Effect of the California Mission System

The California Mission system was established from 1769 to 1833 under the Spanish Colonial regime, which focused on converting local peoples into Christians. Stretching from San Diego to San Francisco, these Missions came across as triggers of cultural and religious upheavals among the Native American tribes. However, the Mission degradation in the local Native American communities was far more than just noticeable. This thesis seeks to discuss the destructive aspects of the California Missions’ imposition on the Native Americans. By examining historical narratives and scholarly writings, this research paper will advocate that the mission system had culture suppression, forced labor, and exploitation, as well as the terrible effects of bringing diseases to the Native Americans. After researching these areas, we can comprehend the intelligence through which the colonial powers battled and faced disfranchisement.

Cultural Suppression

The California mission system is the outstanding historical period of Colonialism and its influences on the natives. Founded to change the culture and customs of Native American people in California and make them believers of Christianity, the people’s transformation brought by the Mission System was huge. This section seeks to discuss the multiple ways in which the Mission system oppressed the culture of the Natives and the negative consequences of this on all the Indigenous communities of Canada.

The most significant part of cultural persecution present in the Mission system was giving Christianity as the religious way to Native American tribes. Conversion to Christianity was one of the main principles of Mission to the Natives, which meant that many original people were baptized. A tax was put on them to adopt European religious customs (Schneider et al. 99). The result of this change was twofold: Firstly, their spiritual beliefs were undermined, and secondly, a substantial part of the traditional Indigenous religion and practices disappeared. Indigenous people were made to take up the concept of Christianity, at times, the threat of being punished or even withholding basic things they needed, such as food and housing. The introduction of Christianity into the mission system, by its nature, was an effort to remake the aborigine’s identity and their traditional ways of life with the Catholic values of urban Europe.

In addition, the Mission authority had imposed rigorous rites on the Indigenous cultural activities within the Mission buildings. Indigenous languages were often forbidden, with Spanish being the first to stand as a language of instruction and communication. Some customs just disappeared – neither allowed nor able to survive. Same – Indigenous peoples were forced to change their way of life and would have never adopted European ways. This purposeful quashing of the traditional Indigenous cultures within the mission welfare mechanisms carried severe consequences for the Indian communities. It also played a slimming role in Indigenous titles and reduced traditional knowledge and habits that were carried out (Akins et al.). These were rooted in the minds of ancestors. Banning the Indigenous languages along with cultural practices helps to break this link between Indigenous communities and their cultural heritage, which, therefore, makes them more and more detached from their traditions and ways of life.

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Furthermore, the Mission kept a story of a cultural heritage that Spanish colonial governors viewed the expressed culture of the Indiana people as inferior and morally un-civilized that necessitated they were exposed to the elements of the Christian religion and, thus, to the detriment of the Indiana culture (Akins et al.). However, the Eurocentric depiction did not consider the depth of indigenous cultures and the disastrous outcomes that displacement and suppression of cultures cause for indigenous societies.

Besides the destruction of the Indigenous social and familial patterns, the Mission system worsened the process of acculturation. Under the Spanish crown, indigenous communities were forced to live at Mission Compounds, thereby separating many family units and destroying the primary kinship groups. The dislocation was not only physical but also severed the indigenous peoples from their ancestors’ lands and the social ties and networks that were a vital link to them and central to cultural and social cohesion. Thus, Indigenous social organization and autonomy were suppressed apart from the extreme regulation of the life structure and its components like the space for living and the work method (Akins et al.). Mission systems forced heirs on the indigenous people through a rigi