Elusive Eden: A New History of California, fourth edition

CHAPTER FOUR: ESTANISLAO’S REBELLION, 1829

Estanislao's Challenge• February 1829 neophytes Macario and

Benigno tending Mission San Jose cattle• Taken hostage by 7 mission renegades• Leader former mission Indian, Estanislao• Took neophytes horses, clothes• Sent Macario back with challenge to Father

Narciso Durán• Threatened missions, towns, ranchos

Estanislao's World• Estanislao born around 1800, a Lakisami,

tribelet of Northern Valley Yokuts • Yokuts lived throughout valley, San Joaquin

riverbanks• Hunted, gathered, fished• Valley crisscrossed by rivers, streams, marshes

• Riverbanks covered in oak, poplar, willow• Plant, wildlife abundant• Population density: 10 persons/square mile,

rivaled Chumash • Traded with interior tribes, coastal groups

Spanish Incursions• Pedro Fages explored Valley in 1772• Spanish slow to explore interior valleys• Spanish settled missions, presidios, pueblos

along coast• Mission most important colonial institution• Spaniards intended to assimilate Natives to

Spanish culture, religion

• 1776 Franciscans founded mission at San Francisco

--Protected by handful of Spanish soldiers--Settlement located just over coast range from

Yokuts' territory• 1777 pueblo established at San Jose--Mission founded 1779

• Contact between Spaniards, Yokuts, interior tribes increased after 1800

--Deserting soldiers attacked villages--Assaulted Native women--Runaway neophytes escaped to live with

interior tribes--Authorizes decided to establish new missions

among interior tribes

Mission San José • Mission well situated at southern tip of San

Francisco Bay• large population of Costanoans nearby to

perform mission labor• first 30 years baptized 5600 neophytes• by 1820 Mission San José one of California's

most productive missions• commanded labor of 1,700 neophytes tending

grain crops, gardens, orchards

• Indian vaqueros tended thousands of sheep, cattle, horses

• Mission compound included flour mill, tannery, soap factory, winery, shops for weaving, blacksmith, tailor, harness, pottery, candle-making

• Neophytes built large church, rectory, shops, tannery, warehouses, schoolrooms, guesthouses, Indian barracks

• Missionaries traded with American, English merchant ships in San Francisco bay

--Located thirty miles north--Traded mission cattle hides, tallow, beaver

pelts, olive oil, wheat, barley, beans, honey, figs, wool, cotton, tobacco

• Mission Problems • 1000s neophytes maintained native

languages, religious practices--Durán blamed Natives' "extreme and

notorious stupidity" --Missionaries forced Natives to participate in

worship services• Problems with drought, runaways created

labor shortages

• Political problems: Mexico declared independence from Spain 1811

--Revolution 1811-1821 --Mexico ignored California, withheld funds,

supplies--Local Mexicans diverted majority of mission

crops--Missionaries forced to ration food for Natives

• Missionaries ambivalent towards Indians--Narciso Durán replaced Serra as father-presidente--devoted to Christianizing Natives--defended native interests against soldiers,

townspeople--assumed Natives morally, culturally inferior to

Spaniards--considered them perpetual children--used stocks, shackles, flogging to punish disobedience--Locked up single women and girls at night

• 1820s, 1830s Durán opposed settler demands to close the missions, release Indians

• Neophytes died in droves--Poor nutrition and sanitation, overcrowding--Exposure to European diseases: venereal

disease, cholera, dysentery, tuberculosis, influenza, measles

--Epidemics: 1/3 of mission Indians might die--Non-epidemic years, 10% San Jose Indians died--Of 5600 Indians baptized, only 1700 at Mission

San Jose in 1826--By 1820s, local Costanoans virtually extinct--Those who could ran away

Fugitivism• 1820s alone, 1000+ neophytes fled to interior• Usually individuals ran• Sometimes coordinated: May 25 and 26,

