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 MISSION

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MISSION

to the sky as stars, wliile those of the common people went to an vniderworld, where there was continual feasting and ilaneing, the idea of future punishment or rewaixl being foreign to the Indian mind. The dead were never named, anil the sum of insult to another was to say " Your father is dead."

In connexion with cltildbirth most of the tribes practised the couvade. the father keeping his bed for some days, subjected to rigid diet and other taboos, until released liy a ceremonial exorci.sm. Besides the great ceremonies already noteil, they had numerous other dances, including some of dramatic or sleight-of- hand character, and, among the southern tribes, a grossly obscene dance whicn gave the missionaries much trouble to suppress. Among the Gallinomero, and perhaps others, aged parents were sometimes choked to death by their own children by crushing the neck with a stick. Ordinary morality could hardly be said to exist even in theory. Infan- ticide and abor- tion were so prev- alent that even the most strenuous efforts of the mis- sionaries hardly succeeded in check- ing the evil. In this and certain other detestable customs the coast tribes were like the California In- dians generally, whom Powers characterizes, in their heathen con- dition, as perhaps the most licen- I II li.iNiMo BnscANA tious race exis-

tent, Iai-ii before the arrival of the missionaries, their blood, liki' that of all the coast tribes as far north as Alaska, had been so poisoned by direct or trans- mitted contact with dissolute sealing and trading crews, that the race was already in swift decline. The confiscation of the missions and the subsequent influx of the gold-hunters doomed the race to extinction.

IV. Vital Statistics. — By the confiscation of the missions (1834-38) the Indians lost their protectors together with their stock and other movable property, and by the transfer of California to the United States in 1848 they were left without legal title to their lands, and sank into a condi t ion of homeless misery under which they died by thousands and were fast approaching ex- tinction. With the exception of occasional ministra- tions by secular priests or some of the few remain- ing missionaries, they were also left entirely without spiritual or educational attention, notwithstanding which the Christian Indians continued to keep the Faith and transmitted the tradition to their children. .\t last, as the result of a governmental investigation in 1873, a number of village reservations were as- signed by executive proclamation in 1875 to the southern remnant, the northern bands being already extinct. By subsequent legislation there are now es- tablished some thirty small " Mission Indian" reserva- tions, all in western and central San Diego and River- side Counties, California, with a total population, in 1909, of 2775 souls, representing fi\-e tribes and lan- guages, viz., Luiseno, Serrano, Cahuilla, -4gua Cali- ente, and Diegueno. The largest groupings are at Morongo a<ljoining Banning (chiefly Cahuilla) 238; Pala (Lui.seno .and ,\gua Caliente) 226; Pechanga (Luisefio) 170; and Santa Ysabel No. 3 (Diegueno) 165 They are practically all Catholics and besides twelve

government day-schools with a total enrolment of 286 there are 17 Catholic schools served by secular priests under tli<' diocese of Los Angeles, with a total enrol- ment in lllO'.t of lsit4 pupils. Of these the largest are at Pala (200), La Jolla (195), Pauma (ISO), Soboba, or San Jacinto (163), Campo (125), and Martinez (125). All are day-schools, excepting St. Boniface boarding-school at Banning with 100 pupils. About the .same time Catholic mission work was begun among the remnant tribes on the northern border of the origi- nal mission territory. In 1870 the mission of St.Turi- bius was fomuled by Father Luciano Osuna, north of Kelseyville in Lake Cotmty. In 1889 Saint Mary's mission was established near Ukiah in Mendocino County. The Indians of both stations are locally called "Diggers ", but are properly Pomo and Vukai and some of the older ones still have recollection of the early mission fathers. They are in charge of the Friars Minor and Capuchins. All these northern missions are in the .Vrchdiocese of San F'rancisco.

According to a careful estimate made by Merriam, the original Indian population of the mission territory, eastwards to the San Joaquin and lower Sacramento rivers, was approximately 50,000 souls. About 30,000 were domiciled in the missions at the time of confiscation. Following the ruin of the missions and the invasion of the -Americans, they died in such thou- sands that of all those north of the present Los An- geles, comprising perhaps four-fifths of the whole, not 300 are believed to survive to-day. The southern tribes, being of manlier stock and in some degree pro- tected by their desert environment, have held them- selves better, and number to-day on the " Mission In- dian" reservations, a.s already stated, 2,775 souls, a decrease, however, of 152 in nine years. The Mission Indians of California have dwindled to fewer than one-sLxteenth of their original number, and indications point to their extinction. (See California.)

