Editing Spanish missions in California (section)

== Alta California mission planning, structure and culture ==

=== Coastal mission chain, planning and overview ===

Prior to 1754, grants of mission lands were made directly by the Spanish Crown. But, given the remote locations and the inherent difficulties in communicating with the territorial governments, he delegated authority to make grants to the viceroys of New Spain.<ref>Capron, p. 3</ref> During the reign of King [[Charles III of Spain|Charles III]], they granted lands to allow establishing the Alta California missions. They were motivated in part by presence of Russian fur traders along the California coast in the mid-1700s.<ref>[http://picturethis.museumca.org/timeline/early-california-pre-1769-1840s/russian-presence/info Early California ... Russian Presence] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161013055315/http://picturethis.museumca.org/timeline/early-california-pre-1769-1840s/russian-presence/info |date=2016-10-13 }} Oakland Museum of California website, downloaded Sept. 10, 2016</ref>

The missions were to be interconnected by an overland route which later became known as the [[El Camino Real (California)|Camino Real]]. The detailed planning and direction of the missions was to be carried out by Friar [[Junípero Serra]], O.F.M. (who, in 1767, along with his fellow [[priest]]s, had taken control over a group of missions in [[Baja California Peninsula]] previously administered by the Jesuits). After Serra's death, Rev. [[Fermin Lasuen|Fermín Francisco de Lasuén]] established nine more mission sites, from 1786 through 1798; others established the last three compounds, along with at least five ''asistencias'' (mission assistance outposts).<ref>Young, p. 17</ref>

=== Shelved plans for additional mission chains ===

Work on the coastal mission chain was concluded in 1823, completed after Serra's death in 1784. Plans to build a twenty-second mission in Santa Rosa in 1827 were canceled.<ref name="hittell499a" group="notes">"By that time, it was found that the Russian colonies were not such undesirable neighbors as in 1817 it was thought they might become... the Russian scare, for the time being at least was over; and as for the old enthusiasm for new spiritual conquests, there was none left."</ref>{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}

The Rev. [[Pedro Estévan Tápis]] proposed establishing a mission on one of the [[Channel Islands of California|Channel Islands]] in the Pacific Ocean off [[San Pedro Harbor]] in 1784, with either [[Santa Catalina Island, California|Santa Catalina]] or [[Santa Cruz Island|Santa Cruz]] (known as ''Limú'' to the [[Tongva people|Tongva]] residents) being the most likely locations, the reasoning being that an offshore mission might have attracted potential people to convert who were not living on the mainland, and could have been an effective measure to restrict smuggling operations.<ref>Bancroft, pp. 33–34</ref> Governor [[José Joaquín de Arrillaga]] approved the plan the following year; however, an outbreak of ''sarampión'' ([[measles]]) killing some 200 Tongva people coupled with a scarcity of land for agriculture and potable water left the success of such a venture in doubt, so no effort to found an island mission was ever made.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}

In September 1821, the Rev. Mariano Payeras, "''Comisario Prefecto''" of the California missions, visited Cañada de Santa Ysabel east of [[Mission San Diego de Alcalá]] as part of a plan to establish an entire chain of inland missions. The [[Santa Ysabel Asistencia]] had been founded in 1818 as a "mother" mission.   However, the plan's expansion never came to fruition.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}

=== Mission sites, selection and layout ===
{{Main|Architecture of the California missions}}

[[File: San Luis Rey de Francia circa 1910 William Amos Haines.jpg|thumb|[[Mission San Luis Rey de Francia]], ''circa'' 1910. This mission is architecturally distinctive because of the strong [[Islamic architecture|Moorish]] lines exhibited.]] [[File: Franciscan missionaries in California.jpg|thumb|'' The Missionaries as They Came and Went.'' Franciscans of the California missions donned gray [[Religious habit|habits]], in contrast to the brown that is typically worn today.<ref>Kelsey, p. 18</ref>]]

In addition to the ''presidio'' (royal fort) and ''pueblo'' (town), the ''misión'' was one of the three major agencies employed by the Spanish sovereign to extend its borders and consolidate its [[Colonialism|colonial]] territories. ''Asistencias'' ("satellite" or "sub" missions, sometimes referred to as "contributing chapels") were small-scale missions that regularly conducted [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]] on days of obligation but lacked a resident priest;<ref>Harley</ref> as with the missions, these settlements were typically established in areas with high concentrations of potential native converts.<ref>Ruscin, p. 61</ref> The Spanish Californians had never strayed from the coast when establishing their settlements; Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad was located farthest inland, being only some thirty miles (48 kilometers) from the shore.<ref>Chapman, p. 418: Chapman does not consider the sub-missions (''asistencias'') that make up the inland chain in this regard.</ref> Each [[frontier]] station was forced to be self-supporting, as existing means of supply were inadequate to maintain a colony of any size. California was months away from the nearest base in colonized Mexico, and the cargo ships of the day were too small to carry more than a few months' [[ration]]s in their holds. To sustain a mission, the ''padres'' required converted [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]], called ''neophytes'', to cultivate [[agriculture|crops]] and tend [[livestock]] in the volume needed to support a fair-sized establishment. The scarcity of imported materials, together with a lack of skilled laborers, compelled the missionaries to employ simple [[building material]]s and methods in the construction of mission structures.

[[File:Vancouver-Carlos-mission.jpg|thumb|left|A drawing of [[Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo]] prepared by [[George Vancouver|Captain George Vancouver]] depicts the grounds as they appeared in November 1792. From ''A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World.'']]

