The Effect of Spanish Colonization on California Indians
This paper will discuss the impact Spanish colonization and Mexican control had on the indigenous Indian population in California between 1769 and 1848. As well as discussing the historical origins, social organizations, material conditions, and world-view of the California Indians prior to 1769, this paper will explain the impact of New Spain’s Mission System on the Alta California Indian population between 1769 to 1821 and the response of its system by the Indians.
Before the Americans and the Spanish there were many indigenous Indian tribes living and thriving with structure and culture in California. The Paleo-Indians were the first people who entered and inhabited the American continent from Asia during the late Pleistocene period (2 million years to 12,000 years ago). This period was known as the Ice Age. Evidence suggests hunters crossed the Bering Strait from Asia into North America over a land bridge and traveled well into the west coast of California hunting big game carnivores.
After the Ice Age, the Indians found themselves in a environment rich in natural resources where wildlife was abundant, the climate was temperate, and had all the advantages for fishing and gathering shellfish with rivers and a bay close by. Having no metal tools and having a technology base of being very primitive, the California Indians relied and had a vast knowledge of living with basic natural resources passed down generation after generation from their ancestors. According to James Rawls, California Indians believed that all of nature was interconnected and was suffused with a sacred power. Killing an animal, drinking from a spring, or entering a cave was to be accompanied by a ritual act. They managed their land with the upmost respect and never wasting their resources. We now know that the California Indians practiced burning of ground cover to replenish the soil of minerals, as well as pruning plants and trees. This is a perfect example of exploiting their land to yield
Before the Americans and the Spanish there were many indigenous Indian tribes living and thriving with structure and culture in California. The Paleo-Indians were the first people who entered and inhabited the American continent from Asia during the late Pleistocene period (2 million years to 12,000 years ago). This period was known as the Ice Age. Evidence suggests hunters crossed the Bering Strait from Asia into North America over a land bridge and traveled well into the west coast of California hunting big game carnivores.
After the Ice Age, the Indians found themselves in a environment rich in natural resources where wildlife was abundant, the climate was temperate, and had all the advantages for fishing and gathering shellfish with rivers and a bay close by. Having no metal tools and having a technology base of being very primitive, the California Indians relied and had a vast knowledge of living with basic natural resources passed down generation after generation from their ancestors. According to James Rawls, California Indians believed that all of nature was interconnected and was suffused with a sacred power. Killing an animal, drinking from a spring, or entering a cave was to be accompanied by a ritual act. They managed their land with the upmost respect and never wasting their resources. We now know that the California Indians practiced burning of ground cover to replenish the soil of minerals, as well as pruning plants and trees. This is a perfect example of exploiting their land to yield