The first consideration of the padres in dealing with the
Indians was the salvation of their souls. Of this no honest and
honorable man can hold any question. Serra and his coadjutors
believed, without equivocation or reserve, the doctrines of the
Church. As one reads his diary, his thought on this matter is
transparent. In one place he thus naïvely writes: “It seemed
to me that they (the Indians) would fall shortly into the apostolic
and evangelic net.”
This accomplished, the Indians must be kept Christians, educated
and civilized. Here is the crucial point. In reading criticisms
upon the Mission system of dealing with the Indians, one constantly
meets with such passages as the following: “The fatal defect of
this whole Spanish system was that no effort was made to educate
the Indians, or teach them to read, and think, and act for
themselves.”
To me this kind of criticism is both unjust and puerile. What is
education? What is civilization?
Expert opinions as to these matters vary considerably, and it is
in the very nature of men that they should vary. The Catholics had
their ideas and they sought to carry them out with care and
fidelity. How far they succeeded it is for the unprejudiced
historians and philosophers of the future to determine. Personally,
I regard the education given by the padres as eminently practical,
even though I materially differ from them as to some of the things
they regarded as religious essentials. Yet in honor it must be said
that if I, or the Church to which I belong, or you and the Church
to which you belong, reader, had been in California in those early
days, your religious teaching or mine would have been entitled,
justly, to as much criticism and censure as have ever been visited
upon that of the padres. They did the best they knew, and, as I
shall soon show, they did wonderfully well, far better than the
enlightened government to which we belong has ever done. Certain
essentials stood out before them. These were, to see that the
Indians were baptized, taught the ritual of the Church, lived as
nearly as possible according to the rules laid down for them,
attended the services regularly, did their proper quota of work,
were faithful husbands and wives and dutiful children. Feeling that
they were indeed fathers of a race of children, the priests
required obedience and work, as the father of any well-regulated
American household does. And as a rule these “children,” though
occasionally rebellious, were willingly obedient.
Under this régime it is unquestionably true that the lot
of the Indians was immeasurably improved from that of their
aboriginal condition. They were kept in a state of reasonable
cleanliness, were well clothed, were taught and required to do
useful work, learned many new and helpful arts, and were instructed
in the elemental matters of the Catholic faith. All these things
were a direct advance.
It should not be overlooked, however, that the Spanish
government provided skilled laborers from Spain or Mexico, and paid
their hire, for the purpose of aiding the settlers in the various
pueblos that were established. Master mechanics, carpenters,
blacksmiths, and stone masons are mentioned in Governor Neve’s
Rules and Regulations, and it is possible that some of the Indians
were taught by these skilled artisans. Under the guidance of the
padres some of them were taught how to weave. Cotton was both grown
and imported, and all the processes of converting it, and wool
also, into cloth, were undertaken with skill and knowledge.
At San Juan Capistrano the swing and thud of the loom were
constantly heard, there having been at one time as many as forty
weavers all engaged at once in this useful occupation.
San Gabriel and San Luis Rey also had many expert weavers.
At all the Missions the girls and women, as well as the men, had
their share in the general education. They had always been seed
gatherers, grinders, and preparers of the food, and now they were
taught the civilized methods of doing these things. Many became
tailors as well as weavers; others learned to dye the made fabrics,
as in the past they had dyed their basketry splints; and still
others—indeed nearly all—became skilled in the delicate art of
lace-making and drawn-work. They were natural adepts at fine
embroidery, as soon as the use of the needle and colored threads
was shown them, and some exquisite work is still preserved that
they accomplished in this field. As candy-makers they soon became
expert and manifested judicious taste.
To return to the men. Many of them became herders of cattle,
horses and sheep, teamsters, and butchers. At San Gabriel alone a
hundred cattle were slaughtered every Saturday as food for the
Indians themselves. The hides of all slain animals were carefully
preserved, and either tanned for home use or shipped East. Dana in
Two Years Before the Mast gives interesting pictures of
hide-shipping at San Juan Capistrano. A good tanner is a skilled
laborer, and these Indians were not only expert makers of dressed
leather, but they tanned skins and peltries with the hair or fur
on. Indeed I know of many wonderful birds’ skins, dressed with the
feathers on, that are still in perfect preservation. As workers in
leather they have never been surpassed. Many saddles, bridles,
etc., were needed for Mission use, and as the ranches grew in
numbers, they created a large market. It must be remembered that
horseback riding was the chief method of travel in California for
over a hundred years. Their carved leather work is still the wonder
of the world. In the striking character of their designs, in the
remarkable adaptation of the design, in its general shape and
contour, to the peculiar form of the object to be decorated,—a
stirrup, a saddle, a belt, etc.,—and in the digital and manual
dexterity demanded by its execution, nothing is left to be desired.
Equally skilful were they in taking the horn of an ox or mountain
sheep, heating it, and then shaping it into a drinking-cup, a
spoon, or a ladle, and carving upon it designs that equal those
found upon the pottery of the ancient world.
