California was colonized in a very unique way. Colonization was all at different times, over the course of four frontier expansions. The first wave of domination was in seventeen sixty-nine with the establishment of the missions, the second was in eighteen thirty three with the rise of the Ranchos, and the final was in eighteen forty-eight, when pioneers discovered gold. The Settlers failed to realize that the Indigenous people had inhabited California for fifteen thousand years before they arrived. They built communities, raised families and had ancestors barried in those lands. Everything they used was from the earth including plants and animals that were either already dead or used fully to make sure that nothing went to waste. The American Indians preserved the land so well that when the first settlers began to explore they thought they were alone and were the sole founders of the land. There were so many native within California’s borders (about one hundred languages lived in as many as five hundred autonomous land owning communities, referred to as tribelets.) They never had problems, they (insert what they did to join the tribes, marriage, trade, ect.)
The day the Franciscans and Spanish soldiers stepped foot on California soil, they had very different agendas. According to Kevin Star, “The Franciscans saw themselves as coming to California to save souls, and they must be judged in part, as the men they truly were- Spanish Catholic Missionaries- and the standards of their time” (Kevin Star, 40). They were here purely because they felt they were helping the natives instead of hurting them. Unfortunately, their idea of good intentions began a rolling effect of bad treatment. The Franciscans tried to change what they thought was the savage unholy qualities of the indigenous people, like their ideals of marriage, and sex. The Sexuality in California’s Franciscan mission’s states: “Marriages for the Indians were mostly in economics and social ranks intended to boost the economy or for powerful relationships”. In the Franciscan missionary’s marriage was seen as a sacred vow before God, sought to strengthen religious principles. Another key difference between the native’s belief of marriage and the Franciscans was the amount of wives they had. Indian practices believed in polygamy and Spanish believed in monogamy. Sex was another habit that the Franciscans thought needed to be altered. Sex was completely forbidden before marriage, and had many rules even when married. For example, the text in The Sexuality in California’s Franciscan mission’s says: The church allows marital intercourse only in the missionary position; other positions were unnatural because they made women superior to her husband… procreation, not pleasure was gods purpose in creating the human sexual apparatus in the first place”. The Native’s beliefs were completely opposite; they participated in sexual acts whether or not they were married, and performed for pleasure not reproduction. Although, the Franciscans worked to altering the Indian’s ways with some force they still did not completely succeed. So the Spanish soldiers moved towards an obscene amount of physical and mental torcher and violation to assimilate the people. The Soldiers began by raping the woman of the tribes. In the Intimate Frontiers it states: “A few years later a Spanish naturalist observed that the Chumash men had “become pimps, even for their own wives, for any miserable profit” Nicolas and other Indians had several reasons to resort to prostitution. Spanish men seduced and raped the Indians’ female kinfolk but did not marry them” (Intimate Frontiers, 16). The soldiers just used the native woman for pleasure, completely degrading and truly harming them. The Soldiers also beat the natives when they refused to conform to the churches way of life. Kevin Starr states: “they were being forced from their homelands, brought into the mission system- frequently against their will- and treated as children, not yet possessed of full adulthood, not yet gente de razion, people of reason. As children, they could be beaten when they proved recalcitrant or ran away from the missions, as they frequently did and were recaptured” (Starr, 41). The natives were under a constant focus of toucher, and could do nothing to escape. If all the physical and mental abuse wasn’t enough the Natives were also used for Spain’s economic gain. In sainthood of Junipero Serra Reopens Wounds of colonialism in California- the New York times, references the appalling working conditions that were said to be salve like. In the same source, the Carmel Mission was a great example. The Carmel mission, served as centers of cattle and grain production in addition to being hubs for the expansion of Catholicism. The Spanish treated them this way because they felt as if they were lazy and had no motivations. During the mission period, the life of the indigenous people was at a perpetual low. They had lost their culture and identities, so the future had a promising hope to only look better.
