S1 Episode 2, Part 1 Mission Life for the Muwekma Ohlone, at Mission San Francisco de Asis 1776 - 1836

 Sometimes, history gets buried, as our views on social topics change, and certain events become less favorable to the victor. 

If you were raised in California, you had the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade California history lessons.  What do you recall about early California history, and the Missions? 

Who decides how events get captured?

•  Why do some events get morphed from the reality, into fantastic stories? 
•  While other events quietly get removed, and buried in the past? 

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Transcript

Transcripts for this episode can be found at twitter.com/monkeyblocksf or facebook.com/MonkeyBlockSF and follow the buzzsprout link to click on the Transcript button.

I’m fascinated by history for lots of reasons.   

•  Who decides how events get captured?
•  Why do some events get morphed from the reality, into fantastic stories? 
•  While other events quietly get removed, and buried in the past? 

I have the advantage of viewing the past, with a current lens, when I read historical newspapers, personal accounts, books. And I try to understand the time and place something was written. So, there’s a duality to my perspective, trying to understand the event in that frame, and then, also assessing the past event with the knowledge, and perspective, of today.            
The victor walks away from history, relaying events, as they want it captured, for future generations. And, the people on the opposite side of that? Where does their history go? Sometimes that history gets buried, as our views on social topics change, and certain events become less favorable to the victor. 

If you were raised in California, you had the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade California history lessons. 
 What do you recall about early California history, and the Missions? Hold on to those memories for the duration of this episode.

If you didn’t grow up in California, recall what you do know about the California Missions. And, hold onto that.

Did you build a Mission diorama and study Mission architecture? 
 Did you visit one of the 21 California Missions? (I’ve driven by Mission Dolores hundreds of times. But, I’ve never been inside…or any Mission, actually.) 

If you visited Mission San Francisco de Asis, which I’ll call the San Francisco Mission for this episode, did you make it to the courtyard, and see the cemetery?

I remember our 4th grade class watching a reel to reel movie, recounting life in the California Missions. I was captivated by an actor playing a Missionized/Christianized/Hispanicized Indian, making adobe bricks, and how lovingly he sowed the dirt, and walked about the beautiful grounds, picking fruit from a tree, as he walked to afternoon prayer.

In episode 1, I quickly touched on the indigenous Californians, from 1776 – 1836, as the laborers who built and maintained the San Francisco Mission. And, that labor force included local, and not so local, indigenous people (from across the Bay). Collectively called, the Muwekma Ohlone. 

There is plenty to say about this topic. And, it’s touch point to San Francisco history. I really wanted to, but couldn’t, walk away from this part of San Francisco’s buried past, which was erased with time, in ways I couldn’t have guessed, before I started this research. This is history worth telling, before the gold rush, even if it’s uncomfortable history. 

Disclaimer, I’m in no position to be the voice, or spokesperson for Native Californians or the Muwekma people. I seek the truth, in my research, eliminating embellishments, or, in this case, giving light to eliminated events. 

There’s more to tell, than a 20 minute podcast can cover. So, what I am covering, today, is part of a bigger story, which I need to split into a two part episode. 

Here we go…

Father Francisco Palou founded Mission San Francisco under Father Junipero Serra. The San Francisco Mission was built in the middle of the Chutchui Village, where the Ramaytush Ohlone lived. (Think, Dolores Park.)

Muwekma Ohlone, is the preferred name for aboriginal people who can trace their ancestry to the Bay Area Missions.

https://www.sfgenealogy.org/sf/history/hbann1-4.htm

Jurisdiction/District of San Francisco.
Presidio of San Francisco
Mission of San Francisco 
Mission of San Francisco Solano
Mission of San Rafael
Mission of Santa Clara
Town of San José de Guadalupe 
Mission of San José
Mission of Santa Cruz

 You could stretch the definition of ‘willing’ to say initially some Native Californians willingly found themselves at the Missions...meaning hunger, due to the Spanish disruption of the land and therefore food sources, fear of Spanish weaponry, in need of protection from enemies, and also a lack of language comprehension, and, maybe some curiosity, initially played a role in why some Native Californians may have ‘willingly’ found themselves at any Mission. Curiosity, as in the use of beads, trinkets, and food.

Once you were baptized, you, your offspring, entered a baptismal contract you could not walk away from. Do you think they realized how demanding life would be, religiously and physically speaking, by agreeing to a baptism? Or, that later they might change their mind about Mission life?

Let’s explore that. People who don’t’ speak Spanish, who have complex reasons, might be unduly influenced to join a Mission.  Given the existing language barrier, you may not realize the extent of this baptismal contract. What did this contract entail? I’ll get to that.