Although the missions were considered temporary ventures by the Spanish [[hierarchy]], the development of an individual settlement was not simply a matter of "priestly whim."  The founding of a mission followed longstanding rules and procedures; the paperwork involved required months, sometimes years of correspondence, and demanded the attention of virtually every level of the bureaucracy. Once empowered to erect a mission in a given area, the men assigned to it chose a specific site that featured a good water supply, plenty of wood for fires and building materials, and ample fields for grazing [[herds]] and raising [[agriculture|crops]]. The padres blessed the site, and with the aid of their [[military]] escort fashioned temporary shelters out of tree limbs or driven stakes, roofed with [[thatch]] or [[Phragmites|reeds]] (''cañas''). It was these simple huts that ultimately gave way to the stone and adobe buildings that exist to the present.

The first priority when beginning a settlement was the location and construction of the [[Church (building)|church]] (''iglesia''). The majority of mission sanctuaries were oriented on a roughly east–west axis to take the best advantage of the sun's position for interior [[illumination (lighting)|illumination]]; the exact alignment depended on the geographic features of the particular site. Once the spot for the church had been selected, its position was marked and the remainder of the mission complex was laid out. The [[workshop]]s, [[kitchen]]s, living quarters, storerooms, and other ancillary chambers were usually grouped in the form of a [[quadrangle (architecture)|quadrangle]], inside which religious celebrations and other festive events often took place. The ''cuadrángulo'' was rarely a perfect square because the missionaries had no [[surveying]] instruments at their disposal and simply measured off all dimensions by foot. Some fanciful accounts regarding the construction of the missions claimed that tunnels were incorporated in the design, to be used as a means of emergency egress in the event of attack; however, no historical evidence (written or physical) has ever been uncovered to support these assertions.<ref>Engelhardt 1920, pp. 350–351</ref><ref group=notes>Engelhardt: One such hypothesis was put forth by author by Prent Duel in his 1919 work ''Mission Architecture as Exemplified in San Xavier Del Bac'': "Most missions of early date possessed secret passages as a means of escape in case they were besieged. It is difficult to locate any of them now as they are well concealed."</ref>

=== Franciscans and native conscription ===

[[File:Death of Father Jayme.jpg|thumb|An illustration depicts the death of the Rev. Luís Jayme by angry locals at [[Mission San Diego de Alcalá]], November 4, 1775.<ref>Ruscin, p. 12</ref> The independence uprising was the first of a dozen similar incidents that took place in Alta California during the Mission Period; however, most rebellions tended to be localized and short-lived due to the Spaniards' superior weaponry (native resistance more often took the form of non-cooperation (in forced labor), return to their homelands (desertion of forced relocation), and raids on mission livestock).<ref>Paddison, p. 48</ref><ref>Chapman, pp. 310–311</ref><ref group=notes>Chapman: "Latter-day historians have been altogether too prone to regard the hostility to the Spaniards on the part of the California Indians as a matter of small consequence, since no disaster in fact ever happened...On the other hand the San Diego plot involved untold thousands of Indians, being virtually a national uprising, and owing to the distance from New Spain to and the extreme difficulty of maintaining communications a victory for the Indians would have ended Spanish settlement in Alta California." As it turned out, "...the position of the Spaniards was strengthened by the San Diego outbreak, for the Indians felt from that time forth that it was impossible to throw out their conquerors." See also [[Mission Puerto de Purísima Concepción]] and [[Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer]] regarding the ''[[Quechan|Yuma]]'' 'massacres' of 1781.</ref><ref>Engelhardt 1922, p. 12</ref><ref group=notes>Engelhardt: Not all of the native cultures responded with hostility to the Spaniards' presence; Engelhardt portrayed the natives at Mission San Juan Capistrano (dubbed the "''[[Juaneño]]''" by the missionaries), where there was never any instance of unrest, as being "uncommonly friendly and docile." The Rev. [[Juan Crespí]], who accompanied the 1769 expedition, described the first encounter with the area's inhabitants: "They came unarmed and with a gentleness which has no name they brought their poor seeds to us as gifts...The locality itself and the docility of the Indians invited the establishment of a Mission for them."</ref>]]

The Alta California missions, known as [[Indian Reductions|reductions]] (''reducciones'') or congregations (''congregaciones''), were settlements founded by the Spanish colonizers of the [[New World]] with the purpose of totally assimilating indigenous populations into [[European culture]] and the [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] religion. It was a doctrine established in 1531, which based the Spanish state's right over the land and persons of the Indies on the [[Papal]] charge to evangelize them. It was employed wherever the indigenous populations were not already concentrated in native ''pueblos''. Indians were congregated around the mission proper through forced resettlement, in which the Spanish  "reduced" them from what they perceived to be a free "undisciplined'" state with the ambition of converting them into "civilized" members of colonial society.<ref>Rawls, pp. 14–16</ref> The civilized and disciplined culture of the natives, developed over 8,000 years, was not considered. A total of 146 [[Franciscan#Name|Friars Minor]], mostly Spaniards by birth, were ordained as priests and served in California between 1769 and 1845. Sixty-seven missionaries died at their posts (two as ''[[martyr]]s'': ''Padres'' [[Luis Jayme]] and [[Andrés Quintana]]), while the remainder returned to Europe due to illness, or upon completing their ten-year service commitment.<ref>Leffingwell, pp. 19, 132</ref> As the rules of the Franciscan Order forbade friars to live alone, two missionaries were assigned to each settlement, sequestered in the mission's ''convento''.<ref>Bennett 1897a, p. 20: Priests were paid an annual salary of $400.</ref> To these the governor assigned a guard of five or six soldiers under the command of a corporal, who generally acted as steward of the mission's temporal affairs, subject to the priests' direction.<ref name = "engelhardtMAM3-18"/>