During the California Rancho period, Native Americans were still having their culture, and identities tantalized with. In California, a history by Kevin Starr he talks about the distinguished Governor, Brevet Brigadier Jose Figueroa, Figureroa states: “The mission lands, should be secularized in favor of the Indians living on them and not merely for the benefit of arriving colonists. These were Indian lands, after all, held in trust for them by the Franciscans and it was the formal intent of the mission system to transform Native American into full fledge citizens” (Starr, 48). Although, Figureroa was advocating for the Indigenous people’s basic right as soon as he died a year later, there was many complications to come. The Mexican government had agreed to secularize the missions, meaning that theoretically the Indians would receive grants to the land, because they lived and worked on the missions for so long (Conquests and Historical Identities in California, 22). Unfortunately, this rarely happened. The Indians lands were never formally recognized by Mexican law. They had the right to inhabit their land only once it was within rancho boundaries, even then the title wasn’t even in their possession. Throughout this time period the Latin American people were gaining rights, in California, where the natives were being omitted. The treaty of Guadalupe is a great example of this. In the Conquests and Historical Identities in California, it state, “it deterritorialized Indian peoples even as it recognized the national sovereignty of Latin American nations. The basic protection of Mexican citizen land rights, whether or not they assumed US citizenship” (Conquests and Historical Identities in California, 57). The treaty of Guadalupe did not just stop there, it also took away all chances for a Native to hold any land. Conquests and Historical Identities in Californian also states: “Article two concerned the Indian peoples, who were granted no land rights whatsoever….. In conclusion Article two asserts in the process of removal of the Indians and settlement of the land by us citizen, “special care shall… be taken not to place its Indian occupants under the necessary of searching new homes, the fear being that they might then invade Mexico”” (Conquests and Historical Identities in California 57). Along with never gaining the land that was rightfully theirs and basic rights, Native American woman were also still being severely invaded. Not only were they still being secxual abused but now they were part of an ideal that the Ranchos had constructed. The Customs of County states: “Marriage, the production of legitimate children and the protection of family honor were the common duties of most California woman” ( Customs of County, 27). It was impossible for woman to have control of their own lives especially including their sexual ones. Not only did regular Spanish-Mexican men abuse Native woman but so Government officials and persists. An example from Customs of the Country says: “In 1785 Dona Eulaia Callis scandalously petitioned to divorced her husband, Governor Pedro Fages, claiming he had sexually abused their elven year old Indian servant girl” (Customs of the Country, 27). This account of erotic barbarism unfortunately happened and was recorded on many accounts. Along with sexual assault, the natives were still being used in servitude. Although the Rancher would help with the work, they did everything from horseback, where the Indian would do the intensive labor. A great example of this is in the Intimate Frontiers, it states: “An Indian would kill the cow with a knife and skin the carcass. Indian workers dried the hides and rendered the tallow, made a little jerked meat, and left the carcasses to rot in the sun. The stench of the death and decay lingered for months” (Intimate Frontiers, 23). The Natives were the true industry of the ranchos, under so many unfavorable conditions. Instead of revolting like in the mission period they complied because the communities were their own even though they were on the rancho land and the tribal customs were still carried out frequently. Within the Rancho period the Native’s quality of life was due for an increase. Although, they were no longer the bottom of the social status, their lives were still absent from all signs of full rights. Little did they know their lives, independence, culture and so much more was about to be murdered.
In 1850, California was being declared a state, along with the grounds for legal sanctioned genocidal crimes against the Indigenous people. It created a state-federal funded man hunt of all Indians. An American Genocide, states: “The number of California Indians killed by Us army soldiers, California militiamen and vigilantes from 1850 through 1854 will likely never be known. Published and archival sources indicate that the numbers exceed at least 2776. Yet, these findings are flowed because the people who were most likely to know how many died- the survivor- left sent written evidence” (An American Genocide, 175). Among these genocidal murders, most who died were children, whom had already had their families killed and were being raised as slaves for those who did the murdering. It all started with the General Green’s Test. Although he was not very successful, he created a new form of hunting Indians. As an American Genocide states: “Green’s expedition heralded the rise of anti-Indian mulitas operations and signaled the potential for expanded genocidal campaigns” (An American Genocide, 178). This action completely opened up a killing machine approved by state officials, which encouraged more ranger lead expeditions like El Dorado. El Dorado involved more than 352 militanmen, the biggest of its time and was one of the first state sponsored killing. President Andrew Jackson even began very involved with the Indian killings. He found that the extinction of natives was inevitable, switching the blame form colonization and conquers to something out of their control. Saying that they were only a small factor in the scheme of something much bigger (An American Genocide). When President Jackson addressed the mass murders of the Indian population, it was now a federal affair. The government even provided the people of California with weapons and ammunition. They also funded from this point on numerous expeditions to continue whipping out the Indians. The gigantic genocide was not the only thing violating the Indigenous people. The gold miners would repeatedly infringe on the woman. Gold miner Timothy Osborn is quoted in the Roaring Camp, the social world of the California gold Rush and says: “He had heard he wrote, that Indian woman, like animals had certain times for seeking the man. And his own experience inclined him to believe this pervious but of white wisdom: I have seen Indian girls who when they were in heat, would fondle around you and in every possible way would ask you to relive them, while at other times would be an impossible thing to get your own wish gratified” (Roaring Camp, ?????). Osborn continues to talk about the ways the miners would sexualize the woman. He proceeded to call them harlots, and how they would pay them with gold for sex. The Gold miners saw the native woman as exotic sexual objects, intriguing and new, with no respect or dignity. Just like gender issues, the Indigenous people position on labor did not advance. Back in 1842 the Quechan tribe had a very successful business in fairy taxis. The White settlers did not like it. An American Genocide says: “Some of the Quechan or Yuma people living along the Colorado River were profiting handsomely from the gold rush without pan or pick. Some Quenches, long familiar with crossing the river running through their homeland, found that gold seekers heading west would pay generously or passage across its waters. In January 1850 however a company of whites began competing for this lucrative ferry traffic” (An American Genocide 180). The whites did not like that the Indians had such an access to a highly profitable industry so they beat their leader and killed/ scalped four of their men. In revolt, the Indians killed eleven white men. This event set off the militantmen, resulting in all the abhorrent genocide. This shows that even before all the state and federal funded killings, the Indian men couldn’t get into a profitable job and make a new life for himself. They were stuck laboring in the fields.