Shoemaking was extensively carried on, for sale on the ranches
and to the trading-vessels. Tallow was tried out by the ton and run
into underground brick vaults, some of which would hold in one mass
several complete ship-loads. This was quarried out and then hauled
to San Pedro, or the nearest port, for shipment. Sometimes it was
run into great bags made of hides, that would hold from five
hundred to a thousand pounds each, and then shipped.
Many of the Indians became expert carpenters, and a few even
might be classed as fair cabinet-makers. There were wheelwrights
and cart-makers who made the “carretas” that are now the joy of the
relic-hunter. These were clumsy ox-carts, with wheels made of
blocks, sawed or chopped off from the end of a large round log; a
big hole was then bored, chiseled, or burned through its center,
enabling it to turn on a rude wooden axle. Soap or tallow was
sometimes used as a lubricant. This was the only wheeled conveyance
in California as late as 1840. Other Indians did the woodwork in
buildings, made fences, etc. Some were carvers, and there are not a
few specimens of their work that will bear comparison with the work
of far more pretentious artisans.
Many of them became’ blacksmiths and learned to work well in
iron. In the Coronel Collection in the Los Angeles Chamber of
Commerce are many specimens of the ironwork of the San Fernando
neophytes. The work of this Mission was long and favorably known as
that of superior artisans. The collection includes plough-points,
anvils, bells, hoes, chains, locks and keys, spurs, hinges,
scissors, cattle-brands, and other articles of use in the Mission
communities. There are also fine specimens of hammered copper,
showing their ability in this branch of the craftsman’s art. As
there was no coal at this time in California, these metal-workers
all became charcoal-burners.
Bricks of adobe and also burned bricks and tiles were made at
every Mission, I believe, and in later years tiles were made for
sale for the houses of the more pretentious inhabitants of the
pueblos. As lime and cement were needed, the Indians were taught
how to burn the lime of the country, and the cement work then done
remains to this day as solid as when it was first put down.
Many of them became expert bricklayers and stone-masons and
cutters, as such work as that found at San Luis Rey, San Juan
Capistrano, San Carlos, Santa Inés, and other Missions most
eloquently testifies.
It is claimed that much of the distemper painting upon the
church walls was done by the Indians, though surely it would be far
easier to believe that the Fathers did it than they. For with their
training in natural design, as shown in their exquisite baskets,
and the work they accomplished in leather carving, I do not
hesitate to say that mural decorations would have been far more
artistic in design, more harmonious in color, and more skilfully
executed if the Indians had been left to their own native
ability.
A few became silversmiths, though none ever accomplished much in
this line. They made better sandal-makers, shoemakers, and hatters.
As horse-trainers they were speedily most efficient, the cunning of
their minds finding a natural outlet in gaining supremacy over the
lower animal. They braided their own riatas from rawhide, and soon
surpassed their teachers in the use of them. They were fearless
hunters with them, often “roping” the mountain lion and even going
so far as to capture the dangerous grizzly bears with no other
“weapon,” and bring them down from the mountains for their bear and
bull fights. As vaqueros, or cowboys, they were a distinct class.
As daring riders as the world has ever seen, they instinctively
knew the arts of herding cattle and sheep, and soon had that whole
field of work in their keeping. “H.H.,” in Ramona, has told
what skilled sheep-shearers they were, and there are Indian bands
to-day in Southern California whose services are eagerly sought at
good wages because of their thoroughness, skill and rapidity.
Now, with this list of achievements, who shall say they were not
educated? Something more than lack of education must be looked for
as the reason for the degradation and disappearance of the Indian,
and in the next chapter I think I can supply that missing
reason.
At the end of sixty years, more than thirty thousand Indian
converts lodged in the Mission buildings, under the direct and
immediate guidance of the Fathers, and performed their allotted
daily labors with cheerfulness and thoroughness. There were some
exceptions necessarily, but in the main the domination of the
missionaries was complete.
It has often been asked: “What became of all the proceeds of the
work of the Mission Indians? Did the padres claim it personally?
Was it sent to the mother house in Mexico?” etc. These questions
naturally enter the minds of those who have read the criticisms of
such writers as Wilson, Guinn, and Scanland. In regard to the
missionaries, they were under a vow of poverty. As to the mother
house, it is asserted on honor that up to 1838 not even as much as
a curio had been sent there. After that, as is well known,
there was nothing to send. The fact is, the proceeds all went into
the Indian Community Fund for the benefit of the Indians, or the
improvement of their Mission church, gardens, or workshops. The
most careful investigations by experts have led to but one opinion,
and that is that in the early days there was little or no
foundation for the charge that the padres were accumulating money.
During the revolution it is well known that the Missions
practically supported the military for a number of years, even
though the padres, their wards, and their churches all suffered in
consequence.
