Editing Ventura County, California (section)

===Mexican period===
[[File:Fernando Librado Portrait Chumash.jpg|thumb|[[Chumash people|Chumash]] [[North American Indigenous elder|elder]] and master builder [[Fernando Librado]], or Kitsepawit, was born at [[Mission San Buenaventura]] during the Mexican period.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Johnson |first=John R. |date=1982 |title=The Trail to Fernando |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1j17p1td |journal=Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology |volume=4 |pages=132–37}}</ref>]]
In 1822, California was notified of Mexico's [[Mexican War of Independence|independence from Spain]] and the [[List of pre-statehood governors of California|Governor of California]], the Junta, the military in Monterey and the priests and [[Catholic novitiate|neophytes]] at Mission San Buenaventura swore allegiance to Mexico on April 11, 1822. California land that had been vested in the King of Spain was now owned by the nation of Mexico.

By the 1830s, Mission San Buenaventura was in a decline with fewer neophytes joining the mission. The number of cattle owned by the mission dropped from first to fifteenth ranking in the California Missions.<ref>Murphy, ''A Comprehensive Story of Ventura County, California,'' p. 11.</ref> The missions [[Mexican secularization act of 1833|were secularized by the Mexican government in 1834]]. The [[List of pre-statehood governors of California|Mexican governors]] began granting land rights to Mexican Californians, often retiring soldiers. By 1846, there were 19 rancho grants in Ventura County.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.venturacogensoc.org/SpanGrants.htm|title=Ventura County Spanish and Mexican Land Grants|access-date=May 26, 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828182002/http://www.venturacogensoc.org/SpanGrants.htm|archive-date=August 28, 2008}}</ref> In 1836, Mission San Buenaventura was transferred from the Church to a secular administrator. The natives who had been working at the mission gradually left to work on the ranchos. By 1839, only 300 Indians were left at the Mission and it slipped into neglect.<ref>Murphy, ''A Comprehensive Story of Ventura County, California,'' p. 12.</ref>

Several outhouses dating back to the 1800s were discovered in July 2007, at a site that had been cleared to prepare for development. The area proved to be a treasure trove for archaeologists who braved the lingering smell in the dirt to uncover artifacts that showed heavy utilization by mission inhabitants, Indians, early settlers and Spanish and Mexican soldiers.<ref>{{cite news |last=Clerici |first=Kevin |url=http://www.vcstar.com/news/2007/jul/17/venturas-own-ruins-of-pompeii-unearthed-are-at |title=Artifacts are found at site |newspaper=[[Ventura County Star]] |date=July 17, 2007 |archive-date=December 3, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203074713/http://www.vcstar.com/news/2007/jul/17/venturas-own-ruins-of-pompeii-unearthed-are-at/}}</ref>