Indians were initially attracted into the mission compounds by gifts of food, colored beads, bits of bright cloth, and trinkets. Once a Native American "[[gentile]]" was baptized, they were labeled a ''[[wikt:neophyte|neophyte]]'', or new believer. This happened only after a brief period during which the initiates were instructed in the most basic aspects of the Catholic faith. But, while many natives were lured to join the missions out of curiosity and sincere desire to participate and engage in trade, many found themselves trapped once they were [[baptism|baptized]].<ref name="cogweb.ucla.edu">Carey McWilliams. [http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Chumash/McWilliams.html Southern California:An Island on the Land] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151011183332/http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Chumash/McWilliams.html |date=2015-10-11 }}</ref> On the other hand, Indians staffed the militias at each mission<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.academia.edu/36043657 |title=Beyond Slavery: The Institutional Status of Mission Indians |journal=Franciscan Florida in Pan-Borderlands Perspective: Adaptation, Negotiation, and Resistance |access-date=2018-03-05 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180427234836/http://www.academia.edu/36043657/Beyond_Slavery_The_Institutional_Status_of_Mission_Indians |archive-date=2018-04-27 |last1=Duggan |first1=Marie Christine |date=January 2017 }} Duggan, M.C. "Beyond Slavery: Institutional Status of Mission Indians, in Burns and Johnson (eds.), Franciscans and American Indians in Pan-Borderlands Perspective. Oceanside, CA: AAFH, 2017.</ref> and had a role in mission governance.

[[File:Mission San Jose natives.jpg|thumb|left|Georg von Langsdorff, an early visitor to California, sketched a group of ''[[Ohlone|Costeño]]'' dancers at [[Mission San José (California)|Mission San José]] in 1806. "The hair of these people is very coarse, thick, and stands erect; in some it is powdered with down feathers," Langsdorff noted. "Their bodies are fantastically painted with charcoal dust, red clay, and chalk. The foremost dancer is ornamented all over with down feathers, which gives him a monkey-like appearance; the hindermost has had the whimsical idea of painting his body to imitate the uniform of a Spanish soldier, with his boots, stockings, breeches, and upper garments."<ref>Paddison, p. 130</ref>]]

To the ''padres'', a baptized Indian person was no longer free to move about the country, but had to labor and worship at the mission under the strict observance of the priests and overseers, who herded them to daily masses and labors. If an Indian did not report for their duties for a period of a few days, they were searched for, and if it was discovered that they had left without permission, they were considered runaways. Large-scale military expeditions were organized to round up the escaped neophytes. Sometimes, the Franciscans allowed neophytes to escape the missions, or they would allow them to visit their home village. However, the Franciscans would only allow this so that they could secretly follow the neophytes. Upon arriving to the village and capturing the runaways, they would take back Indians to the missions, sometimes as many as 200 to 300 Indians.<ref>{{cite web|last1=McWilliams|first1=Carey|title=The Indian in the Closet|url=http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Chumash/McWilliams.html|access-date=7 March 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525082647/http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Chumash/McWilliams.html|archive-date=25 May 2017}}</ref>

{{blockquote|On one occasion," writes [[Hugo Reid]], "they went as far as the present Rancho del Chino, where they tied and whipped every man, woman and child in the lodge, and drove part of them back.... On the road they did the same with those of the lodge at San Jose. On arriving home the men were instructed to throw their bows and arrows at the feet of the priest, and make due submission. The infants were then baptized, as were also all children under eight years of age; the former were left with their mothers, but the latter kept apart from all communication with their parents. The consequence was, first, the women consented to the rite and received it, for the love they bore their children; and finally the males gave way for the purpose of enjoying once more the society of wife and family. Marriage was then performed, and so this contaminated race, in their own sight and that of their kindred, became followers of Christ.<ref name="cogweb.ucla.edu"/>}}

A total of 20,355 natives were "attached" to the California missions in 1806 (the highest figure recorded during the Mission Period); under Mexican rule the number rose to 21,066 (in 1824, the record year during the entire era of the Franciscan missions).<ref>Chapman, p. 383</ref><ref group=notes>Chapman: "Over the hills of the Coast Range, in the valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, north of San Francisco Bay, and in the Sierra Nevadas of the south there were untold thousands whom the mission system never reached...they were as if in a world apart from the narrow strip of coast which was all there was of the Spanish California."</ref> During the entire period of Mission rule, from 1769 to 1834, the Franciscans baptized 53,600 adult Indians and buried 37,000. Dr. Cook estimates that 15,250 or 45% of the population decrease was caused by disease. Two epidemics of [[measles]], one in 1806 and the other in 1828, caused many deaths. The mortality rates were so high that the missions were constantly dependent upon new conversions.<ref name="cogweb.ucla.edu"/>

