Indigenous Landscapes and Spanish Missions: New Perspectives from Archaeology and Ethnohistory

8. Depriving God and the King of the Means of Charity: Early Nineteenth-Century Missionaries’ Views of Cattle Ranchers near Mission La Purísima, California

135 8 Depriving God and the King of the Means of Charity Early Nineteenth-Century Missionaries’ Views of Cattle Ranchers near Mission La Purísima, California Glenn J. Farris This chapter focuses on the importance of the mission hinterlands as a source of foodstuffs for both the Indians who remained in their villages (rancherias) and those who actually took up residence in the missions. The subject matter resonates with the case study provided in chapter 6 of this volume, relative to an understanding of the Native landscapes and the Spanish frontier as found in South Texas, and more particularly in chapter 10 of this volume, which discusses how landscapes and cultural practices are mutually constituted. An important difference was that the Indians of New Mexico were already an agricultural people, whereas those in the vicinity of La Purísima followed traditions of hunting and gathering. The anthropological literature is filled with discussions about the relative strengths and weaknesses of these two forms of food production, often pointing out how agriculturalists must work longer and harder than hunter-gatherers and are subject to greater danger from crop failure due to a limited range of cultivars (Cohen 1977:27). In addition, the potential advantages to the mission Indians of realizing larger harvests through agriculture did not translate into more food available to them since much of the grain and vegetable harvest was sold to visiting merchants (mainly the Russian American Company), and the animals raised were often butchered for their salable hides and tallow (and sold to American ship captains). It could also be argued that the surplus accrued through agriculture brings with it more stratified societies whose leaders are able to arrogate these surpluses to their own benefit, often expressed in ostentatious building 136 Outside the Mission Walls and external trappings. Even though the Franciscan priests were supposed to maintain a somewhat ascetic life-style and live a life of poverty, the mission buildings and expensive religious garments and church decorations swallowed up a sizable amount of the income from the sale of the Indians’ food production. At least forty-nine Indian villages or rancherias were associated with Mission La Purísima Concepción (Engelhardt 1932:128), some forty miles north of Mission Santa Bárbara (figure 8.1). These villages were spread out upon the land, well placed to be able to conveniently gather and hunt the native plants and animals, a process that had been refined by the local Chumash Indians over a period of many thousands of years before the arrival of the Franciscan fathers. The sizes of the Chumash communities were notably large for California , indicating a successful adaptation to the land and its products. Analyzing mission records, John Johnson developed a map showing the approximate sizes of many of these villages, ranging from fewer than twenty individuals to up to 350 (Johnson and Houghtaling 2004:14). As part of their missionizing effort, the Franciscans established themselves on the site of the Native village of Algsacupi on December 8, 1787, and began Figure 8.1. Map of La Purísima region. Image originally appeared in Farris (1999). Depriving God and the King of Charity 137 proselytizing the local people (Engelhardt 1932:6). The priests early realized the importance of luring the Indians into the mission by demonstrating a reliable food source. Fray Francisco Palóu noted in 1773 that relatively few Indians had been baptized: The reason for the indifference of the Indians . . . could be traced to the fact that they could gather an abundance of wild seeds and berries, that the chase yielded sufficient venison, and that the seashore gave plenty of fish. On this account . . . it would not be easy to induce these roving Indians to live at the Mission. Furthermore, inasmuch as their habitations consisted only of tules and mats, when the seeds and wild fruits ceased to be plentiful in one place, they simply moved to another locality, where it required little time to construct their huts. (qtd. in Engelhardt 1963 [1933]:22) Once the priests were able to demonstrate that they could provide food, the number of people willing to come to live at the missions increased. However , it rapidly became evident that the productivity of the introduced cultivars was not reliably sufficient to provide for the new converts and that some access to their traditional foods needed to be accommodated. It was in light of this concern that when...