Media Fr. Luis Jaime Feast of Corpus Christi Mission San Diego Fr. Junipero Serra Indians Mission San Diego Indios Map Map Map Evening Prayer Alabado

One of the major controversies surrounding the Spanish colonization of the Southwest is that of the treatment of the native Americans. A wide range of historians and anthropologists as well as Indian activists agree that the mission system throughout the Southwest, whatever its rationale at the time, resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of native Americans. The missions system in California was perhaps the most intrusive of all. In California the twenty one missions significantly disrupted native American economy and life-style, although, it is important to emphasize that only about one tenth of all the natives in California were missionized. The population decline in California, due to concentrating the natives and exposing them to new diseases and depriving them of their traditional foods can only be estimated. In California the missions grew to include about 20,000 neophytes at their peak. The mission annals in the period 1769-1834 recorded 62,600 deaths but only 29,100 births. There were periodic neophyte rebellions and thousands of Indians ran away to escape the harsh treatment and near starvation rations given them by the priests. Armed expeditions sent out in pursuit rounded up additional candidates to repopulate the missions. But many natives who were not in the missions died from diseases such as syphilis and influenza. The total California native population declined by more than 100,000 during the Spanish and Mexican eras and most of the decline was because of the influence of the missions.