Young native women were required to reside in the ''[[monjerío]]'' (or "nunnery") under the supervision of a trusted Indian matron who bore the responsibility for their welfare and education. Women only left the convent after they had been "won" by an Indian suitor and were deemed ready for marriage. Following Spanish custom, courtship took place on either side of a barred window. After the marriage ceremony the woman moved out of the mission compound and into one of the family huts.<ref>Newcomb, p. viii</ref> These "nunneries" were considered a necessity by the priests, who felt the women needed to be protected from the men, both Indian and ''de razón'' ("instructed men", i.e. Europeans). The cramped and unsanitary conditions the girls lived in contributed to the fast spread of disease and [[population decline]]. So many died at times that many of the Indian residents of the missions urged the priests to raid new villages to supply them with more women.<ref name=":0">Krell, p. 316</ref>

==== Death rate at the missions ====
As of December 31, 1832 (the peak of the mission system's development) the mission ''padres'' had performed a combined total of 87,787 baptisms and 24,529 marriages, and recorded 63,789 deaths.<ref name=":0" /> The death rate at the missions, particularly of children, was very high and the majority of children baptized did not survive childhood.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Guinn |first=James Miller |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xu81AQAAMAAJ |title=History of the State of California and Biographical Record to Oakland and Environs: Also Containing Biographies of Well-known Citizens of the Past and Present |date=1907 |publisher=Historic Record Company |pages=56–66 |language=en |type=Digitized eBook}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Hodge |first=Frederick Webb |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ueYNAAAAIAAJ |title=Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico |date=1910 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |language=en |type=Digitized eBook}}</ref> At [[Mission San Gabriel Arcángel|Mission San Gabriel]], for instance, three of four children died before reaching the age of two.<ref name=":17">{{Cite journal |last=Singleton |first=Heather Valdez |date=2004 |title=Surviving Urbanization: The Gabrieleno, 1850–1928 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1409498 |journal=Wíčazo Ša Review |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=49–59 |doi=10.1353/wic.2004.0026 |jstor=1409498 |s2cid=161847670}}</ref>

The high rate of death at the missions have been attributed to several factors, including disease, torture, overworking, malnourishment, and [[cultural genocide]].<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Pritzker |first=Barry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZxWJVc4ST0AC&pg=PA114 |title=A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |others=Barry Pritzker |isbn=0-19-513877-5 |location=Oxford |pages=114 |oclc=42683042}}</ref> Forcing native people into close quarters at the missions spread disease quickly. While being kept at the missions, native people were transitioned to a Spanish diet that left them more unable to ward off diseases, the most common being [[dysentery]], [[fever]]s with unknown causes, and [[venereal disease]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Agnew |first=Jeremy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JUXqCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA123 |publisher=McFarland  |title=Spanish Influence on the Old Southwest: A Collision of Cultures |date=2016 |isbn=978-0-7864-9740-9 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |pages=123 |oclc=917343410}}</ref>

The death rate has been compared to that of other atrocities. American author and lawyer [[Carey McWilliams (journalist)|Carey McWilliams]] argued that "the Franciscan padres eliminated Indians with the effectiveness of [[Nazism|Nazis]] operating [[concentration camps]]."<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Armbruster-Sandoval |first=Ralph |title=Starving for Justice: Hunger Strikes, Spectacular Speech, and the Struggle for Dignity |publisher=University of Arizona Press |year=2017 |isbn=9780816532582 |pages=58–59}}</ref> 
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! No.
! Name
! Baptisms and/or Indigenous population
! Deaths and/or remaining pop.
! Notes
|-
| 1
| [[Mission San Diego de Alcalá]]
| 6,638 baptisms total<ref name=":1" />
(2,685 children)<ref name=":2" />
| 4,428 deaths total<ref name=":1" />
| From 1810 to 1820, "the death rate among the neophytes was 77% of baptisms and 35% of the population." Only 34 families remained after the mission was secularized in 1833.<ref name=":2" />
|-
| 2
| [[Mission San Luis Rey de Francia]]
| 5,401 baptisms total (1,862 children)<ref name=":2" />
2,869 people in 1826<ref name=":1" />
|
|
|-
| 3
| [[Mission San Juan Capistrano]]
| 4,317 baptisms total (2,628 children)<ref name=":2" />
| 3,153 deaths total<ref name=":2" />
|
|-
| 4
| [[Mission San Gabriel Arcángel]]
| 7,854 baptisms total (2,459 children)<ref name=":1" />
1,701 people in 1817<ref name=":1" />
| 5,656 deaths total (2,916 children)<ref name=":1" />
1,320 people in 1834<ref name=":1" />
| A missionary reported that three out of four children died at the mission before reaching the age of 2.<ref name=":17" />
|-
| 5
| [[Mission San Fernando Rey de España]]
| 1,367 children baptized
1,080 people in 1819<ref name=":1" />
| 965 children died<ref name=":1" />
| "It was not strange that the fearful death rate both of children and adults at the missions sometimes frightened the neophytes into running away."<ref name=":1" />
|-
| 6
| [[Mission San Buenaventura]]
| 3,805 baptisms total (1,909 children)<ref name=":2" />
1,330 people in 1816<ref name=":1" />
| 626 people remaining in 1834<ref name=":2" />
| [[Hubert Howe Bancroft]] estimated that there were about 250 people in 1840 remaining from the mission living in scattered communities.<ref name=":2" />
|-
| 7
| [[Mission Santa Barbara]]
| 1,792 people in 1803<ref name=":1" />
| 556 people remaining in 1834<ref name=":1" />
| "At such a rate it would not, even if mission rule had continued, have taken more than a dozen years to depopulate the mission."<ref name=":1" />
|-
| 8
| [[Mission Santa Inés]]
| 757 children baptized
770 people in 1816<ref name=":1" />
| 519 children died
334 people remaining in 1834<ref name=":1" />
|
|-
| 9
| [[La Purisima Mission|Mission La Purísima Concepción]]
| 1,492 children baptized total
1,520 people in 1804<ref name=":1" />
| 902 children died
407 people in remaining in 1834<ref name=":1" />
|
|-
| 10
| [[Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa]]
| 2,608 baptisms total (1,331`children)
852 people in 1803<ref name=":1" />
| 264 people remaining in 1834<ref name=":1" />
|
|-
| 11
| [[Mission San Miguel Arcángel]]
| 2,588 baptisms total
1,076 people in 1814<ref name=":1" />
| 2,038 deaths total
599 people remaining in 1834<ref name=":1" />
| "The lowest death rate in any of the missions."<ref name=":1" />
|-
| 12
| [[Mission San Antonio de Padua]]
| 4,348 baptisms total (2,587 children)<ref name=":1" />
1,296 people in 1805<ref name=":1" />
| 567 people remaining in 1834<ref name=":1" />
|
|-
| 13
| [[Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad]]
| 2,222 baptisms total
725 people in 1805<ref name=":1" />
| 1,803 deaths total
300 people remaining<ref name=":1" />
|
|-
| 14
| [[Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo]]
| 971 people in 1794, 758 in 1800, 513 in 1810, 381 in 1820<ref name=":2" />
| 150 people remaining in 1834<ref name=":1" />
| "At the rate of decrease under mission rule, a few more years would have produced... the extinction of the mission Indian."<ref name=":1" />
|-
| 15
| [[Mission San Juan Bautista]]
| 1,248 people in 1823<ref name=":1" />
| 850 people remaining in 1834<ref name=":1" />
| "The only mission whose population increased from 1810 to 1820. This was due to the fact that its numbers were recruited from the eastern tribes."<ref name=":1" /> "The appalling smell from the graveyard saturated the entire Mission building."<ref name=":3" />
|-
| 16
| [[Mission Santa Cruz]]
| 2,466 baptisms total
644 people in 1798<ref name=":1" />
| 2,034 deaths total
250 people remaining in 1834<ref name=":1" />
|
|-
| 17
| [[Mission Santa Clara de Asís]]
| 7,711 baptisms (3,177 children)
927 people in 1790, 1,464 in 1827<ref name=":2" />
| 150 people remaining in 1834<ref name=":2" />
| Very sharp decline in the native population from 1827 to 1834. "The death rate at the mission was very high."<ref name=":2" />
|-
| 18
| [[Mission San José (California)|Mission San José]]
| 6,737 baptisms total
1,754 people in 1820<ref name=":1" />
| 5,109 deaths total<ref name=":1" />
|
|-
| 19
| [[Mission San Francisco de Asís]]
|
|880 deaths in 1806 alone<ref>{{Cite book |last=Coodley |first=Lauren |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/184842836 |title=Napa : the transformation of an American town |date=2007 |publisher=Arcadia |others=Paula Amen Schmitt |isbn=978-0-7385-2502-0 |edition= |location=Charleston, SC |pages=22 |oclc=184842836}}</ref>
| "An epidemic [in 1806] had broken out in the Mission Dolores and a number of the Indians were transferred to San Rafael to escape the plague."<ref name=":1" />
|-
| 20
| [[Mission San Rafael Arcángel]]
| 1,873 baptisms total
1,140 people in 1828<ref name=":1" />
| 698 deaths total
Less than 500 people remaining<ref name=":1" />
|
|-
| 21
| [[Mission San Francisco Solano]]
| 1,315 baptisms total
996 people in 1832<ref name=":1" />
| 651 deaths total
About 550 people remaining<ref name=":1" />
|
|}

=== Mission labor ===
At least 90,000 [[Indigenous peoples of California|Indigenous peoples]] were kept in well-guarded mission compounds throughout the state as ''de facto'' [[Slavery|slaves]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lorenzo Asisara (b. 1819) |url=https://www.learner.org/series/american-passages-a-literary-survey/slavery-and-freedom/lorenzo-asisara-b-1819/ |access-date=2023-01-09 |website=Annenberg Learner |language=en-US |quote=Between 1770 and 1834 over 90,000 California Indians (a third of the pre-contact population) were enslaved within the Franciscan missions.}}</ref> The policy of the Franciscans was to keep them constantly occupied. Bells were vitally important to daily life at any mission. The bells were rung at mealtimes, to call the Mission residents to work and to religious services, during births and funerals, to signal the approach of a ship or returning missionary, and at other times; novices were instructed in the intricate rituals associated with the ringing the mission bells. The daily routine began with sunrise [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]] and morning [[prayers]], followed by instruction of the natives in the teachings of the [[Roman Catholic]] faith. After a breakfast of ''[[atole]]'', the able-bodied men and women were assigned their tasks for the day. The women were committed to dressmaking, knitting, weaving, embroidering, laundering, and cooking, while some of the stronger girls ground flour or carried adobe bricks (weighing 55 [[Kilogram|lb]], or 25&nbsp;kg each) to the men engaged in building. The men worked a variety of jobs, having learned from the missionaries how to plow, sow, irrigate, cultivate, reap, thresh, and glean. They were taught to build adobe houses, tan leather hides, shear sheep, weave rugs and clothing from wool, make ropes, soap, paint, and other useful duties.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}

[[File:Spanish Morning Hymn.png|thumb|"''Ya Viene El Alba''" ("The Dawn Already Comes"), typical of the hymns sung at the missions.<ref>Engelhardt 1922, p. 30</ref>]]

The work day was six hours, interrupted by dinner (lunch) around 11:00&nbsp;a.m. and a two-hour ''siesta'', and ended with evening prayers and the [[rosary]], supper, and social activities. About 90 days out of each year were designated as religious or civil holidays, free from [[Manual labour|manual labor]]. The labor organization of the missions resembled a slave plantation in many respects.<ref>Bennett 1897b, p. 156</ref><ref group=notes>Bennett: "The system had singularly failed in its purposes. It was the design of the Spanish government to have the missions educate, elevate, civilize, the Indians into citizens. When this was done, citizenship should be extended them and the missions should be dissolved as having served their purpose...[instead] the priests returned them projects of conversion, schemes of faith, which they never comprehended...He [the Indian] became a slave; the mission was a plantation; the friar was a taskmaster."</ref> Foreigners who visited the missions remarked at how the priests' control over the Indians appeared excessive, but necessary given the white men's isolation and numeric disadvantage.<ref name="Bennett 1897b, p. 158">Bennett 1897b, p. 158</ref><ref group=notes>Bennett: "In 1825 [[Luís Antonio Argüello|Governor Argüello]] wrote that the slavery of the Indians at the missions was bestial...[[José Figueroa|Governor Figueroa]] declared that the missions were <nowiki>'</nowiki>entrenchments of monastic despotism<nowiki>'</nowiki>..."</ref> Subsequently, the Missions operated under strict and harsh conditions; A 'light' punishment would've been considered 25 lashings (azotes).<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/224684|doi = 10.1353/sex.2007.0070|title = Conjugal Violence, Sex, Sin, and Murder in the Mission Communities of Alta California|year = 2007|last1 = McCormack|first1 = Brian T.|journal = Journal of the History of Sexuality|volume = 16|issue = 3|pages = 391–415|pmid = 19256092|s2cid = 36532399}}</ref> Indians were not paid wages as they were not considered free laborers and, as a result, the missions were able to profit from the goods produced by the [[Mission Indians]] to the detriment of the other Spanish and Mexican settlers of the time who could not compete economically with the advantage of the mission system.<ref>Bennett 1897b, p. 160: "The fathers claimed all the land in California in trust for the Indians, yet the Indians received no visible benefit from the trust."</ref>

The Franciscans began to send neophytes to work as servants of Spanish soldiers in the [[presidio]]s. Each presidio was provided with land, el rancho del rey, which served as a pasture for the presidio livestock and as a source of food for the soldiers. Theoretically the soldiers were supposed to work on this land themselves but within a few years the neophytes were doing all the work on the presidio farm and, in addition, were serving domestics for the soldiers. While the fiction prevailed that neophytes were to receive wages for their work, no attempt was made to collect the wages for these services after 1790. It is recorded that the neophytes performed the work "under unmitigated compulsion."<ref name="cogweb.ucla.edu"/>

In recent years, much debate has arisen about the priests' treatment of the Indians during the Mission period, and many believe that the California mission system is directly responsible for the decline of the native cultures.<ref name="Bennett 1897b, p. 158"/><ref group=notes>Bennett: "It cannot be said that the mission system made the Indians more able to sustain themselves in civilization than it had found them...Upon the whole it may be said that this mission experiment was a failure."</ref> From the perspective of the Spanish priest, their efforts were a well-meaning attempt to improve the lives of the heathen natives.<ref>Lippy, p. 47</ref><ref group=notes>Lippy: "A matter of debate in reflecting on the role of Spanish missions concerns the degree to which the Spanish colonial regimes regarded the work of the priests as a legitimate religious enterprise and the degree to which it was viewed as a 'frontier institution,' part of a colonial defense program. That is, were Spanish motives based on a desire to promote conversion or on a desire to have religious missions serve as a buffer to protect the main colonial settlements and an aid in controlling the Indians?"</ref><ref name="Bennett 1897a, p. 10"/><ref group=notes>Bennett: The missions in effect served as "...the [[citadel]]s of the theocracy which was planted in California by Spain, under which its wild inhabitants were subjected, which stood as their guardians, civil and religious, and whose duty it was to elevate them and make them acceptable as citizens and Spanish subjects...it remained for the Spanish priests to undertake to preserve the Indian and seek to make his existence compatible with higher civilization."</ref>

{{blockquote|The missionaries of California were by-and-large well-meaning, devoted men...[whose] attitudes toward the Indians ranged from genuine (if paternalistic) affection to wrathful disgust. They were ill-equipped—nor did most truly desire—to understand complex and radically different Native American customs. Using European standards, they condemned the Indians for living in a "wilderness," for worshipping false gods or no God at all, and for having no written laws, standing armies, forts, or churches.<ref>Paddison, p. xiv</ref>}}

===Franciscan violence against the native population===
The Franciscan arrival to Alta California came with a wave of torture, rape, and murder towards the native population of California.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}} Native Californians, attracted to the Missions by the promise of food and gifts,{{citation needed|date=July 2023}} were forcibly prevented from leaving. Any who attempted to escape was usually given a severe beating and put in shackles. Any form of Native rebellion was met with force due to numerical disadvantage facing the Franciscans.<ref name=guardian2015/>

When Native Women attempted to abort their unborn children – which they had conceived as a byproduct of rape, the Friars would have them beaten, chained in iron, shaved, and stipulated to stand in-front of the altar each mass with a decorated wooden newborn.<ref name=guardian2015>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/23/pope-francis-junipero-serra-sainthood-washington-california|title=Junípero Serra's brutal story in spotlight as pope prepares for canonisation|website=[[TheGuardian.com]]|date=23 September 2015}}</ref>

This trend of violence was due to the Franciscans' desire for a greater Hispanicized population in Alta California, both for protection against a foreign invasion and for a labor force to benefit the Spanish Empire. As a result, a higher emphasis of Native reproduction was a duty taken on by the Spanish Fransicans. Tejana born feminist historian Antonia Castañeda wrote about the treatment that would occur in Mission Santa Cruz:<ref name="Engendering the History of Alta California, 1769–1848: Gender, Sexuality, and the Family">{{Cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25161668.pdf|jstor=25161668|last1=Castañeda|first1=Antonia I.|title=Engendering the History of Alta California, 1769–1848: Gender, Sexuality, and the Family|journal=California History|year=1997|volume=76|issue=2/3|pages=230–259|doi=10.2307/25161668}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|Father Olbes at Mission Santa Cruz ordered an infertile couple to have sexual intercourse in his presence because he did not believe they could not have children. The couple refused, but Olbes forcibly inspected the man's penis to learn 'whether or not it was in good order' and tried to inspect the woman's genitalia. She refused, fought with him, and tried to bite him. Olbes ordered that she be tied by the hands, and given fifty lashes, shackled, and locked up in the ''monjerío'' (women's dormitory). He then had a monigote made and commanded that she "treat the doll as though it were a child and carry it in the presence of everyone for nine days." While the woman was beaten and her sexuality demeaned, the husband, who had been intimate with another woman, was ridiculed and humiliated. A set of cow horns was tied to his head with leather thongs, thereby converting him into a cuckold, and he was herded to daily Mass in cow horns and fetters.}}

Franciscan Priests would also forbid any form of native culture in the Mission system. This would include but not be limited to, songs, dances, and ceremonies. They objectified the destruction of any form of morality, ideology or personality that characterized the Native life.
Women, in particular, would face a higher degree of punishment. Those who did not comply with the Missions demands would be labeled a witch, dehumanizing them for further violence.

University of Chicago Professor Ramon Guttiriez wrote:<ref name="Engendering the History of Alta California, 1769–1848: Gender, Sexuality, and the Family"/>{{rp|701}}

{{Blockquote|One can interpret the whole history of the persecution of Indian women as witches ... as a struggle over [these] competing ways of defining the body and of regulating procreation as the church endeavored to constrain the expression of desire within boundaries that clerics defined proper and acceptable.}}

=== Mission industries ===

[[File:Mission San Juan Capistrano 4-5-05 100 6559.JPG|thumb|A view of the [[Catalan forge]]s at Mission San Juan Capistrano, the oldest existing facilities (''circa'' 1790s) of their kind in the State of California. The sign at the lower right-hand corner proclaims the site as being "...part of Orange County's first industrial complex."]]

The goal of the missions was, above all, to become self-sufficient in relatively short order. Farming, therefore, was the most important [[Industry (economics)|industry]] of any mission. Barley, [[maize]], and wheat were among the most common crops grown. Cereal grains were dried and ground by stone into flour. Even today, California is well known for the abundance and many varieties of fruit trees that are cultivated throughout the state. The only fruits indigenous to the region, however, consisted of wild berries or grew on small bushes. Spanish [[missionary|missionaries]] brought fruit seeds over from Europe, many of which had been introduced from Asia following earlier expeditions to the continent; orange, grape, apple, peach, pear, and fig seeds were among the most prolific of the imports. Grapes were also grown and [[fermentation (food)|fermented]] into wine for [[sacrament]]al use and again, for trading. The specific variety, called the ''Criolla'' or ''[[Mission (grape)|Mission grape]]'', was first planted at Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1779; in 1783, the first wine produced in Alta California emerged from the mission's winery. [[Ranch#Spanish North America|Ranching]] also became an important mission industry as cattle and sheep herds were raised.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}

Mission San Gabriel Arcángel unknowingly witnessed the origin of the California citrus industry with the planting of the region's first significant orchard in 1804, though the commercial potential of citrus was not realized until 1841.<ref>A. Thompson, p. 341</ref> Olives (first cultivated at Mission San Diego de Alcalá) were grown, cured, and pressed under large stone wheels to extract their oil, both for use at the mission and to trade for other goods. The Rev. Serra set aside a portion of the Mission Carmel gardens in 1774 for tobacco plants, a practice that soon spread throughout the mission system.<ref>Bean and Lawson, p. 37</ref><ref group=notes>Bean: "Serra's decision to plant tobacco at the missions was prompted by the fact that from San Diego to Monterey the natives invariably begged him for Spanish tobacco."</ref>

It was also the missions' responsibility to provide the Spanish forts, or ''presidios'', with the necessary foodstuffs, and manufactured goods to sustain operations. It was a constant point of contention between missionaries and the soldiers as to how many ''fanegas''<ref>A ''fanega'' is equal to 100 [[Pound (mass)|pounds]].</ref> of barley, or how many shirts or blankets the mission had to provide the garrisons on any given year. At times these requirements were hard to meet, especially during years of drought, or when the much anticipated shipments from the port of [[San Blas, Nayarit|San Blas]] failed to arrive. The Spaniards kept meticulous records of mission activities, and each year reports submitted to the Father-Presidente summarizing both the material and spiritual status at each of the settlements.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}

[[File:Primitive plow.jpg|thumb|Natives using a primitive [[plough|plow]] to prepare a field for planting near Mission San Diego de Alcalá.]]

Livestock was raised, not only for the purpose of obtaining meat, but also for wool, leather, and tallow, and for cultivating the land. In 1832, at the height of their prosperity, the missions collectively owned:<ref>Krell, p. 316: As of December 31, 1832.</ref>
* 151,180 head of cattle;
* 137,969 sheep;
* 14,522 horses;
* 1,575 mules or burros;
* 1,711 goats; and
* 1,164 swine.

All these grazing animals were originally brought up from Mexico. A great many Indians were required to guard the herds and flocks on the [[Ranch#Spanish North America|mission ranches]], which created the need for "...a class of horsemen scarcely surpassed anywhere."<ref name="engelhardtMAM3-18">Engelhardt 1908, pp. 3–18</ref> These animals multiplied beyond the settler's expectations, often overrunning pastures and extending well-beyond the domains of the missions. The giant herds of horses and cows took well to the climate and the extensive pastures of the Coastal California region, but at a heavy price for the California Native American people. The uncontrolled spread of these new herds, and associated [[Invasive species|invasive exotic plant species]], quickly exhausted the [[California native plants|native plants]] in the grasslands,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cnga.org/|title=California Native Grasslands Association – Home|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090828124501/http://www.cnga.org/|archive-date=2009-08-28}}</ref> and the [[California chaparral and woodlands|chaparral and woodlands]] that the Indians depended on for their seed, foliage, and bulb harvests. The grazing-[[overgrazing]] problems were also recognized by the Spaniards, who periodically had extermination parties cull and kill thousands of excess livestock, when herd populations grew beyond their control or the land's capacity. Years with a severe drought did this also.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}

Mission kitchens and [[bakery|bakeries]] prepared and served thousands of meals each day. Candles, soap, grease, and ointments were all made from [[tallow]] ([[kitchen rendering|rendered]] animal fat) in large vats located just outside the west wing. Also situated in this general area were vats for dyeing wool and [[Tanning (leather)|tanning]] leather, and primitive looms for weaving. Large ''bodegas'' (warehouses) provided long-term storage for preserved foodstuffs and other treated materials.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}

[[File:Mission sb lavanderia.jpg|left|thumb|Mission Santa Barbara's ''lavandería'' was constructed by [[Chumash (tribe)|Chumash]] neophytes around 1806.]]

Each mission had to fabricate virtually all of its construction materials from local materials. Workers in the ''carpintería'' (carpentry shop) used crude methods to shape beams, lintels, and other structural elements; more skilled artisans carved doors, furniture, and wooden implements. For certain applications bricks (''ladrillos'') were fired in ovens ([[kilns]]) to strengthen them and make them more resistant to the elements; when ''tejas'' (roof tiles) eventually replaced the conventional ''jacal'' roofing (densely packed reeds) they were placed in the kilns to harden them as well. Glazed ceramic pots, dishes, and canisters were also made in mission kilns.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}

Prior to the establishment of the missions, the native peoples knew only how to use bone, seashells, stone, and wood for building, tool making, weapons, and so forth. The missionaries established manual training in European skills and methods; in agriculture, mechanical arts, and the raising and care of livestock. Everything consumed and otherwise used by the natives was produced at the missions under the supervision of the padres; thus, the neophytes not only supported themselves, but after 1811 sustained the entire military and civil government of California.<ref>Engelhardt 1922, p. 211</ref> The [[foundry]] at Mission San Juan Capistrano was the first to introduce the Indians to the [[Iron Age]]. The [[blacksmith]] used the mission's [[bloomery|forges]] (California's first) to [[smelting|smelt]] and fashion iron into everything from basic tools and hardware (such as nails) to crosses, gates, hinges, even cannon for mission defense. Iron in particular was a commodity that the mission acquired solely through trade, as there was no mining infrastructure or industry in the region.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Melendez |first=David |date=2021-12-20 |title=Missionaries and Borderlands: "The Mission Play" and Missionary Practices in Alta California |url=https://czasopisma.ispan.pl/index.php/pt/article/view/982 |journal=Pamiętnik Teatralny |volume=70 |issue=4 |pages=61–78 |doi=10.36744/pt.982 |issn=2658-2899|doi-access=free }}</ref>

No study of the missions is complete without mention of their extensive [[water supply]] systems. Stone ''zanjas'' ([[aqueduct (watercourse)|aqueducts]], sometimes spanning miles, brought fresh water from a nearby river or spring to the mission site. Open or covered lined ditches and/or baked clay pipes, joined with [[lime mortar]] or [[bitumen]], gravity-fed the water into large [[cistern]]s and fountains, and emptied into waterways where the force of the water was used to turn grinding wheels and other simple machinery, or dispensed for use in cleaning. Water used for drinking and cooking was allowed to trickle through alternate layers of sand and charcoal to remove the impurities. One of the best-preserved mission water systems is at Mission Santa Barbara.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/gov/depts/parksrec/parks/features/views/missionhistorical.asp|title=Santa Barbara – Mission Historical Park|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170905094801/http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/gov/depts/parksrec/parks/features/views/missionhistorical.asp|archive-date=2017-09-05}}</ref>