History, Truth, and Politics: the record on Father Junipero Serra

Only you Catholics would fall for this sham of “history”.

First of all, I'm not a Catholic. Second, the history the article talks about is a small part of the total history you cite, particularly in South America.

For the most part, the first missionaries to Upper California were exemplary men given their cultural blindness insofar as appreciating Indians and particularly Indian land management was concerned. The padres were put in a very hard place, to satisfy the imperial desires of the military in keeping the Russians and English from settling the area while simultaneously preparing the Indians for relative autonomy under colonial rule, at least that was the missionary goal. The latter didn't go so well, for lots of reasons, the worst of which was the sexual abuse of Indian women by Spanish soldiers that transmitted syphilis, which was probably the critical cause of demographic collapse among Indians in California. Unlike many researchers on the topic, I believe there is little indication of a pre-colonial smallpox pandemic in California, for lots of reasons I don't have time for here.

My point in saying this is that although the Spanish colonization was catastrophic for the Indians, in no way did the mission system itself intend a genocide, which is what your understandably bitter post suggests. For truly murderous intent toward California Indians, you are better off flinging the "genocide" charge against Americans.

BTW, I assume you know Yurok is a part of the Algic language super-family (or "phylum"). Do you know any lore about how such a small isolate of that linguistic group was established in California when most Algonquins are found in eastern North America?

“I’ve seen estimate of up to 70 million but the number vary but no matter , the end tally is way more that 6 million.”

This reminds me of those bemoaning the billions of blacks lynched by the Klan; completely unrealisitic. We now know that the Americas weren’t populated with masses of natives from coast to coast; due to their limited technology they couldn’t feed large populations. Some of the ruins in Latin America were abandoned before a European ever set foot there.

When you speak of the many Indians killed by "arms and disease" you are not speaking of Serra's missions. And your reference to Hitler crudely suggests a genocide policy, which is the opposite of what the Franciscan Missions were to the native Californians.

The Californians' vulnerability to European diseases was a bio-tragedy, not policy. In many parts of this Hemisphere, diseases spread faster than Spaniards: in other words, once the disease was introduced into the Amerindian population at the coast, it spread inland like wildfire, years before the Spanish set foot in the interior. It was no more a "genocide" (a policy of extermination) than was the Black Plague in 14th century Europe. The only place the Indians could get treatment --- inadequate as it was at the time --- was in the missions. That was one reason why so many willingly came to the missions.

As for arms, the Franciscans were firmly opposed to the policies of the Spanish military in the presidios, who wanted to round up Indians as slave or serf-labor for the haciendas. A further reason why native Californians came to the missions willingly, was because they were sanctuaries against abduction by slave-catchers and the military.

One of the reasons I am glad for Serra's canonization is that the historians will have a chance to win out against the Left-wing propagandists.

I see.

You know, over the last eight to ten years, I have invested considerably in re-establishing a 21st Century pastoral semi nomadic cohort, principally for purposes of land and resource management but also for national security, disaster preparedness, and a way to both create lasting careers with which to support families and deal with the coming displacements of increasingly capable automation. Needless to say, that research dovetails considerably with the historic interests and cultural predispositions of Indian tribes.

So to see you dwell with such bitterness and at least distorted impressions by emphasis upon events from 400 years ago appears to throw up a barrier to any degree of rational reconciliation, redress, and restoration of the connection with the land that animated Indian people for millennia.

Drop the bile. It's not good for you. It doesn't build a future or buy much of anything. It alienates those who would invest in a richer and more productive planet both for people and for wildlife.

I’m a bit out of touch because a colleague and close friend of 35 years just died, but I do have time to relate to those interested, a perhaps indicative book in which a US Army officer’s choice tells us much about the Indian culture.

When faced with where to have his child spend the summer while he was away, he chose the local Indian community, not the white community. The boy’s recollections were taken just before the boy’s death and are available on Amazon.

I think the title was Indian Summer. Carry-Okie can tell you the details, as I learned of them from him.

For those who believe the recent ‘history’ taught in the Pooblic Skrewl Collectives, might I suggest a Google search of “revanchist history”.

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