The Spanish word ranchería , or rancherío , refers to a small, rural settlement. In the Americas the term was applied to native villages or bunkhouses . Anglo-Americans adopted the term with both these meanings, usually to designate the residential area of a rancho in the American Southwest , housing aboriginal ranch hands and their families. The term is still used in other parts of Spanish America ; for example, the Wayuu tribes in northern Colombia call their villages rancherías .
35-614: The Columbia Encyclopedia describes it as: The term could be applied to the settlements of the California Mission Indians beyond the Spanish missions , such as Maugna of the Tongva people. In California , the term refers to a total of 59 Indian settlements established by the U.S. government , 54 of them between 1906 and 1934, for the survivors of the aboriginal population. San Diego State University maintains
70-719: A less exalted opinion of the fathers than they have had until now." In 1811, the Spanish Viceroy in Mexico sent an interrogatorio (questionnaire) to all missions in Alta California regarding the customs, disposition, and condition of the Mission Indians. The replies, which varied greatly in length, spirit, and even value of information, were collected and prefaced by the Father-Presidente with
105-688: A nearby village. Each Indian was expected to contribute a certain number of hours' labor each week towards making adobes or roof tiles, working on construction crews, performing some type of handicraft , or farming . Women wove cloth, prepared meals, washed clothes, and were generally responsible for whatever domestic chores arose at the mission. The hierarchy of power in missions was a major cause of culture clash between Franciscan missionaries and Native Americans. Missionaries devolved authority to Native American officials who often held power within their own tribes, but this authority clashed with their own cultural values. Social organization in precontact California
140-586: A padre's permission, and from then on led a fairly regimented life learning "civilized" ways from the Spaniards. Indians were often subjected to corporal punishment and other discipline as determined by the padres. The canonization of Junípero Serra continues to spark contemporary debate regarding the treatment of Native Americans at the hands of Franciscan missionaries. In reaction to Pope Francis's announcement that he would canonize Serra in January 2015 was,
175-440: A reference titled California Indians and Their Reservations: An Online Dictionary . It says: The Spanish term for small Indian settlements. Rancherías are a particular California institution. A small area of land was set aside around an Indian settlement to create a ranchería. Some rancherías developed from small communities of Indians formed on the outskirts of American settlements who were fleeing Americans or avoiding removal to
210-478: A short general statement or abstract. He sent the compilation to the viceregal government. The contemporary nature of the responses, no matter how incomplete or biased some may be, are nonetheless of considerable value to modern ethnologists . The Indians also spent much of their days learning the Christian faith, and attended worship services several times a day (Fray Gerónimo Boscana , a Franciscan scholar who
245-531: A statue of Christ in a cemetery at Mission San Gabriel in Los Angeles was toppled, and a MoveOn petition to "enlighten" the pope regarding “the deception, exploitation, oppression, enslavement, and genocide” of Native Americans received over 10,000 signatures. The pre-contact population of California (225,000) had been reduced by 33 percent during Spanish and Mexican rule, but that was caused mostly by epidemics. Under American rule (from 1848 on), when most of
280-399: Is scarcely recorded, but a ruling elite presided over commoners and an underclass, determined by lineage and cultural inheritance. Conversely, mission power structure was determined by elections, eliminating traditional Native American social hierarchy and replacing it with a system heavily monitored and often controlled by Franciscans. Native American officials were often tasked with keeping
315-620: The 49ers to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush in an adapted form, " rancherie " . It survives in British Columbia as a somewhat archaic but still commonly used word, in rural areas and small towns, as well as in general First Nations English usage, meaning the residential area of an Indian reserve . It especially means the historical residential area, as opposed to newer subdivisions. It was further extended to refer to other non-white residential communities, such as
350-584: The Christian religion. The Spanish occupation of California brought some negative consequences to the Native American cultures and populations, both those the missionaries were in contact with and others that were traditional trading partners. These aspects have received more research in recent decades. One of the tasks assigned to early Spanish explorers of California was to report on the native peoples found there. The Portolá expedition of 1769-70
385-961: The Dawes Rolls . The most important reservations include: the Agua Caliente Reservation in Palm Springs , which occupies alternate sections (approx. 640 acres each) with former railroad grant lands that form much of the city; the Morongo Reservation in the San Gorgonio Pass area; and the Pala Reservation which includes San Antonio de Pala Asistencia (Pala Mission) of the Mission San Luis Rey de Francia in Pala . These and
