,”

This ties into the fact that the Jesuits had direct authority over the military and the Franciscans didn’t. It didn’t do an thing for the Indians under the Jesuits. It was just a power grab by Serra. Definitely should be expounded on.

12)How they endeavored to destroy Native Culture

This ties in with the “reducciones” philosophy

13)How sacred sites were desecrated: For example, The creation story of the Chocheno takes place in Pleasanton, the Priests names the mountain Mt. Diablo and referred to it as a mountain of the devil. In San Juan Bautista they put temp church in Sacred Cave until the Mission was built.

14)Environment – both Spanish and Mission would put their cattle near springs that were important resources for the Indians. The first disease epidemic in California after first contact took place near Mission Santa Clara. About 25 babies under the age of two died from drinking contaminated water.

Prohibitions on burning
Grazing animal impacts
Loss of traditional harvest and planting activities.
Killing off of keystone species (grizzlies, antelope, elk, etc.)
Native philosophies of oneness with the animals and plants and the European view of dominance of nature.

15)Oral Stories – A lot of tribes have stories of mission times, these should be captured.

We need them in a citable format to assist in countering misinformation. We should talk about various options to do this.

16)Review of each priest – for example, the Indians killed Fr. Quintana at Mission Santa Cruz. Quintana put metal barbs on the whip to tear the flesh from Indians when whipped. Other stories as well

17)Father Payeres – how his letter to superior in Spain led to the alibi’s and lies about the wonderful conditions at the missions and how they became an integral part of California School curriculum.

18)Capture information related to mission from the J.P. Harrington notes when they exist. San Juan Bautista info by Ascencion Solarsano exist, it just needs to be transcribed – very difficult. Do other Tribes have such records?

19) Separation of families – put in three barracks, one for women, one for men and one for children. Lot of rape in women’s barrack

20)Hard labor – per La Perouse, all boys over the age of 10 had hernias from hard labor // they did not use horses as beast of burden, they used Indians.

21)Death rates – per the Interogatorios, in 1823, the number of Indians who died at Mission San Juan Bautista we 19,421, mission opened in 1797.

22)Cemeteries and burials – The mission cemetery at SJB has less than 4,000 burials, there are the other 15,000 buried? Only baptized Indians were buried at mission cemetery.

Cemeteries and burials outside of the Mission but within the surrounding land where our people were held as prisoners. Life continued in these areas which leads to great archaeological disturbance today. Louise

23)Disease – List epidemics and number of associated deaths.

24)Brutality, whippings, shacks, shackles, cutting out tongue, clubbing bottom of feet to break bones so would not run away, …

25)How soldiers captured Indians to bring to mission

26)How the word neophyte applied to the Indians and how Indians were considered property

27)How many tribes/triblets (I don’t like this word) were taken to each mission. Approximately 84 different tribes/triblets were taken to mission San Juan Bautista

28) Stories of Indians who resisted

This could be a huge section. Tribes resisted through armed combat, sabotage, assassination, rebellion, spiritual hexes, etc.
There is also the stories of accommodation and collaboration as a way to survive.

Contemporary/ongoing impacts of the mission system (Olivia)
1. Tribal engagement (or lack thereof) with the missions today

Yes, redressing the historical record and asserting balanced perspective about the role of the church and its ongoing impact in our communities (Theresa Gregor)

Social, political, cultural, economic, gender, etc. intersections

Demographics – A few demographers have noted that it could be very useful to our communities to have a more accurate account of the size of our almost certainly massively undercounted population. I’ve spoken about this in particular with Karthick Ramakrishnan, a professor of public policy and political science at the University of California, Riverside and a demographer who has also attended Tongva cultural events in the past to show support for our community. – Wallace Cleaves

DRAFT SCORING CRITERIA

(Assign 1-10 numeric score)

What is the priority value of each proposal?
Does the person applying for the grant possess the qualification to successfully complete the study?
Can the proposed project be completed on time and with high quality?

Does the study involve multiple missions? – (yes/no)
Does the study involve tribal collaboration? – (yes/no)
Does the proposal have a letter of support from Tribal government? – (yes/no)

WHAT SHOULD FINAL PRODUCT LOOK LIKE?

Interim report ½ way into the grant period

Publication of final report with 5-7 page summary of study findings and all reports/products included???

Grad students and postdoctoral researchers will likely want to publish (with consent) on their original and collaborative research in peer-reviewed journals or in a book. Postdocs might already have a research agenda that they’ll want to further with the resources from the fellowship. The grad students might want to use part of the research in their dissertations. If an end goal of this grant is to facilitate/promote Native CA scholars, then providing/approving publishing opportunities is the best way to help them advance their careers. (Olivia)

GOALS FOR APPLICATIONS OF REPORT FINDINGS

Tell people the truth about the California mission period
Revise school curriculum
Provide parks information to tell truth and justification for not honoring and glorifying the mission period
Do not glorify mission period.

For example, CalTrans – remove El Camino Real recognition and bells, change Fwy 280 name, now Junipero Serra Freeway – also remove large Serra statue on 280, remove De Anza Trail designations, recognize many freeways as indigenous trials,

Change city, county and school place names – including streets, do not glorify mission period

If we have a list of priorities and not every project gets funded we should use the list as a tool to get additional funding for projects that don’t get funded with this grant.