Native Americans have flourished in California for more than 12,000 years. When the Spanish invaded western California (from San Diego to San Francisco) in AD 1769, the region was home to more than 150,000 people. Notably, the San Francisco Bay Area was densely inhabited by more than 15,000 Native Californians speaking several languages and living in more than 40 communities with well-defined territories.

 

Bay Area Spanish colonizers founded five missions and a presidio (fortified military settlement) from AD 1776-1823. The Spanish actively, and often coercively, recruited the Native people to reside at the missions, as they needed labor to build and maintain these feudal colonial outposts. Over time traditional Native communities and lifeways were dramatically disrupted, and life within the missions (defined by forced manual labor, confined living, severe punishments, circulation of deadly diseases, and other hardships) predominated. Native resistance to the loss of their homeland and economic livelihood (effectively transforming them into an impoverished and landless working class), suppression of religious practices, and high death rates took many forms including periodic armed rebellion.

The video (left) is based on mission baptismal records for 9,308 residents from 43 Native communities encircling the Bay Area. It shows the movement of individuals from each village community to specific missions over time. The size of the dot varies depending on the number of individuals that were baptized from a community on a given day (and a running total of baptisms by mission listed).  

 

The percentage of each community’s total baptisms is also depicted over time. All village communities start out as having 0% baptized (shown as a dark red cell). As the percentages decline, the cell color lightens at 20% intervals and ultimately no color is used once all baptisms have been accounted for in the community.

 

The data used in this visualization are from the Contact-Period Native California Community Distribution Model by Randy Milliken, currently available at the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library reading room. Milliken’s ground-breaking ethno-geographic research included constructing a database of mission records and determining the home village or community of each individual through familial reconstitution and kinship network analysis.

 

Archaeological evidence also demonstrates continued village occupation in many portions of the Bay Area after AD 1776 (when the first mission was established). Radiocarbon dating evidence (based on median age of more than 1500 dates from more than 200 Bay Area archaeological sites shown on the map) reveals considerable continuity in indigenous occupation from around 1500 years ago until well after the founding of the missions (based on median age of 1500+ dates from 200+ Bay Area archaeological sites shown on the map and the chart).

 

Indeed, the majority of Native American villages with post-AD 1776 radiocarbon dates are located within portions of the Bay-Delta that have no baptisms until after AD 1800. In other words, the archaeological dating results from Native settlements is consistent with the timing of Baptismal records showing that in some portion of the Bay Area Native Americans went into the Mission system earlier than in other areas.

 

Most of these Native American archaeological sites with Mission-period radiocarbon dates also have at least some additional evidence suggesting post-AD 1776 occupation. The limited presence of introduced items (made of glass, metal, and ceramics , as well as the remains of Eurasian domesticated animals and plants), however, indicates that the exchange of goods with mission residents was limited.

 

 

 

 

We can also apply the same Native American cumulative baptism rate model to all of California. This provides a broader perspective on a dynamic landscape of Spanish colonization, initial Native American persistence, and ultimately upheaval once local groups went into Mission colonial system.  This visualization also allows for new insights into how the impacts of Spanish colonialism played out on a larger scale during 1700s and early 1800s.

 

Use the controls in the upper left corner to zoom in or search for an area of interest.

 

Additional Observations on this Time Period

 

First, large portions of California (especially the northern-most and eastern areas) remained outside the direct influence of the Spanish.

 

Second, although we use baptisms to model both Native community persistence and relocation into the Spanish Mission settlements, not everyone was baptized from a community– some died, some hid out in the hinterlands, and other went to live with neighbors/relatives in more distant communities. As a result, not all communities became fully incorporated into the mission system.

 

Finally, even after moving into the Spanish Mission settlements, Native people were periodically allowed to return for short times spans to their former villages during periods of limited work and food. This allowed them to maintain their connections with the land and traditional lifeways.

There is little doubt that the Spanish colonization of western California was only the first step in a long series of appalling hardships that Native Californians endured - an experience shared by indigenous people throughout the Americans. Despite these enormous challenges, descendant communities have persisted in the Bay Area and elsewhere in California, continuing to maintain their sense of community, cultural traditions, and strong relationship with the land.

 

Indeed nowadays, Native Americans are a vital part of the Bay Area community. For example, the Native Californian Graton Rancheria is a federally recognized tribal community of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo groups in the northern Bay Area. The present-day Muwekma Ohlone is comprised of Bay Area Native Americans who trace their ancestry through the Missions Dolores, Santa Clara, and San Jose; and who were also members of the historic federally recognized Verona Band of Alameda County. Today, the state of California remains the home of more than 85,000 Native Californians according to the 2010 U.S Census.

 

As a final note it is important to acknowledge that this is our personal perspective on these events and may not reflect the views of others. We hope, however, that this new application of the Spanish Mission baptismal data will inspire others to explore its potential in novel ways.

 

Photos courtesy of Muwekma.org (upper left, lower right) and Tsim Schneider (lower left).

Since 1979, Far Western has worked in partnership with private industry, government agencies, tribal organizations, and non-profit groups, to achieve the broader goals of the environmental review and compliance process. Today, we are recognized as one of the leading cultural resources consulting firms in the United States.

 

To explore other Far Western projects, visit us at farwestern.com