Analysis Of The Mission Period Of Northern California

Improved Essays
During the mission period of Northern California, specifically around the missions of the Bay Area, there has been a great amount of research done into uncovering the archaeology of the resistance and level of assimilation undergone by the Natives who lived or were involved with the missions at the time. Over course of these investigations much evidence has been found that shows a level of integration for the individual was present in this time period at the missions in order for the native peoples to gain from what the missionaries and missions themselves could provide for them. I propose that through further analysis of the methods, material culture, and greater investigation in the cultural phenomena of paseo, we can attain a more accurate determination as to the level of assimilation, conversely cultural resistance, that the native american neophytes who were converted at the Spanish missions in the Bay Area of Northern California experienced. This analysis of assimilation is crucial to history as it represents the possible inaccuracy of having claimed that the native traditions were completely erased from the world culture due to the imposing nature of the Spanish mission system in California during the mission period, whereas one may discover due to an unknown level of resistance the native neophytes of these missions merely maintained their own culture with new aspects of technology and resources not previously available to allow their own culture to evolve over time, with much less of a focus on the religious conversion but the survival cultural and social culture. …show more content…
I propose that we understand more about the artifacts that the native americans were using and how their methods, be they learned from the missionaries, when applied to cultural problems that existed before the missions and lie inside the scope of native tribal life, show how the natives were not converted but had their own culture evolved as a result of the mission period into something different from before the mission period. Through the analysis of glass beads as a marker for a valued object, as part of the material culture, that was readily available in mission society and the prevalence of these beads as evidenced as having a continued value in the residences of the natives that were living and working on the missions, we can see how …show more content…
Glass beads, an artifact that was valued highly among the local tribes of the Ohlone and Yokuts around the missions of Northern California before the mission period, are found in the thousands at the surrounding region of Mission Santa Clara, which is to imply that these beads retained their value culturally for native americans who were said to have been fully assimilated into the Catholic Spanish culture that the missions were attempting to impose upon them. Now with the prevalence of these beads, in conjunction with their implied consumption as a currency, either continuing with other local tribes for goods and tools but as well as a way of interacting with the missionaries, it becomes obvious that the cultural belief of value was present well into the “extinction” of these tribal groups as they become assimilated into California culture and the mission experience. As Dr. Panich describes in his article “Native American Consumption of Shell and Glass Beads at Mission Santa Clara de Assís”, the native americans on the mission regions obtained these beads

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    The article is called Sexuality in California's Franciscan Missions by Albert L. Hurtado. This article tells us about sexuality in the Mission. Albert purpose for writing this article called Sexuality In California’s Franciscan Missions was to explain how the natives people at this time were affected. The ways that were affected by their religion believes. According to christianity this was wrong to do.…

    • 863 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In this chapter, Richter uses three stories to talk about how the Native Americans dealt with the bringing in of material items, and how they tried to bring Europeans into their world on their terms. The story of “Pocahontas” showed things were different in the aspect that the Native Americans never harmed the Europeans. They captured John Smith and some of his men, but their lives were never in danger. The Native Americans tried to find peace with the Europeans; however, they went and captured Pocahontas. Richter wrote that it might have been possible for the Native Americans to assimilate into European culture, and they might have been able to have the Europeans not tried to force the Native Americans into having the same culture as…

    • 1531 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Ishi In Two Worlds Summary

    • 1442 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Ishi in Two Worlds depicts the life story of Ishi, the last survivor of the Indian Yana tribe, who emerged starving in the northern California town of Oroville in 1911 after being captured. Written by Theodora Kroeber—UC Berkeley graduate, writer, anthropologist, and wife of Alfred Kroeber (leading anthropologist during the time, and one of Ishi’s close friend) – the book delivers a humane study, and the valid, realistic past history which in turn explains the treatment of Ishi’s people. Among some of Theodora Kroeber’s works are her first book, The Inland Whale (1959), a collection of California Indian myths, and Alfred Kroeber, a Personal Configuration, which, for anthropologists, remains an astonishing accomplishment (Mandelbaum 238). Ishi in Two Worlds stands as the “most widely read book on American Indian subject and one of the most generally known books on the basis of anthropological observations” (Mandelbaum 237). The piece marks Ishi’s completed trip out of Stone Age into the Iron Age.…

    • 1442 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    San Antonio Missions

    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages

    This source was the National Parks website on the history of the San Antonio Missions. Pictures, text, and even diaries of the first hand experience were available on the National Parks website. This website was a great introduction on the beginnings and everyday life of the Missions. Information on the history of the people that lived, worked, and built the foundation for the city that would become San Antonio was sufficient history source. Another intriguing topic found on the website was the Spanish settlers reasons for colonizing in San Antonio.…

    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    California is a state that consists of countless historical landmarks that have been preserved in order to better understand the heritage of that specific site. Preservation is a way for people to recycle land and buildings in order to teach people about the resources that were once used in the past. People observe and learn through the preservation of landmarks so that important details such as traditions, rituals, languages, and skills can be incorporated into our present and future time periods. Out of many captivating historical landmarks, I chose to visit Coyote Hills Regional Park because I wanted to learn more about its importance. Coyote Hills is a significant part of history because it teaches society that in spite of the invasion and the genocide that the Ohlone Indians underwent, decedents of the tribes are now connecting with their communities by sharing their land and history with society.…

