Mission Indians is a term for many
Native California tribes, primarily living in
coastal plains, adjacent inland valleys and mountains, and on the
Channel Islands in central and southern
California,
United States.
The tribes had comparatively peaceful and established cultures varying from 250 to 8,000 years before Spanish contact. These resident
indigenous peoples of the Americas were relocated from their traditional dwellings, villages, and homelands to live and work at twenty one
Spanish missions in California, and the
Asisténcias and
Estáncias as they were established between 1796 and 1823 in the
Las Californias Province of the
Viceroyalty of New Spain.
History
Spanish explorers arrived on California's coasts as early as the mid-16th century. In 1769 the first Spanish
Franciscan mission was built in
San Diego. Local tribes were relocated and conscripted into forced labor on the mission, stretching from San Diego to
San Francisco. Disease, starvation, over work, and torture decimated these tribes. Many were forcibly converted and
baptized as
Roman Catholics by the
Franciscan missionaries at the missions.
Mission Indians were from many Californian
Native American tribes that were relocated together in new mixed groups and renamed after the responsible mission. For instance the
Payomkowishum were renamed "
Luiseño" after the Mission San Luis Rey and the
Acjachemem were renamed the "
Juaneños" after the......
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