Abuse of California Indians in the Missions

Most non-Indian Americans are ignorant of the full scope of maltreatment received by American Indians by the Spanish, British (then Americans after them), or French.

Indian Country Today has a great article by Stephen Newcomb on how Indians were mistreated in the Spanish Missions in California. The goal of the missions were clear from the beginning, based on papal bulls that considered non-Catholics to be barely human.

The purpose of the missions were the ''spiritual and temporal conquest'' of California, as well as the "spiritual conquest and conversion of the infidels.'' The infidels were the Indians. Exacerbating the problem was that even after conversion to Catholicism, the Indians were treated just as badly as before.

Conquest is one aspect of the paradigm of domination that underlies the colonizing mission of the Vatican and the Catholic Church in the Americas, in keeping with papal decrees that called for the ''subjugation'' of ''barbarous nations.'' As part of this charge, one task of the church was to break the free spirit of and ''reduce'' those who were ''not of the faith.'' Spiritual conquest involved the use of spirit-breaking techniques that served as part of the arsenal that was employed against the originally free and independent Indian nations and peoples of California. They were more slaves than anything else. They were given so few rations and worked so hard that the life expectancy from resulting disease and starvation was only six years after entering a mission.

Nine out of ten births were stillborn. When a woman gave birth to a stillborn baby, she was punished.

Hugo Reid told of what happened to an Indian woman who had a stillborn child: ''When a woman had the misfortune to bring forth a stillborn child, she was punished. The penalty was shaving the head, flogging for 15 subsequent days, iron on the feet for three months, and having to appear every Sunday in church, on the steps of the alter, with a hideous painted [effigy] child in her arms.''

The Indians were routinely beat and abused by the mission priests. So inhumane was it that Hugo Reid's report of conditions at the Missions couldn't even describe the inhumanity fully.

Reid wrote of Mission San Gabriel: ''So as not to make a revolting picture, I will bury acts of barbarity known to me through good authority, by merely saying that Father Zalvidea must have considered whipping [to be] meat and drink to them, for they [the Indians] had it morning, noon, and night.''

Americans were sometimes less barbaric than the Spanish, but only by degrees. The Trail of Tears showed that Americans were only too willing to engage in barbarity against Indians, even those who had converted to Christianity and became "civilized" by American definitions. They put us in concentration camps with insufficient rations and clean water, disease running rampant. They forced us on a death march in Winter where 25% of our nation died. Countless other tribes have stories of similar barbarity on the part of a supposedly "Christian" nation.

Neither the American government, Spanish government, nor the Vatican have acknowledged or apologized for the abuse and human rights violations against American Indians.

Where There Is Smoke...

Around 6 a.m. this morning, smoke was seen rising on the horizon over the San Pasqual Indian Reservation in Southern California.

Calls began coming into the fire emergency center for Escondido, CA (northeast of San Diego). The officials assured the callers not to worry.

The tribe set fire to the home on the reservation early this morning as part of their cultural practice of destroying a deceased person's home and possessions to free the person's spirit from his possessions and thus, this earth.

My tribe had a similar practice. When someone died, the possessions and home for the entire family were destroyed by fire. The tribe built a new home for the survivors and replaced all the possessions lost.

It served the religious purpose of freeing the soul from possessions and the earth, as well as serving as an official mourning period after which the dead were not spoken of again. It had the added benefit of destroying any infectious disease that might have caused the death.

Fire is a sacred purifying agent in many tribal cultures. Even along the Trail of Tears, my ancestors kept the sacred fire burning that had burned since time immemorial. Somewhere in the nation, it still burns for our people.

Although most things were destroyed by fire, some personal possessions went to the grave with the person. Jewelry or other personal effects were often buried with the person. Some of the Moundbuilder mounds contain buried remains of tribal persons of note who were buried with an enormous number of jewelry, pearls and other things. Not everyone was buried on that grand a scale of course. The picture above is of a shell gorget from this period.

I made my grandmother, mother and aunt a traditional engraved shell and pearl necklace based on Moundbuilder designs. Both my grandmother and my aunt were buried with theirs. They liked that there was something made by someone who loved them, which was theirs alone and to accompany their body into the grave.

It is a concept strange to those outside of Indian Country. The idea of burying valuable objects with the dead seemed shockingly wasteful to thrifty Yankees.

But perhaps it is not as shocking to non-Indians anymore. My stepmother and I did the same thing for my non-Indian father. He was buried with his wedding ring, a watch I'd given him and a toy John Deere tractor, because he loved that brand of tractor the best. Somehow it seemed a fitting way to say goodbye.

My mother hopes the shock never fully goes away. When she wears her necklace and people compliment her about it, she tells them with an ornery twinkle in her eye, "You know, it was made to be buried with me when I die." She enjoys the shocked expressions of people as she laughs and explains it to them.

I can't imagine the shock of the callers this morning to hear that a home was destroyed on purpose and as part of a mourning ritual. They must be shaking their heads still.

But somewhere a San Pasqual man's spirit is smiling and rising, freed from this earth and all of its cares and woes.

Beauty Above Me

Too often, I forget to look up. I get so wrapped up in what I'm doing, that I forget to look up and see the beauty around me. We all do it.

When I lived in Arizona, after a time, the beautiful vistas I saw every day became routine. If I looked with purpose to see the mountains, I could still see the beauty, but most of the time, I took it for granted.

We're taught, as American Indians, to greet God in the morning - to thank God for giving us the gift of life each new day. (Technically, we are supposed to do this at dawn, but since God gave me ADHD, I have to think that he understands that mornings are tough.)

As a Cherokee, I sing the morning song and say my morning prayer. The purpose of the prayer is to show gratitude for God and to remind me of the beauty around me.

I'm very fortunate to have lived and visited so many beautiful places. But even in the middle of Kansas, there is beauty to be seen (a gift from my mother is to see that beauty).

I adapted a Navajo prayer to conform to my Cherokee culture, where we have seven points of reference, instead of six. I also use the Cherokee order of the cardinal points.

Beauty above me, I walk in beauty,
Beauty below me, I walk in beauty,
Beauty to the East of me, I walk in beauty,
Beauty to the South of me, I walk in beauty,
Beauty to the West of me, I walk in beauty,
Beauty to the North of me, I walk in beauty,
Beauty within me, I walk in God's beauty every day of my life.

As in all things Indian, there is a lot of meaning packed into "beauty". Beauty is a metaphor for love, for instance. Each cardinal point has its own meaning ascribed to it, as well. For the purpose of this post, it serves to remind us that we are surrounded by beauty each moment in our lives.

Most importantly in this age of bad body image and where the world can beat down your spirit, the last line reminds me that I have value and beauty in God's eyes. I have a pretty healthy ego, but it still helps me to remember that I often view myself from the wrong perspective.

I have friends from every religion and even atheists. I respect each person's right to choose his or her religion or lack thereof.

But, I think that every one of us needs to pause each day and feel gratitude for the beautiful things that we are fortunate enough to see and experience every day. We need to believe that there is something bigger than ourselves - above, below, around and within us.