    • 1606 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This last topic I just recently thought of after discussing in class is the different types of laws and regulations on Native Americans in recent years, including the Meriam Report, and how they affected Natives for the better or worse. President Ronald Reagan's Policy towards Indians was summed up as "Less is more" regarding the treatment of Native Americans during his two terms in office. They believed less regulation and government spending was beneficial to Native Americans, even though the cuts in spending and social programs had been benefiting the lives of many Native peoples. For example, these proposed and passed budget cuts hurt the economy and stability of Native Americans in the town of Kickapoo. " Cuts to programs impacting Native Americans hit them as an ethnic minority greater than any other group of…

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mohamad Farhat Cluster 20A Discussion 1F November 10, 2017 Gender relations Indigenous North Americans are sometimes referred to as two-spirits because they are seen as having two identities in a single body. These two spirits refer to a person whose body endures both a masculine and a feminine spirit. In the chapter titled “Coyote Takes a Trip”, Deborah Miranda’s tribal constructs a narrative story that takes place in modern time in which she uses the anecdote to correlate time in pre-contact and contact periods where numerous California indigenous groups had a ‘third gender’ role. The Coyote is portrayed as a two-spirited man in the historical context of two-spirited people.…

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Drowning In Fire Analysis

    • 1273 Words
    • 5 Pages

    She describes the Catholicism that Chicanos practice as an imperfect union of the religion of the conquistadors and the pagan religion of the Indians (Anzaldúa, 27). She also describes the struggle of her people to hold on to their native culture in the face of Christianity and colonization: “our faith is rooted in indigenous attributes, images, symbols, magic and myth … The Indian, despite extreme despair, suffering and near genocide, has survived” (Anzaldúa, 30). She believes that the spiritual world of the native religion is a concrete reality and that those who have been ostracized from their tribe have a more immediate connection to it. (Anzaldúa, 37-38).…

    • 1273 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    When Jesuits arrived in North America in the early seventeenth century, neither they nor their Native American neighbors had any idea of the vast cultural and religious boundaries that separated them. Throughout their encounters, the Jesuits failed to see the Native Americans as anything but inferior. This hindered their ability to understand the native culture and to accomplish their goal of converting Indians to Catholicism. The Native Americans had no frame of reference with which to regard the Jesuits and were therefore unable to develop a thorough understanding of European life. Through trial, communication and conflict French missionaries and Native Americans did eventually develop a limited understanding of each other’s language, religion…

    • 1266 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Iroquois Indians

    • 1694 Words
    • 7 Pages

    (Calloway, 28), long before the colonization of the Spanish in the Southwest, the Pueblo civilization in Chaco Canyon prospered as a center for population, ceremony, and trade (Calloway, 62). Turquoise was exchanged for goods such as corn, birds, feathers, and cacao from Mexico, California, the Rocky Mountains, and Central America (Calloway, 28). The extreme distances between these locations, exemplifying their resilience and advancement as a society. Much later, long after the fall of Chaco Canyon and Pueblo Bonito, around 1500, Pecos Pueblo served as a center of commerce between the hunter gatherer populations of the Great Plains and the agricultural societies of the Rio Grande valley (Calloway, 26). Trade and commerce was essential to the lives of the Iroquois tribes as well.…

    • 1694 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cherokee Removal For this assignment, our group got the opportunity to choose the topic of the Native Americans. The first thing that came to mind was to do my topic on the Cherokee Removal. The Cherokee Removal, part of the trail of tears, occurred in 1838. The U.S. military and various state militias forced some 15,000 Cherokees from their homes in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee and moved them west to Indian Territory. The removal of the Cherokee Nation fulfilled federal and state policies that developed in response to the rapid expansion of white settlers and cotton farming…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sky Woman Analysis

    • 1430 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The study of Native American history, culture and customs indicates what has made Americans diverse, but also what makes us the same. Native involvement in the Americas is set apart by coercive and once in a while willing endeavors at assimilation into standard European American society. Starting with missions and paving the way to governmentally controlled schools the point was to instruct Native people so they could return to their communities and encourage the acclimatization process. Overall survival of indigenous stories and lifestyles that oppose colonization form a part Native identities through the despotism of European ideals. “This Is History” by Beth Brant (Mohawk) was one of the readings that was most impactful to me.…

    • 1430 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The members of the expedition “unwittingly brought new diseases [smallpox] to the area that decimated the local native population. Where the Mandans had a thriving and sophisticated trading center when Lewis and Clark arrived in 1804, by the late 1830s their total population had been reduced to less than 150” (“Exploration: Lewis and Clark”). A comparison can be made between Christopher Columbus and the explorers as they both wiped out a significant portion of the Native American population, as many of them had not developed an immunity to the diseases. Additionally, many Native Americans were forced to convert to Christianity and take up farming. This eradicated the Native’s way of life, which was centered around their religion, traditions, and hunting-a method of gathering food and skins and proving oneself in the tribe.…

    • 1665 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    California Gold Rush

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages

    These seekers had experienced a lack of quality of life and other problems, such as venereal disease, drug and alcohol abuse, and violence—“Claim jumpers,” which identified “men who robbed successful miners of their gold or stole their claim papers” (Gillon, pg.484). Moreover, racism was also one of the most significant problems that seekers had experienced. As mentioned to the foreign migrants, there were the undercurrents of tension among different races, for instance, “blatant forms of racism against the growing Chinese population” (Gillon, pg.485). Also, there was a conflict between the local and nonlocal populations in which these new people seized the local people’s lands and occupations for making their new future in California.…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Some of these rituals include a daily mouth-rite, visits to the holy mouth men, and visits to the latipso if they are sick. Through this essay, the author uses repetition to help get his point across. He uses the word Nacirema to help readers distinguish the culture that these people are from. He also uses this word a large amount of times to help familiarize the readers with it and also help them figure out that Nacirema is actually American spelled backwards.…

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays