Evaluation
The sixteen sources compiled during the first stage of the project represent a vast array of facts, ideas, and viewpoints. Each member of the research team was asked to evaluate a portion of the sources based on the analysis criteria provided. These sources were divided into four categories: textbooks, teacher's aides, supplements, and documentary films. Using an inductive reasoning approach, it was discovered that the older sources tend to be less complete in presenting the California Mission saga, and in some cases, subjective, while the newer sources are more historically accurate. This trend is categorically understandable, though not justifiable. The California Missions curriculum seems to be headed in a more positive direction.
Summary
When analyzing, five questions are kept in mind:
1. How do the sources depict the Mission?
2. How are the Indians portrayed?
3. How are the Priests presented?
4. What kinds of information are kids learning?
5. What is missing?
1. How do the sources depict the Mission?
They were seen as prideful monuments of zeal and energy. Some of the textbooks depicted the missions in a manner which gave the impression that all of their exploits were of the best intention. Generally, the missions are evaluate as Architecturally impressive
2. How are the Indians portrayed?
Many books portrayed the Indians in a good light when they joined the missions, and the Indians who neglected to join were the bad guys. Often, the Indians were describes as bandits attacking the Mission without cause. The older textbooks, however, said that the Indians liked the priests and were happy to work on the missions.
3. How are the Priests presented?
The friars were seen as "beloved apostles." Some of the sources deifies Fr. Serra as a saint. The movie sculpted a serene, noble setting every time one of the priests were shown through the help of music.
4. What kinds of information are kids learning?
Some sources portrays the Missions as centers of Spanish brutality and extremism. It seems as though kids are generally taught the good intensions of the mission system, while anything outside of this is neglected in the literature. According to Five Years: An Ethnic Historic Site Survey for California, mission life for Indians was characterized by disease, terrible living conditions, and inadequate nutrition.
5. What is missing?
Missing information includes social Impact that the friars had on the Indians. Also, the Fact Cards say nothing about the food shortages at the missions or the Spanish soldiers' cruelty towards the Indians. In the newer textbooks, they actually did a good job of depicting Indian life on a mission. They are still missing the link between the harsh life of the Indians, and the priests who put them there.
2. California Adventures in Time and Place
This fourth-grade student and teacher text book presents the California Missions in a fair and honest historical light. The history and objective of the missions is first presented, referencing the faith of the padres, including Serra, while explaining the cruelty of the missions and the padres being partially due to overzealousness and extremity. The authors focus a great deal on the role and life of the Indians in the missions. It is explained how most of the Indians were coaxed and bribed into the missions or kidnapped and held under lock against their will, even though some Indians did come to the missions out of faith. The cruelties of the padres and the soldiers are portrayed through accounts of the Indians who experienced them. Examples of beatings, punishments, and deaths due to European diseases are included, along with descriptions of the daily life of the Indians and their role in building and physically sustaining the missions. The missions are not portrayed as a source of California pride, they are merely presented in a historical sense; however, the influence of the missions in later history is explained, as for example, in the case of the missions style architecture. This is an honest, well-balanced source of history and perspective for learning about the California missions for both students and teachers.
5. California: People of the Region
This book is a textbook, and like the other textbook, the chapters on the missions and the mission system do a fairly good job dealing with mission life. Like the other textbook, there is a great deal of California pride in this book. It talks about the missions as being structural wonders that will bring Christianity and civilization to the Indians.
This textbook also gave a fairly accurate portrayal of the Indian's poor situation in the mission system. It said that the Indians were not paid. They could not what they grew or made. They could not start their own farms or shops. Many did not like life on the missions. It then goes on to talk about how many of the Indians died on the mission, and if the Indians broke the rules set upon them by the priests, or if they ran away, they would be beaten and chained. So this textbook essentially teaches children the Indians were for the most part slaves to the mission system, which is fairly accurate.
However, in this book as well, Father Serra is portrayed as heroic. For example this textbook says, Father Serra was 55 years old. He was short, and walked with a limp. But Serra was strong in Spirit. He was determined to start missions in Alta California. So even though he was injured his righteous drive to bring Christianity to the Indians kept him pushing foreword. This book makes the priest out to be a little more pious and selfless than they actually were, and this book doesn't even mention the Spanish soldiers and how they treated the Indians.
So again, what's missing in this textbook is clearly drawn explanation as to who was responsible for the Indians horrible situation. The book explains that their life is bad, but at the same time they seem to contradict themselves when they talk about how kind and great the priests were for bringing them Christianity. The students need a clearer understanding that it was these great priests that caused all this pain, suffering and death. Because these textbooks don't make that link.
6. Whispers along the Mission Trail
This textbook, overall, did a fairly good job at depicting how the missions were established, and the reality of mission life. There certainly is a large element of California pride in the missions and the mission system. The authors portray the missions as demonstrations of excellent architecture and emphasize the righteous purpose of the missions, which they say is to Christianize the Indians.
The textbook surprisingly does a fairly good job at depicting Indian life. It gives an accurate portrayal of the hard labor the Indians were obligated to perform every day. They had to make bricks, build huts, plow the fields, process the livestock, and more. This textbook even talks about how the Spanish soldiers caused lots of problems. The soldiers were especially crude and boisterous. The soldiers refused to work and terrified Indian women and children. This textbook also puts in a narrative from the perspective of an Indian boy on a mission. The narrative basically talks about how mission life is difficult, but tolerable, but it ends with the Indian boy wishing he could lead the life of a free Indian.
Though the textbook does a good job in its portrayal of Indian life, it isn't ret really accurate in its portrayal of the Spanish priests, particularly Father Serra. Father Serra, is portrayed as heroic at the least. Actually, certain aspects of the textbook go beyond heroic and make him seem legendary. For example, in this textbook he was called Californias first great pioneer. The textbook has narrative written from the perspective of Father Serra, where he says after completing his ninth mission, My dream of bringing the message of God's love to the Indians has come true. The narrative goes on making Father Serra out to be the most pious righteous perfect figure ever to grace the earth. The ironic thing is that the textbooks make Father Serra into this heroic figure, and yet at the same time they portray the life of the Indians as slaves to the mission system. In that way the textbook is fairly contradictory.
Basically what is missing in the textbook are accurate portrayals of the priests. They weren't these nice old men that came over simply to save the souls of Indians. The priests used the Indians labor to make the missions successful. They made rules that essentially enslaved the Indians to the missions and would beat and punish the Indians if they disobeyed their rules. The Indians ate mush while the priests had good food to eat everyday. The textbook acknowledges that the Indians were treated badly and that they didn't want to be there, but they don't make a clear link between the Indians and the priests that essentially put them in this bad situation.
This textbook gave the least accurate account of mission life than any of the other textbooks. The main reason for this, I suspect, is because it was published in 1949 where the other textbooks were published in the 1980's. This book defiantly had the California pride in the missions because it portrayed them without any hardship whatsoever.
The priests were portrayed as heroic figures who would bring Christianity to the poor Godless Indians. They portrayed the priests as father figures to the Indians, and made it sound like the Indians wouldn't have survived without the priests there to teach them how to farm and build huts. For example, the text says, "Before the Spanish came, the Indians did not plant seeds. They did not raise any food. They did not know anything about farming."
The Indians were portrayed as a mass of happy willing workers. This book said that the Indians, "liked the fathers. They were glad to come to the mission to live and work." The Indians in this book were portrayed as a stupid people who were extremely grateful to the priests for teaching them how to do all sorts of new work.
What was missing from this book? What wasn't missing from this book would be a better question to ask. This book gave a horribly inaccurate depiction of Indian life on the mission. It twists everything around. The reality was that the Indians were forced into harsh labor by the Spanish priests and soldiers, and this book has the Indians working side by side with the soldiers, and heroic priests teaching them how to live. Like they couldn't have survived without the priests. It's good to see that the textbooks have improved over the years. The newer textbooks still aren't ent entirely accurate, but they are a lot better than this textbook.
9. The Story of California
The Story of California is a textbook for fourth graders and teaches the history of California. With regard to the missions it has a good deal of information spread out amongst chapters five through nine. The book provides general information about how food would be obtained or produced and where missions were started. Also, there are parts of the book which attempt to describe what a general day would be like in a mission. Most of the information is not very detailed and is generally given with the best perspective as its focus. In other words it leaves out information that would put the missions or their fathers in a bad light. There is a good deal of information on Father Serra, giving insight into how he came into the position of starting missions and what his accomplishments were. With regard to other fathers there is only a rare mention of a name and some sort of accomplishment. The missions in general are detailed in the perspective that they were there to protect the Spanish claim to the land and to bring Christianity to the Indians. The Indians are not given a thorough treatment as to how they associated with the missions except for a brief mention in a picture that is used to portray what a typical mission day would have been like. All in all it seems like as much information was given as possible while neglecting anything that would instill any kind of distaste for the way California was developed by the Europeans.
16. The Best Ever Book about California Missions
This source is clearly biased towards the Spanish. It deifies Fr. Serra, saying that "in spite of all of the hardships and difficulties, the energy and determination of Fr. Serra and his closest associates' rooted the mission system and it slowly began to prosper" (13). Fr. Serra genuinely cared about the souls of the Indians. The book also portrays the Indians very negatively. At the Mission San Diego de Alcala, Fr. Serra tried to make friends with the Indians, but they stole from the mission and attacked it. They are also portrayed as being stupid. The Mission San Francisco de Asis offered the Indians food and protection from their enemies, but they couldn't understand the complex religious concepts of the priests who tried to convert them. The book does mention the cruelty of the Spanish soldiers towards the Indians, especially the women. Overall, though, this book leaves a lot to be desired in its portrayal of life at the missions.
Teacher's Aids
1. California's Missions.
This book mostly focuses on Serra's journeys, the Spanish involvment, and the construction and administration of the missions. Virtually no descriptions of Indian and mission life are described in this book. Father Junipero Serra is depicted as California's beloved apostle, along with the other courageous padres as bringing civilization and Christianity to the native ones. The mission system is portrayed as an honest attempt at helping the Indians. According to this book, the Franciscans claimed that the land belonged to the Indians, and it was only later, that the new colonists, in need of workers for their cattle ranches, complained of cruelty of the Franciscans and containment of the Indians. This way, the author attempts to make a case that the first people to labor for Indian freedom were those, in fact, that supported slavery in the mining and plantation systems of Mexico, and that they did this solely for their personal interests and gain. This book is incomplete in that it mentions Franciscan cruelty as isolated, while often citing examples of Indian hostility, and by unjustly over-glorifying Serra and his fellow laborers. In addition to this, the missions, said to be "monuments of zeal and energy" are claimed to be a source of pride in the names, architecture, and way of life that is referred to as "California's heritage." Thus, this book mentions very little or nothing of Indian life in the missions, yet makes unfounded claims of the goodness and glory of the Franciscan fathers and the mission system.
14. California Missions: Fact Cards
This source describes the location, design, and history of each of the California missions. The cards describe the missions as starting out simple and functional and getting more and more ornate and grand. According to the cards, the Indians gladly helped to build the missions, and the Indians and the padres worked side by side. Farming at the missions provided plenty of food for the Indians. At most of the missions, the Indians lived right on the mission compound. Some missions even had classrooms on the compound for Indian instruction. Soldiers were there to protect the missions.
The cards make it seem like the Indians' lives were greatly improved because of the missions. The Indians couldn't take care of themselves, so the priests took care of them. The cards say nothing of the food shortages or the soldier brutality. The only negative thing they mention is that many Indians died from illnesses brought over by the Spanish.
Supplements
This children's book mostly deals with the history of each of the missions and the padres which live in them. Indians play a secondary role in this book; there is little talk of Indians, except for occasional mention of a portion of the work which they did on the missions. The Franciscan padres are given all the credit for the missions, which according to the author of this book, "had many happy days to remember." There is great detail in how various "courageous" padres greatly helped the Indians, and talks of all the "good" which was done for the Indians. There is absolutely no mention of cruelty or mistreatment of the Indians; however, there is plenty of reference to the Indians acting with hostility towards the missions and the Spanish. Thus, this book is very incomplete and conveys an ignorant and idealistic form of history which, unfortunately, is not true or complete.
Another book that is more of a supplemental book on the missions is called California Missions. The book is actually the journal and drawings of Henry Miller. This book isn't really a textbook, and its focus lies primarily on the geography and architecture of the missions. This book ignores such aspects such as mission life and interactions between priests and Indians. But it does go over fairly extensively, and in an easy to read format, the geographical and structural properties of each mission. This book also combines its easy readability with really nice full-page photos of each of the California Missions. This book would be good to assign if students were about to embark on a field trip to a particular mission. They could read about the geography and architecture of their mission in this book
8. The Beauty of the California Missions
The Beauty of the California Missions contains a brief synopsis of the history of the twenty-one Californian missions along with some large, colorful pictures of the missions. The histories contained within contain information regarding how the mission came into being. They also feature brief descriptions of the mission, basically about whether or not it would be a particularly nice place to visit. With regard to Native Americans the book provides scant information on how they were treated and how they felt towards the mission. The book mentions that some Indians were willing to go into the missions, and that they were helpful. Aside from that there is little mention of the Indians within the missions. Occasionally there are mentions of Indian revolts, but detailed information on why the revolt took place is not present. The missions are portrayed as an important part of California's history, and it seems as though the book expresses that they should be preserved and shown to future generations. Further, the book provides some information regarding significant events in mission history. The mission priests are portrayed as though all of their intentions are good and are praised when the mission is successful. Father Serra is given a feeling of importance but not much is said beyond his founding of many of the missions or his baptism rates. This book, unfortunately, does not provide a lot of information with regard to mission life.
11. California Mission projects and Layouts
This source is a supplement and it doesn't really broach the topic of Mission and their social impact. It gives a brief introduction where it outlines a few facts and then goes straight to steps needed to build a Mission from numerous materials. However, the introduction does talk about the negative aspects of the colonization of the Indians and overall I would say it has a very succinct, accurate and appropriate style.
13. The California Missions: A Complete Pictorial History and Visitor's Guide
The California Missions provides an extremely detailed account of mission history with a good deal of related photography. With regard to the missions themselves this book provides detailed information on when they were first erected, by whom, where, and how it fared as time passed. It also includes information regarding restorations on the missions and some information regarding what went on when the mission was active. The missions are shown for their beauty and their history. Generally the book portrays the missions in a very positive manner, although the occasional mention of Indian discontent is present. Information regarding the Indians is not a focus of the book, although it is complete in most other respects. The mission fathers are portrayed as having good intentions and are credited for their accomplishments with the missions. The book is not aimed towards younger audiences and is instead a book for someone to learn about the missions along with the help of numerous photos.
15. Five Years: An Ethnic Historic Site Survey for California
This is very accurate in its portrayal of the missions. The book describes how the Indians were forced into settled communities, which was a complete change in culture. The Spanish used the Indians to build the missions and considered them to be "expendable resources" (5). The Indians resisted the Spanish rule during the entire mission period. Sometimes they attacked the missions, but sometimes they just ran away. The Spanish always punished the Indians who resisted, either by death, imprisonment with hard labor, or flogging. The Indian population in California decreased from 310,000 to 100,000 during the mission period. This decrease was due mainly to disease, homicide, terrible living conditions, and inadequate nutrition. This book describes life at the missions as it really was, not as the Spanish perceived it.
10. Life in California in 1870. Had You Lived Then Series. AIMS Media, 1976
This documentary is about 15 minutes long and gives a succinct outline of Mission life in the 1870's. It is a valuable tool for teachers to use in the process of teaching children since children do tend to pay more attention to media productions. This film was specifically well suited for 4th graders since it is not too long which enables a 4th grader's attention span to stay focused the whole film through.
The Missions were depicted as centers of progress where astounding leaps of technology was made in a rough terrain at a time when technology was still primitive. The missions were displayed as wondrous achievements of mankind at the time but it can't necessarily be assumed that it is a source of California pride. The reason behind this is that the film constantly reminds its audience that the Spanish were responsible for building them. The film portrays the Indians as a simple but free race. At some points they were symbolized as children who were juvenile and needed guidance to find the path to maturity.
The film claims that the Friars told the Indians that their land is being from them and that it would be given back to them when they are ready to fully utilize it, once they had been initiated into the ways of the "Modern World." The Franciscans were presented as very serene and noble, this effect was achieved by playing overly serene holy music in the background every time the fathers were mentioned. However, what I found interesting was that the film specifically stated that the priests were there to convert the Indians to gain "colonizers for Spain." Then it further implied was that in order to do this they needed to teach the Indians religion and new skills. Thus, this movie portrays the priests as holy but not that they are there specifically to gain souls for God.
The film was also very biased in the statement that the Spanish needed to teach the Indians religion, since the Indians had a religion before the Spanish arrived; only it did not coincide with the Spanish's religious belief. The film also does state that the Indians were once free and after the Franciscans arrived they were bounded to the priests and they lost that freedom, but this was depicted as longing back to one's childhood days and not specifically the losing of one's natural rights. This film is missing critical information; it focuses on factual content (i.e. how the Missions were built and the new skills the Indians were taught) but social impact on the Indians is conveniently avoided. At one point it stated that living in the Missions meant adapting to a new lifestyle for the Indians, but it doesn't state if the Indians liked that or if it was beneficial to the Indians. The film says that the Friars gathered the Indians into the Missions but also skipped the details on how this was done. Overall, this documentary does a good job at introducing the Missions to 4th grade students but a teacher would certainly need to add in the missing pieces.
12. The Mission
This is a 40-minute documentary on life in the Missions. This movie is hopelessly inaccurate and overall too long to keep the attention from a 4th grade student. The film explains the Missions as military motivated and that they were built to extend Spain's colonial rule. However, although this was initially explained, later on in the film a contradictory statement is made how the Missions were built for the Indians. The orator goes further and implies how the Missions were created when the Franciscans saw the Indian's need for civilization.
It conveys the Indians as bandits (criminals who didn't really own the land but were there unlawfully) who attacked the Missions while they were being built because they were easy targets. Later on once the movie shows how the Indians were taught to cook using modern ways, it goes as far as giving the audience the idea that the Indians were almost unable to feed themselves before the friars came and that they all of a sudden had the means to feed themselves for the first time.
The movie also gives the audience the notion that Indians loved the work they did for the friars and wouldn't have it any other way. For example, at one point in the documentary a priest is supposedly reading from his dairy in which he accounts how the pickers are happy picking the figs they had grown and then cuts to a smiling Indian as he picks a fig.
The Missions themselves are explained in detail and portrayed as centers of civilization in a harsh foreign land. The documentary is a good source for Californian pride since it celebrates how the friars and the Indians first started the fruit industry in California. This movie is not missing much except the truth about not only how the friars felt about the missions but specifically how this negatively affected the Indians.