Voices of the SavedVoices of the Saved

Lucinda Torres

Sociology 65

June 10, 2003

Native California Accounts of the Mission Years

IntroductionThe following are accounts of California Native’s

regarding their experience with the mission system. It is a small glimpse into the minds of the people whose tales are not widely known.

The Missions Santa Barbara Mission was founded on Dec 4, 1786 by Padre Francisco Fermin Father Juniperro Serra had raised the cross for the mission in 1782

San Gabriel Arcangel first location was established in Sept 1771 but flooding of the crops forced to move from MontebelloIn 1775 the mission was moved to its present location in San Gabriel

The MissionsSan Luis Rey de Francia was founded by Fermin de Lasuen in June 1789 and named after Luis IX king of FranceLocated in Oceanside in

San Diego County

Santa Barbara: Family of Chumash

Excerpts from “Six Generations of Women Speak: The Chumash Experience in Santa Barbara”

Alexehanawa baptized Maria Paula born in the Village of Shniwax in approximately 1769Maria Ygnacia baptized at five years old and given her name on April 17, 1803. She was born in the missionLuisa Ygnacio baptized Luisa de Jesus and was born in approximately 1853.

Alexehanawa1769- “This is was the year the invasion began, when the Spanish-speaking people came into our land and we greeted them in innocence”

Maria Paula was told that by the fathers that the daughters had gotten sick with the “white man’s” disease because the girls were not baptized.

Her family finally moved to the mission after “a number of dry years” in order to survive.

“Most of us saw very little of the missionaries and soldiers…”By the time we moved to Syuxtun, half the people had been baptized, including the old chief…our family stayed away as long as we could…we permitted both of our daughters to be baptized in 1803”

Maria Ygnacia: daughter of Maria Paula

“The priest explained to my parents that if they allowed me to be baptized, God would heal me, and I did recover”

The implication that those who were not baptized got sick. This would have made others choose to be baptized in order to avoid the illness.

Because my parents had permitted my baptism, they came once a year to visit the pali (father) at the mission to receive my annual clothing allotment of a blanket and a dress.“Our elders said that is was the giant serpents beneath the earth moving.They were so displeased we had given up our religion that they writhed in anger”-regarding an earthquake that struck Sta. Barbara

Luisa Ignacio: daughter-in-law of Maria Ygnacia

“The priests did not let them dance very many dances or songs, but they did let them perform the Shutihiwish ‘Seaweed Dance’”

“I was angry with the priest for this harsh treatment of my sister. How she must have feared to have morning come…Father Himeno , sent my father to San Luis Obispo to bring her back”

Regarding the thirty lashes a day for nine days for running away.

San Gabriel Arcangel Toypurina- GabrielinaTaken from an entry of the

“Masterkey”

A revolt against padres and soldados of the mission in San Gabriel “years later I found among Bancroft’s notes a story of how the local neophytes and pagans were tempted by a woman to attack the mission and kill the padres and soldiers”

October 25, 1785-The woman told them that the padres were dead and so they went to the Mission of San Gabriel Archangel. There they saw the dead priests lying in wake. As the Indians stared at the bodies the priests “leaped to life; wild shrieks rent the night air.” Armed soldiers then took all the warriors prisoners.

“ As Toypurina entered, she who held her people in thrall the mere flick of an eyelash, started fiercely at Fages, than at Verdugo. The others, she didn’t even notice as she kicked aside the proffered stool, and stood before the expectant board in all her native dignity.” – interrogation by Corporal Manual de Vargas questions by Governor Pedro Fages

Toypurina“And I commanded him to do so for I hate the padres and all of you, for living h ere on my native soil”- these were her exact words-“for trespassing upon the land of my forefathers and despoiling our tribal domains.”

-article of the “Masterkey” It is not clear if this is an

actual quote by Toypurina or if it is a narrative by Temple the author.

“She responded that the only harm that she had experienced was that we were living on their land” –Jose Maria Pico interpreter

- Investigations of Occurrences at Mission San Gabriel

San Luis Rey de Francia:Pablo Tac-Here he describes the first meeting with Spaniards

“Thus we lived among the woods until merciful God freed us of these miseries though Father Antonio Peyri, a Catalan, who arrived in our country..” “The captain…found the whites all right, and so they let them sleep there…this was the happy day in which we saw white people, by us called Sosabitom.”

Pablo Tac was born in 1822 on the mission. He was taken to Italy where he died on 1841.

“O merciful God, why didst thou leave us for many centuries, years months and days in utter darkness after Thou camest to the world? Blessed be Thou from this day through future centuries.”“It was a great mercy that the Indians did not kill the Spanish when they arrived, and very admirable, because they have never wanted another people to live with them and until those days they were always fighting”

Account taken in Spanish from Tac when he was about 25 years old

BibliographyOlivera, Jose.”From Investigations of Occurances at Mission San Gabriel on the Night of October 25,1785” .Lands of Promise and Despair: Chronicles of Early California,1535-1846. Ed Rose M. Beebe and Roberty M. Senkewicz. Santa Clara :Malcom Margolin.2001.p247-249Soto, Ernestine Ygnacio de. “Six Generations of Women Speak: The Chumash Experience in Santa Barbara”.Tac, Pablo“Indian Life and Customs at Mission San Luis Rey: A record of Calif. Mission Life”. Rome (cerca 1835)Temple II, Thomas Workman. Toypurina the Witch and the Indian Uprising At San Gabriel”.The Masterkey. 1985