The San Francisco Mission, did rather well with the cattle raising for the tallow and hide trading. And, successfully grew Maize, barley, pinto and garbanzo beans. 

But, it was clear, early on, the San Francisco Mission wasn’t able to produce all that it needed, so in 1787 a satellite mission was created, called San Pedro and San Pablo Asistencia, which harvested the majority of the produce for the San Francisco Mission. This was in current day Pacifica, at a location I grew up calling the Sanchez Adobe.

Cordero, Jonathan F.  “Native Persistence: Marriage, Social Structure, Political Leadership, and Intertribal Relations at Mission Dolores, 1777-1800.” Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, vol. 35, no. 1, 2015, pp. 133–149. JSTOR, Accessed 15 Feb. 2021.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/45155444 (library card)

Newell, Quincy D. “The Varieties of Religious Experience: Baptized Indians at Mission San Francisco De Asís, 1776-1821.” American Indian Quarterly, vol. 32, no. 4, 2008, pp. 412–442. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25487895. Accessed 14 Feb. 2021.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25487895  (library card)

At it’s peak, Mission San Francisco de Asis had 1, 252 indigenous people working/living at the Mission.  The neophytes as they were called, in San Francisco, lived in reducciones/reductions, eight rows of one-story dwellings, that were cramped, and unsanitary. Just 100 yards from the church, where soldiers were allowed to spend no more than 24 hours at a time.  The padres wrote letters back to Spain, capturing their knowledge of the soldiers’ abuse of power.

Prayer was twice a day…which I believe was in Latin. (Sidenote- the incoming 'labor' was lucky to understand Spanish, let alone, Latin.)

From Chapter 4, of The Annals of San Francisco, “Treatment of the Natives” Written in 1854, regarding Captain Beechy’s 1827 second visit to Mission San Francisco de Asis.

“I happened to visit the mission (Mission San Francisco de Asis) about this time and saw these unfortunate beings under tuition. They were clothed in blankets, and arrayed in a row before a blind Indian who understood their dialect, and was assisted by an alcalde to keep order. Their tutor began by desiring them to kneel, informing them that he was going to teach them the names of the persons composing the Trinity, and that they were to repeat in Spanish what he dictated.”

Captain Fredrick W. Beechey was with the English Navy. Captain Beechey also wrote in “An Account of a Visit to California, 1826-27”, regarding his November 1827 visit to the Monterey and San Francisco Missions, "...with whips, canes and goads, or sharp, pointed sticks to preserve silence and maintain order, and what seemed more difficult than either, to keep the congregation in their kneeling posture. The goads would reach a long way and inflict a sharp puncture without making any noise. The end of the church was occupied by a guard of soldiers under arms with fixed bayonets." That certainly sounds hospitable.

The San Francisco Mission had a specific diet for the Muwekma Ohlone. Atole for breakfast (that’s a corn based drink), and work a full day of physical labor. Then, for dinner, a bowl of pozole (a broth based soup with hominy and bits of meat). When food supply allowed for it, they were additionally served lunch, which was also a bowl of pozole. Now, imagine the caloric expenditure of their daily activities, construction, farming, cow and horse tending, black smithing. 

One cup of a corn based drink, and at best, two bowls of broth soup with bits of meat and hominy, is not a varied diet. And, we aren’t talking the colorful plate of vegetable garnishes you get with your Sunday pozole in San Francisco or Oakland. Captain Beechey noted that the only difference he could tell between the atole and the pozole were the bits of meat in the soup. 

As reported in letters from the padres, back to Mexico and Spain  … the indigenous deaths at the Mission San Francisco de Asis were due to ‘the cold weather and inadequate food’. 

So, why weren’t the padres also dying at the same, rate from… the same cold and the same food? 

Because, the San Francisco Mission reserved the fruits, vegetables, from the Pacifica Asistencia, for the priests, soldiers, and indigenous leaders/alcaldes. 

Life at the Pacifica Asistencia allowed traditional family living arrangements, off site, and, for what it’s worth, ‘better’ working and eating conditions, with fewer stipulations around suppressing native traditions, which was not true at the San Francisco Mission. Asistencias did not have onsite padres. 

The San Francisco Mission was interested in maintaining the social structure/political authority of the Muwekma Ohlone, but not the traditions and rituals. If you wanted a survivable diet, that included adequate clothing, you needed to hold a leadership position at the San Francisco Mission. 

