California Mission
San Antonio de Padua
PO Box 803 Ft. Hunter-Liggert Reservation, Jolon, CA 93928
Native Life
The Salinan, Yokuts and Ohlone peoples lived in the area around mission San Antonio de Padua. These three tribes each had their own distinct and unique cultures. Each tribal group in California had it’s own territory, language, traditions and cultural practices. These three tribes lived in villages near rivers, coastal areas, and in the Santa Lucia Mountains. These groups often lived independently of each other in groups of 100-1500 individuals. California tribal groups engaged in trade, political and social organization and cultural exchange. If disputes occurred they were typically settled among tribal leaders. Extensive trading was conducted among California tribal groups to foster shared resources. The Salinan and neighboring Yokuts shared lands so the inland tribes could gather seafood from the ocean and the coastal tribes could fish from fresh water lakes.
The Yokuts occupied the area in and around the San Jaquin Valley, including parts of the Sierra Nevada mountain range and the Fresno River. They made their houses out of tule reed mats or bark. These houses had doors but did not have rooms, so families all slept in one room. The Yokuts ate a variety of fish, small animals, deer, elk, and acorns, like most other California Indian tribes. They hunted deer and elk by dressing up as deer and wearing a deer head to sneak up on the animals. Acorns were ground and mixed with water to make acorn mush. The Yokuts used boats to catch birds and travel. Like many of the tribes in Northern California, the Yokuts tattooed their bodies and had many unique designs for facial tattoos.
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The Salinan people lived in the area between Salinas and Soledad. Their customs and diet were similar to the Yokuts because they were culturally connected; the two tribes were neighbors and traded goods with one another. The original name of the Salinan people was lost, so the tribe uses the name given to them by the Spanish, who named the Salinan people after a nearby river.
The Ohlone people lived in the area between San Francisco and Monterey. Their diet consisted of acorns, seeds, grasses, insects, lizards, snakes, fish, small mammals, and deer. They lived in houses made of tule and wooden poles. These houses were clustered in villages, which were located near rivers, marshes, or the ocean. Like many other California Indian tribes, the Ohlone had a sweat lodge in each village. The sweat lodge was a covered room dug into the earth where men would light fires and bring in hot stones in order to sweat. This ritual was conducted before deer hunts and ceremonial dances for good luck. Other users entered the sweat lodge to purify themselves.
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, though many Indians resisted. 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 traditional foods. Sugar and milk was introduced to the diet of Indians working 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.
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.
The Spanish established mission San Antonio de Padua near a Northern Salinan village called Telhaya in the Santa Lucia Mountains. Within twenty years, San Antonio de Padua became the largest mission in California. San Antonio de Padua had a large population of Indians because it was established near the large populations of Yokut, Ohlone and Esselen peoples. By the time that the Mission era ended, only a few hundred Indians survived at this mission.
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.
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
San Antonio De Padua
CA aboriginal people:
Salinan, Ohlone, Yokuts
Current CA Indian tribe(s) in area:
Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Nation
P.O. Box 1301
Monterey, CA 93942
(916) 458-4551 Phone
Santa Rosa Rancheria [Tache, Tachi and Yokuts]
16835 Alkali Dr.
P.O. Box 8
Lemoore, CA 93245
(559) 924-1278 Phone
(559) 924-3583 Fax
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