Ames, Report in regard to condition of Mission Inds. in Hept. Comsner. Ind. Aff. for 1S7S (Washington, 1874); H.H.Bancpoft, Hist. California, I and II (San Francisco, 1S86); Idem, Native Races, I: Wild Tribes (San Francisco, 1886); Idem, Native Races, III; Myths and Languages (.San Francisco, 1886); Bar- rett, Ethno-Geography of the Pomo and Neighboring Indians in f/niii iifC'alihrnia Pubs, in Am. Arch, and Ethnology, VI, no. 1 (!<• ■! I ii V, I'Misi; Idem, Geography and Dialects of the Miwok ]•, iMi 2(Berlceley,1908);BARROws,£(A7M-Bo(onyo/

th' ' //'/v. (Chicago, 1900): Bartlett, Pfrsonai iVarra-

iiv: ijj Liin'j!--dtLuns (New York, 1854); Boscana, CAintpcAintcA {San Juan Cupistrano Inds.), translation published in Robin- son, Life in California (New York, 1846); Bureau of Am. Eth- nology Seventh ann. rept. (Indian linguistic families){W3iShinf^toa, 1891): Bur. Cath. Ind. Miss., ann. repts. of Director (Washing- ton) ; CouEa (ed.). On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer (Fr. Garccs) (New York, 1900) -.Comsnr. of Ind. Affairs, ann. repts. o/ (Wash- ington) ; Ddbois. Religion of the Luiseilo Inds. in Univ. of Cal. Ethn. pubs., VIII, no. 3 (Berkeley, 1908) • Duflot de Mofras, Exploration du territoire de VOregon, des Califomies, etc. (Paris, 1844); Engelhardt, Franciscans in California (Harbor Springs, 1897); Forbes, California (London, 1839); Hodge (ed.). Hand- book of Am. Inds. (Bull. SO, Bur. Am. Ethn.) (Washington, 1907-11): Hrdlicka, Physical Anthropology of California in Univ. of Cal. Hrdlicka pubs, in Am. Arch, and Ethn., IV (Berke- ley, 1906); Jackson, Ramona (Boston, 188,5); Kappler, Ind. Affairs;^ Laws and treaties. (Washington, 1903); Kroeber, p.apers in Univ. of Cal. pubs, in Am. Arch, and Ethn. (Berke- ley), viz.. Languages of the (South) Coast of California: — Types of Ind. Culture in California (II, 1904); Yakuts Language — Shoshonean Dialects of California;— Ind. Myths of South Central Cal— Religion of the Ind. of California (IV, \mi); Ethnography of the Cahuilla Inds.; — A Mission Record of the Cal. Inds. — Evi- dences of. ., Miwok Ind. (VI, 1908) : Shoshonean Dialects of Southern California (VIII, 1909); Merriam. papers in Am. Anthropologist, new series (Lancaster), viz., Indian Population of California (VII, 1905) ; Meimn Stock of California (IX, 1907); Totemism in California (X, 1908); E. B. Powers, Missions of California (San Francisco. 1897): S. Powers, Tribes of Cali- fomia in Cont. to N. Am. Ethn., Ill (Washington, 1877); Rob- inson (anon.). Life in California (contains also Boscana's ac- count) (New York, 1846); RiiST, Putterty Ceremony of the Mis- sion Inds. in Am. Anthropologist, new series. VIII (Lancaster, 1906); Shea. Catholic (Indian) Missions (New York, 1854); Smith, InreCal. Missions Inds. to date (Sequoya League Bull. 5 in OtU West, separate), (Los Angeles, 1909): Sparkman, Culture of the Luisefio Inds. in Univ. of Cal. Pubs., Am. Arch, and Ethn., VII (Berkeley. 1910); Taylor, Indians of California; articles in Cal. Farmer (San Francisco, 1860-1): Waterman, Mission In- dian Creation Story in Am. Anthropologist, new series, XI (Lan- caster, 1909); Idem, Religious Practices of the Diegueno Inds., Univ. of Cal. pubs, in Am. and Ethn., VIII (Berkeley, 1910);