However, true to the San Francisco Mission, having an already existing high social standing in your native community was a prerequisite for a leadership/Indian Alcalde position…despite other California Missions allowing any tribe member to potentially become an Indian Alcalde. 

Sidenote: It was male children, from high-status families, who found themselves in Indian Alcalde positions at the San Francisco Mission.

Back to Chapter 4 of the Annals of San Francisco. 

“To sharpen the intellects of the converts, sticks, whips, long goads and the like were unhesitatingly employed by the beadles of the churches, during mass and prayers, to silence the unruly, and make the refractory attentive and dutiful. Starvation and stripes indeed attended the perverse Indian wherever he went; and it was his interest,—he could be made to understand that at all events,—to comply with the wishes of his kind priestly persecutors, as far as his animal nature would permit.”

“The conversion produced by such means could scarcely be intellectual or very sincere. It seemed sufficient, however, that the Indian duly attended mass (which he was obliged to do under penalty of a sound, edifying whipping), knelt and muttered his incomprehensible Spanish words, made the sign of the cross often and properly enough, and could correctly repeat to his spiritual tutors, when called upon, the few cabalistic phrases which they had taught him. Whether he understood the meaning of these things was quite another question, as to which, it was not necessary, for the Fathers, to be impertinently curious.”

So, starvation and physical punishment were a regular means to … save their souls? Ensure manual labor was done? It’s just so counter intuitive. And, I doubt anyone would knowingly signed up for this, if they understood the religious and physical demands that came with this baptismal contract.

Dear Listener, “The Annals of San Francisco” was written in 1854, clearly prior to the burying of historical events, which weren’t discussed as part of my California History lessons. You can read this book for free, as it’s part of the public commons. I have a link to this chapter in my Transcript  https://twitter.com/monkeyblocksf

A few indigenous would escape, or try, and hope they weren’t found, punished, and forced back to the Mission. Outside of the weekend paseos/passes, seldomly granted, you were not permitted to leave the Mission. 

The padres specifically at the Mission San Francisco de Asis did not allow for ceremonial traditions around death, while other missions allowed for cutting or burning of your hair, painting your face with ashes as was traditional after a death. There were instances where people specifically ran away to be able to die and have their traditional mourning rituals performed, and be buried, with their people.

The Presidio and Mission soldiers, who searched for and retrieved escaped huidos/runaways, stated the regularly stated reasons for running away were always one of the three muchos:  

Mucho hunger, mucho work, or mucho punishment. 

When ‘the labor’ died, due to ‘the cold weather and inadequate food’, the Missions replenished their labor force, and … that was mostly against their will. (Paseos, were accompanied by Spanish ships with the converted Indians, to visit their non-missionized families …with the expectation this paseo would result in the converted Indian, convincing others to come back with them to the Mission. And, if that failed, then the capture of Women and children was employed, knowing that the husbands and parents would willingly follow.

Life expectancy for children born at Mission San Francisco de Asis prior to 1791 declined from eight years old, down to two years old by 1800. The average life expectancy for a baby born at Mission San Francisco de Asis was two years old. This statistic is specific to the San Francisco Mission, and not all the California Missions. But, it gets worse.

Page 98 ‘A World Transformed: Firsthand Accounts of California Before the Gold Rush, by Joshua Paddison “Between 1806 and 1810, measles killed more than one-third of all neophytes in the San Francisco Bay Area but left the Spaniards untouched. Measles have wreaked havoc upon the Indians of this province, but none at all upon the gente de razon [Spaniards],” noted Father Martin de Landaeta at Mission San Francisco on April 28, 1806.” 

The cemetery at Mission San Francisco de Asis contained 5,503 indigenous people, over a 60 year stretch. I said contained, because the majority of that cemetery is now paved over by 16th Street, the Mission Dolores Bascilica church, Chancery Building of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, and Mission School.

Mission San Francisco de Asis had the highest indigenous mortality rate of all of the California Missions.

Life at the Missions, including the San Francisco Mission, were captured in letters written by the padres themselves, and eyewitness accounts, as they were happening.  What happened to this part of San Francisco history? 

There is still more to say about this topic. More than I can put into a 20 minute episode, so I’ve broken this into a two part episode. It takes me about a month to complete the research, writing, recording and editing, but I will try to get the second part out faster than that.

Despite the uncomfortable nature of this topic, this is San Francisco history worth telling, even if it’s not San Francisco’s most golden history. 

Why do some events get morphed from the reality, into fantastic stories? 
 While other events quietly get removed, and buried in the past?

Please bookmark this podcast, so you can listen to the second part of this episode. Thank you for listening. This is Monkey Block San Francisco’s Golden History.