DBQ 1: The Spanish destruction of the Native Americans

During the mid to late 1700s Spain began to colonize California in order to hold their
claim of the land and push the Russians back to the north. Before the first mission founding
Natives of California had little interaction with the Spanish. The rapid Spanish colonization and
Native assimilation into mission life had a horrific effect on the local Natives. The evidence
from primary and secondary sources illustrates a terribly negative affect on Californian Natives.
There was a high rate of sexual assault on Native women from Spanish soldiers, and an alarming
mortality rate due to disease. Also many Natives were driven by fear, cruelty, and desperation
into slave labor.
An unfamiliar environment and lack of food immediately strained the relationship
between the two communities. The raping of the Native women by Spanish soldiers was very
common aspect life in and out of the missions. The establishment of new missions subjected the
women of each new area to sexual assaults.1 The fear the Spanish instilled in the Natives often
lead them flee their homes and risk death in an attempt to find safety.
The Christians here have told me that many of the gentiles of the aforesaid villages leave their
huts and the crops which they gather from the lands around their villages, and go to the
woods and experience hunger. They do this so that the soldiers will not rape their women
as they have already done so many times in the past.2
This behavior of the Spanish soldiers usually went unnoticed and was rarely a considered a
punishable offense by many.
The introduction of European disease had a devastating effect on Natives all across the United
States. Pioneering demographer Sherburne F. Cook conducted exhausted studies and concluded
that perhaps as much as 60% of the population decline in mission Indians was due to introduced
disease.3 A lack of proper nutrition and hard manual labor only made the spread of disease
more deadly. While on the mission Natives were forced to live in unsanitary barracks based on
gender and age. Children were separated from their parents and imprisoned until the age of six

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when they became laborers. It was these harsh living environments that lead to a high mortality
rate of children. Again children were the primary victims of a second epidemic of phenomena
and diphtheria expended from Monterey to Los Angles was recorded in 1802.4 With no natural
immunity disease epidemics spread quickly among Natives living on the missions.
In order to quickly and efficiently colonize California the Spanish needed a large work
force. California Amerindians were peaceable, non-aggressive people who highly valued
harmonious relationships.5 It was their peaceful nature as well as tribe location that lead to the
enslavement of many Native Americans. Although the Spanish believed they were helping the
Natives by civilizing them they failed to see they rich culture they were destroying. In one
account from the mission of Santa Cruz a Native described the Spanish as being brutal and cruel.
He said, the Spanish Padres were very cruel toward the Indians. They abused them very much,
they had bad food, bad clothing, and they made them work like slaves.6 Natives lost all of their
rights while living on a mission.
Some may associate mission life as a peaceful union of two cultures who came together to
establish Californian. However historical documents prove otherwise and describe an appalling
destruction of a people. The Spanish viciously raped women and treated them worse than
animals. The spread of European disease lead to the death of thousands of Natives living on
missions. For those who disease did not claim they lived in poor living conditions and worked as
slaves. For Californian Natives most if not all aspects of mission life were negative.

1 Antonia Castaneda, Spanish Violence Against Amerindian Women, Major Problems in

California History, ed. Sucheng Chan and Spencer Olin (Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage
Learning 1997), 77.
2 Father Luis Jayme, Criticizes the Behavor of the Spanish Soilders, Major Problems in
California History, ed. Sucheng Chan and Spencer Olin (Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage
Learning 1997), 59.
3 Castilo D. Edward, Short overview of California Indian History, 1998, accessed
September 15, 2014, http://nahc.ca.gov/califindian.html
4 Castilo, Short overview of California Indian History
5 Castandeda, Spanish Violence Against Amerindian Women,77.
6 Lorenzo Asisara, Narrates the Assassintaion of a Priest by Santa Cruz Indians, 1812, Major
Problems in California History, ed. Sucheng Chan and Spencer Olin (Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage
Learning 1997), 63.

Works Cited
Asisara Lorenzo. Narrates the Assassintaion of a Priest by Santa Cruz Indians, 1812, Major
Problems in California History1997, ed. Sucheng Chan and Spencer Olin63-68. Boston:
Wadsworth, Cengage Learning 1997.
Castaneda, Antonia. Spanish Violence Against Amerindian Women. Major Problems in California
History 1997, ed Sucheng Chan and Spencer Olin, 75-82. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage
Learning 1997.
Castilo D. Edward. Short overview of California Indian History. 1998. Accessed September 15,
2014. http://nahc.ca.gov/califindian.html
Jayme, Luis. Criticizes the Behavor of the Spanish Soilders 1172, Major Problems in California
History1997, ed. Sucheng Chan and Spencer Olin, 59-60Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage
Learning 1997.