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Reply of Mission San Gabriel to the Questionnaire of the Spanish Government in 1812 Concerning the Native Culture of the California Mission Indians*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Maynard Geiger*
Affiliation:
Old mission, Santa Barbara, California

Abstract

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Type
Documents
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1955

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Footnotes

*

The original text of the Questionnaire, with its English translation, and the Reply of Mission San Diego were published in THE AMERICAS, V (April, 1949), 474–490; the Reply of Mission San Carlos Borromeo appeared in VI (April, 1950), 467–486, and that of Mission San Antonio in X (October, 1953), 211–227.

References

1 Los Angeles, or El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles de Porciúncula, founded in the last days of December, 1781, according to Palóu, , Vida, 243 Google Scholar. Bancroft, , History of California, I, 345, gives Sept. 4, 1781 Google Scholar, as the date of founding. Engelhardt, , Mission San Gabriel, (San Gabriel, 1927), 4654, and 341346 Google Scholar, discusses the question fully and agrees with Palóu.

2 These ranchos were San Pedro (Juan José Domínguez), San Rafael (José María Verdugo), and Los Nietos (Manuel Nieto), granted by Governor Pedro Fages in 1784, and possibly Portezuelo (Mariano Verdugo) though this latter may have already been abandoned by the time these respuestas were written. Robinson, W. W. describes these ranchos and gives their history in Ranchos Become Cities (Pasadena, 1939), 961 Google Scholar, and in Land of California (Berkeley, 1948), 4552.Google ScholarPubMed

3 The name of this rancho remains undisclosed. Rancho San Bernardino far to the east was not yet established when this report was made.

4 The original settlers, forty-six in all, had “a strange mixture of Indian and negro [blood] with here and there a trace of Spanish.” Bancroft, , op. cit., 345 Google Scholar. The roster of names and castes are given ibid., note 21.

5 The Gabrieleño Indian belonged to the Shoshonean and even the larger Uto-Aztekan family, which extended from Panama to Montana. “The lowly desert tribes and simple-minded folk of the southern coast are seen in a new light as kinsmen, however remote, of the famous Aztecs; and an unexpected glimpse of a vista of history opens up before the concrete fact that the sites of the cities of Los Angeles and Mexico were in the hands of people whose affinity is certain.” Kroeber, , Handbook of the Indians of California (Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin 78. Wash., D. C., 1925), 575 Google Scholar. For the setting of the Gabrieleño in the entire picture see full text, pp. 574–580, maps on pp. 576, 578, and 579, and diagram of tribes, 577. Gabrieleño village sites may be seen on separate map, plate 57. For further details on the Gabrieleño group and village sites, see Kroeber, , Shoshonean Dialects of California (University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology [Febr. 1907]), pp. 140144.Google Scholar

6 Bancroft, , op. cit., 345.Google Scholar

7 Kroeber states these four dialects can be partially identified. Simbanga was the name for the site of San Gabriel itself. Guiquitamcar (for Gikidan-um, a variant of Gitanemuk) was used along the upper Tejon Creek. Corbonamga may possibly have been Cucumonga. The Kokomcar are unknown. A Mission Record of the California Indian, in University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology (Berkeley, May 28, 1908), p. 11 Google Scholar. A list of the rancherias dependent on San Gabriel, as contained in the mission registers, may be found in Engelhardt, Mission San Gabriel, p. 356 Google Scholar. Mentioned in Sibanga.

8 Los Angeles County, despite its great metropolitan area, is still the richest agricultural county in the United States.

9 A Latin technical expression for “the common conjugal life,” as used by writers on moral theology.

10 By the end of Dec. 1813, 1313 Christian marriages had been performed at the mission. Engelhardt, , op. cit., p. 268.Google Scholar

11 In 1813, the mission harvested 5000 fanegas of wheat, in 1814, 3400 fanegas of corn, in 1813 and 1814 respectively, 60 and 131 fanegas of beans. In 1813, the mission possessed 13,000 head of cattle. Ibid., pp. 275 and 278.Google Scholar

12 A year after these respuestas were written, Zalvidea wrote to José de la Guerra at Santa Barbara: This year there are no pears but there is wine.” Ibid., p. 94 Google Scholar. Already in 1773, Serra noted that various kinds of vegetables, melons and watermelons had abounded. Ibid., p. 15 Google Scholar. Robinson in 1829 stated: “There are several extensive gardens attached to this Mission, where may be found oranges, citrons, limes, apples, pears, peaches, pomegranates, figs, and grapes in abundance.” Life in California (edit, of 1891), p. 45.Google Scholar

13 This reference of the captain general most probably refers to the deity Ouiot or Wijot. Kroeber, , A Mission Record, etc., p. 12.Google Scholar

14 It is probable that cremation was the usual practice in premission days.” Ibid.Google Scholar

15 This was a universal custom among the California Indians. Ibid.

16 Even when provided for, it appears the Indians appreciated this little. “The Indian generally resorts to gambling in which he indulges to the most criminal excess, frequently losing all he possesses in the world—his clothes, beads, baubles of all kinds, even his wife and children!” Robinson, , op. cit., p. 45.Google Scholar

17 According to Kroeber, many such have been unearthed in archaeological explorations in southern California. The wooden fife is the open-mouthed flute made by all the Indians of California. A Mission Record, p. 12.Google Scholar

18 “The solemn music of the Mass was well selected, and the Indian voices accorded harmoniously with the flutes and violins that accompanied them. On retiring from the church, the musicians stationed themselves at a private door of the building, whence issued the reverend father, whom they escorted with music to his quarters; there they remained for a half hour, performing waltzes and marches, when some trifling present was distributed among them, when they returned to their homes.” Robinson, , op. cit., p. 45.Google Scholar

19 Death, judgment, heaven and hell.

20 The number of sheep on Mission San Gabriel Mission lands were 11,000 at the end of 1813. Engelhardt, , op. cit., p. 279 Google Scholar. About 1792, Antonio Domingo Henriquez with his wife were at San Gabriel to teach the making of spinning wheels, warping frames, looms, in fact all the tools the weavers needed excepting the implement for carding. He also taught carding, spinning and weaving. Ibid., p. 60.Google Scholar