California Mission
Basilica San Diego de Alcalá
10818 San Diego Mission Rd., San Diego, CA 92108
Native Life
San Diego de Alcala was the first mission established by the Spanish. The mission was built on the land of the Kumeyaay people, who constructed it. The Kumeyaay were renamed the Diegueno people by the Spanish after the mission. The Kumeyaay Indians practiced hunting and gathering. They hunted rabbits, wood rats, quail, deer, antelope, mountain sheep, and various birds. The Kumeyaay developed an excellent knowledge of the land and gathered a great variety of plants for food, medicine and other uses; the also farmed in some areas of their territory. They employed sophisticated land management activities that included controlled burning for plant re-vegetation and to increase natural grasses for game animals. The agave plant was another major resource for food as well as raw materials for a number of uses. Seafood supplemented their diet.
Indian villages were established in coastal and desert areas. Villages were typically made up of a collection of family houses; the families were all linked by kinship. Houses were round, supported by sycamore poles and thatched with rushes. In the mountains, houses were triangular roofed and covered with sheets of bark to protect from the snow and cold. Activities included hunting, fishing, gathering and processing plants, basket weaving, pottery making, tool making, trading, music, dance, songs, games, gambling, and social and religious events.
Cultural Impacts
The Spanish attempted to force Indians to assimilate into Spanish culture and give up their traditional way of life. Indians were forced to change their religious beliefs, diet, and daily routines, despite their resistance. Missionaries required Indians to study Christianity, Spanish language, and Spanish customs in order to assimilate into Spanish life. California Indians were forbidden from speaking in their native languages, practicing traditional religious ceremonies, and eating native foods. Sugar and milk was introduced to the diet of native people working at the missions, leading to tooth decay, life threatening infections, diabetes and other health issues. Within two years of living in the missions, many Indians lost all of their teeth and often died from subsequent infections.
Indians also struggled with the livestock and diseases that the Spanish brought to California. Indians used various techniques, like burning small areas of the forest to restore nutrients to the soil, in order to work the land and harvest plants for food and medicine. Cows, goats, pigs, and chickens overgrazed the lands tended by Indians, turning Indian crops into trampled wilderness. Livestock forced native animals to compete for food, throwing the ecosystem out of balance. The Spanish also brought diseases like Measles, Influenza and Small Pox to California. Unlike the Spanish, the native peoples did not have the opportunity to build up natural immunities to these diseases. The introduction of European diseases devastated native populations, wiping out entire villages.
Colonization & Governance
The Spanish plan for governance and maintenance of the missions in California was supposed to be carried out over a ten year period. The plan called for the missionaries to “convert” the Indians to Christianity and “train” them to perform manual labor. After a period of ten years it was anticipated that the Franciscan missionaries would turn their missions over to parish priests and the Indians in the missions would live “assimilated” into Spanish culture in Indian “pueblos” or towns. This ten year plan was actually carried out over the course of fifty years. There were many factors that contributed to things not going as they had planned. There were large scale resistance efforts by California Indian tribes. The rate of disease and death was high among populations of Indians at the missions. Thus the military and church expended vast resources on continual expeditions to “capture” Indians in the regions of California that had thus far been untouched by disease. Additionally, California Indians did not adopt religious practices and Spanish culture in a way that was satisfactory to the church and government authorities. Thus, the Indian people would have to be forced to maintain the lifestyle the Spanish planned to assimilated them to under a colonial authority.
In the first three years only 26 baptisms occurred at San Diego de Alcala. In 1771 Spanish priests intensified conversion efforts. The Kumeyaay did not want to be baptized and join the mission. As soldiers marched further into Kumeyaay territories, the Kumeyaay became increasingly alarmed. In 1774 the mission was relocated near large populations of Kumeyaay to facilitate conversion efforts. When Indians would not join willingly, the Spanish aggressively sought them out.
Resistance
California Indians engaged in widespread resistance to Spanish colonization. Resistance came in many forms. Large scale revolts were organized simultaneously among multiple Indians at several missions. Many individuals and groups attempted to escape. Stock raids were organized with other tribal groups. Others refused to work, attend church services, or bear children fathered by Spanish soldiers. Some groups continued to practice their traditions and ceremonies in secret. Indians were punished by the missionaries for exercising these forms of resistance. Native accounts of punishment describe executions, whippings, shackling, confinement, being made to wear wooden collars with metal hooks and many other forms of physical and psychological humiliation and cruelty.
For six years the Spanish had intruded into Kumeyaay villages and lands, seeking to convert and enslave Indians at the mission. The soldiers sent out to find Indians were often cruel, inflicting various forms of violence and murder upon the people they encountered. These crimes, combined with the whipping of mission Indians who attended a traditional dance led to physical resistance.
During the night and early morning on November 4-5, 1775 several tribes of Kumeyaay people acted together to resist this threat to their culture and way of life. They surrounded Mission San Diego de Alcala and set fire to the wooden structures. Father Luis Jayme, the mission carpenter, mission blacksmith all died during the resistance. Father Serra, the founding Padre of the entire mission system also lost a servant during this resistance. While the resistance caused major setback for this mission, it did not stop the mission movement. At least 13 native people were imprisoned or killed as a result. The Spanish continued their aggressive intrusion and ultimately Indian people were forced to rebuild the mission.
Secularizations
Mexico won their independence from Spain in 1821 and took control of California. The Mexican government passed laws in 1834 to secularize the missions, meaning that the government took control over the missions away from the priests and gave it to the Indians. The initial plan was for the secularized missions to become Indians towns, or pueblos, and to divide half of the land for the Indians and the other half for the priests. The Indians were also instructed to tend the common area between the two pieces of land. A Mexican government administrator was assigned to each mission to inventory property, livestock and other items of value. Upon the completion of the inventory the official was in charge of distributing the land and valuables to the Indians. Five Indian pueblos were established in total: Flores, Pala, San Dieguito, San Juan Capistrano and San Pasqual.
Many Indians did not receive the lands they were promised and were made to serve Mexican settlers on their ranchos. Settlers and retired soldiers stripped the missions of livestock, supplies and lands and designated Indians as individuals of the lowest social and economic standing. The secularization period is often referred to as the “sacking of the missions” because a majority of the items of value at the missions were seized by corrupt soldiers, government officials, priests, and settlers.California Indians responded to secularization by accepting it, fleeing, or resisting servitude. About 15,000 Indians experienced secularization at the missions. Some sought refuge from the ranchos by fleeing into the interior of California, while others stayed in pueblos or local Mexican settlements near former mission lands. California Indians who remained near the missions continued to raid livestock and other supplies from the ranchos and fight back against violence perpetuated by the Mexican land owners in certain areas.
General Information
Basilica San Diego de Alcala
CA aboriginal people:
Kumeyaay
Current CA Indian tribe(s) in area:
Iipai-Tipai-Diegueno, Kumeyaay tribes Campo Band of the Kumeyaay Nation (FR)
36190 Church Road, Suite 1
Campo, CA 91906
(619) 478-9046 Phone
(619) 478-5818 Fax
Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians (Diegueno) (FR)
P.O. Box 908
Alpine, CA 91903
(619) 445-3810 Phone
(619) 445-5337 Fax
Barona Band of Mission Indians (Diegueno) (FR)
1095 Barona Road
Lakeside, CA 92040
(619) 443-6612 Phone
(619) 443-0681 Fax
San Pasqual Band of Indians (FR)
27458 North Lake Wohlford Road
Valley Center, CA 92082
(619) 749-3200 Phone
(619) 749-3876 Fax
Inaja Cosmit Indian Reservation