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#1732772065771420-739: The Franciscan missionaries at the missions. Mission Indians were from many regional Native American tribes ; their members were often relocated together in new mixed groups, and the Spanish named the Indian groups after the responsible mission. For instance, the Payomkowishum were renamed Luiseños , after the Mission San Luis Rey ; the Acjachemem were renamed the Juaneños , after
455-722: The Kanaka Rancherie in early Vancouver , British Columbia , which came to house the city's Kanaka (Hawaiian) residents. In an even more truncated form, the Ranche was used to refer to the Tlingit portion of Sitka, Alaska . California Mission Indians Mission Indians was a term used to refer to the Indigenous peoples of California who lived or grew up in the Spanish mission system in California . Today
490-736: The Mission San Juan Capistrano and the Kizh or Kisiannos renamed the Gabrieleño , after the Mission San Gabriel . The Catholic priests forbade the Indians from practicing their native culture, resulting in the disruption of many tribes' linguistic, spiritual, and cultural practices . With no acquired immunity to the exposure of European diseases (as well as sudden cultural upheaval and lifestyle demands),
525-633: The Spanish Missions in California during the Spanish Las Californias - New Spain and Mexican Alta California eras of control, with lasting consequences after American statehood. The Missions were religious outposts established by Spanish Catholic Franciscans from 1769 to 1823 for the purpose of protecting Spain's territory by settlements and converting the Californian Native Americans to
560-415: The padres could abandon their interim missions and begin work on more permanent structures, they had to first attract and convert a sufficiently large number of local Indians, who would comprise the major portion of their work force. The priests offered beads, clothing, blankets, even food to the "gentiles" to attract them to the prospects of mission life and convince them to move into the mission compound or
595-504: The population of Mission Indians suffered high mortality and dramatic decreases, especially in the coastal regions; the population was reduced by 90 percent, between 1769 and 1848. Despite the missionaries' attempts to convert the Indigenous peoples of the missions, often referred to in mission records as "neophytes", they indicated that their attempts at conversion were often unsuccessful. For example, in 1803, twenty-eight years into
630-659: The California missions in 1834. Mexico secularized the missions and transferred (or sold) the lands to other non-Native administrators or owners. Many of the Mission Indians worked on the newly established ranchos , with little improvement in their living conditions. Around 1906, Alfred L. Kroeber and Constance G. Du Bois, of the University of California, Berkeley , first applied the term "Mission Indians" to southern California Native Americans, as an ethnographic and anthropological label to include those at Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa and south. On January 12, 1891,
665-488: The Californian Native Americans' experiences in a very different context. For instance, women were quartered separately from the men, regardless of marital status. In addition, Native American cultural and spiritual beliefs about marriage, love, and sex were routinely disrespected or punished. Once an Indian agreed to become part of the mission community, he or she was forbidden to leave it without
700-605: The Mission Indian Agency. The Mission Indian Act of 1891 formed the administrative Bureau of Indian Affairs unit which governs San Diego , Riverside , San Bernardino , and Santa Barbara Counties . There is one Chumash reservation in the last county, and more than thirty reservations in the others. Los Angeles , San Luis Obispo , Ventura and Orange Counties do not contain any tribal trust lands. However, resident organizations that self-identify as Native American tribes, including self-identified Tongva in
735-688: The US Congress passed the "An Act for the Relief of the Mission Indians in the State of California" . This would further sanction the original grants of the Mexican government to the natives in southern California, and sought to protect their rights, while giving railroad corporations a primary interest. In 1927, the Sacramento Bureau of Indian Affairs Superintendent Lafayette A. Dorrington
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#1732772065771770-617: The actual treatment of the Indians during the Mission Period, and Native American scholars claim that the California Mission system is directly responsible for the decline of the Native American populations. For many years, it was commonly taught that the Indians enjoyed their new lives, and that many were able to sustain themselves after the fall of the mission system by utilizing the skills they had acquired at
805-629: The first and Acjachemen in the last county (as well as Coastal Chumash in Santa Barbara County) continue seeking federal tribal recognition by the Bureau of Indian Affairs . There are no state-recognized tribes in California. Eleven of the southern California reservations were included under the early 20th-century allotment programs, which broke up communal tribal holding, to assign property to individual households, with individual heads of household and tribal members identified lists such as
840-487: The following in southern California: Current Mission Indian tribes north of the present day ones listed above, in the Los Angeles Basin , Central Coast , Salinas Valley , Monterey Bay , and San Francisco Bay Areas , also were identified with the local mission of their Indian Reductions in those regions. California mission clash of cultures The California mission clash of cultures occurred at
875-479: The mission period, Friar Fermín de Lasuén wrote: Generally the neophytes have not yet enough affection for Christianity and civilization. Most of them are excessively fond of the mountains, the beach, and of barbarous freedom and independence, so that some show of military force is necessary, lest they by force of arms deny the Faith and law which they have professed. Abuse persisted after Mexico assumed control of
910-455: The missions. The Indians were purportedly often granted leave to visit their villages and participated in many ceremonies and celebrations throughout the year at the urging of their benefactors. Modern anthropologists cite a cultural bias on the part of the missionaries that blinded them to the natives' plight and caused them to develop strong negative opinions of the Californian Native Americans. Evidence has now been brought to light that puts
945-489: The new Mexican government, managing the mission building complexes in the new Alta California . The Mexican secularization act of 1833 ended the mission system. Much of the prime agricultural lands had Californios with Spanish land grants who remained, who tended to utilize the Indian peoples as a form of enslaved labor. The Mexican land grant period formed many more ranchos in California from mission and Native American lands. In recent years, much debate has arisen as to
980-413: The peace between missionaries and Native American inhabitants, leading to increased friction between officials and their unelected counterparts. Regarding the duty of officials, Junípero Serra wrote in a letter to his trusted subordinate Fermín Lasuén : "Ask him to carry out this function so that, without failing in the slightest degree in his duty toward his superior officer, the Indians may not be given
1015-448: The reservations. […] With the passage of Public Law 83-280 in the mid-1950s, terminating federal supervision and control over California tribes, some 40 rancherías lost the right to certain federal programs, and their lands no longer had the protection of federal status. In 1983, a lawsuit resulted in restoring federal recognition to 17 rancherías, with others still waiting for the reversal of their termination . The word migrated north with
1050-570: The term is used to refer to their descendants and to specific, contemporary tribal nations in California. Spanish explorers arrived on California's coasts as early as the mid-16th century. In 1769, the first Spanish Franciscan mission was built in San Diego . Local tribes were relocated and conscripted into forced labor on the mission, stretching from San Diego to San Francisco . Disease, starvation, excessive physical labor, and torture decimated these tribes. Many were baptized as Catholics by
1085-412: The tribal governments of fifteen other reservations operate casinos today. The total acreage of the mission group of reservations constitutes approximately 250,000 acres (1,000 km ). These tribes were associated with the following missions, asisténcias, and estáncias: In northern California, specific tribes are associated geographically with certain missions. Current mission Indian tribes include
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1120-620: Was instructed by Assistant Commissioner E. B. Merritt, in Washington D.C., to list the tribes in California from whom Congress had not yet purchased land, and for those lands to be used as reservations. As part of the 1928 the California Indian Jurisdictional Act enrollment, Native Americans were asked to identify their "Tribe or Band". The majority of applicants supplied the name of the mission that they knew their ancestors were associated with. The enrollment
1155-522: Was part of a plan to provide reservation lands promised, but never fulfilled by 18 non-ratified treaties made in 1851–1852. Because of the enrollment applications, and the native American's association with a specific geographical location (often associated with the Catholic missions), the bands of natives became known as the "mission band" of people associated with a Spanish mission. Some bands also occupy trust lands— Indian Reservations —identified under
1190-546: Was stationed at Mission San Juan Capistrano for more than a decade beginning in 1812, compiled what is widely considered to be the most comprehensive study of prehistoric religious practices in the San Juan Capistrano valley). When Spain lost control of Las Californias and all of New Spain , due to the Mexican War of Independence succeeding, it left primarily Spanish Franciscan missionaries, suspect by
1225-418: Was the first European land exploration, reaching as far north as San Francisco Bay . Several members of the expedition kept diaries that, among other things, described interactions with and observations about the natives. The most detailed of these diaries was by Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí . A report written later by Pedro Fages , one of the expedition's military officers, was also influential. Before
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