1827, 400 ran away, about ¼ of Mission San Jose Indians

• Soldiers exacerbated problems--Hunted runaways to punish, return to missions--Raided villages to capture new neophytes--Natives resisted, battled with soldiers--Survivors delivered to missions against their

will--Interior campaigns brought Estanislao, other

San Joaquin Valley Indians into Mission San Jose

Horses• 1800 Spanish horses introduced in Valley • Grazed on Native lands• Natives raided ranches, missions for horses• Increased soldier campaigns into interior,

looking for horse thieves

• 1805, Yokuts on Stanislaus River attacked Father Pedro de la Cueva, soldiers

--Authorities retaliated, attacked Native villages --Yokuts retaliated with more raiding, attacks on

missionaries, soldiers• 1813, 1816, 1819, 1823, 1826 major battles

between Natives, Spanish• By 1828, Indians around Mission San José ripe

for revolution

Estanislao's Rebellion• Fall 1828 Estanislao, other mission Indians

allowed to visit families• Lakisamni villages about 60 mi east of Mission

San José, near junction of San Joaquin, Stanislaus rivers

• Estanislao, several hundred refused to return to mission

• several hundred runaways joined Estanislao from missions Santa Clara, San Juan Bautista, and Santa Cruz

• Durán wrote to San Francisco presidio for soldiers to round up, punish, return fugitives

• Commandante Martinez sent 15-20 soldiers to Lakisamni villages

--Commander Sergeant Antonio Soto, experienced Indian fighter

--Soldier Antonio María Osio described campaign 50 years later

--Villages barricaded in willow thicket, river--Yokuts lured soldiers into thicket then attacked--shot arrows into heads, killed two--Soto, other survivors fled for San Jose with arrows in

heads

• Victory attracted more Indians to Estanislao's camp

--By spring 1829 had combined army of 500 to 1,000 neophyte and gentile warriors

--one of largest Native forces to date--February 1829 Estanislao captured Macario

and Benigno--Macario's message led Durán to demand

another expedition

• May 1829 San Francisco presidio raised second expedition

--Commander José Antonio Sanchez, experienced Indian fighter

--Total of 28 soldiers, six militiamen, 70 Indian auxiliaries, one cannon

• Stronghold located in bend of Stanislaus River--Native soldiers protected by river, thick brush,

log palisades--Sanchez divided troops into three squads--One guarded horses--another forded river, surrounded village--third group made frontal assault with cannon--cannon quickly disabled--Spaniards fired for hours with no result

• May 8 Sanchez launched another frontal attack

--Still couldn't get through Native barricades--Spaniards ran out of ammunition--Retreated again to Mission San José

• Second debacle forced full-out Spanish effort• Monterey presidio ensign Mariano Guadalupe

Vallejo joined soldiers from San Francisco--21 years old--Little battle, command experience --Monterey soldiers hadn't been paid in 2 years--Had recently mutinied--Rivalry between Monterey, San Francisco presidios--Running low on ammunition, armaments defective

• May 26, 1829 expedition set out--107 soldiers, 50 Native auxiliaries--cannon, ammunition, and 3,500 musket

cartridges--largest army yet raised against Native

California

• Vallejo took offensive--ordered troops to surround stronghold, burn

woods, launch infantry assault from several directions

--pounded palisade with cannonballs --got through first wall, threatened by own fire

• Vallejo withdrew, returned following day--Fortifications empty--Natives had escaped in the night• Found Indians next day near Tuolumne River--Hidden by even better fortifications--Battled for hours, couldn't dislodge Indians

--Mexicans retreated, Indians trapped--Several Indians killed trying to escape--3 Native women captured--Majority of Indians escaped during night--Mexican soldiers tortured, killed some

captives: women, elderly men

• Returned to Mission San José with 2-3 female captives, 18 horses

--Minimum gains for maximum cost--Rebellion continued• Reports of atrocities embarrassed Mexican

officials--Father Durán demanded Vallejo be punished--investigation confirmed Mexicans hanged two

old men and three women, shot another captive

• Nothing changed--Neophytes still ran away--horse stealing increased• Estanislao went back to Mission San José --Durán secured pardon--Died in late 1830s disease outbreak

• Left few traces--River, county named for him--1950s state put up memorial at Caswell

Memorial Park --Plaque imagined Estanislao as Great Plains

warrior

Old Mission Santa BarbaraDamaged by earthquake in 1925, the beautifully restored Mission Church at Santa Barbara recalls Spain’s eighteenth- century attempt to transplant European civilization to the Pacific Coast. Photograph by Richard Orsi.

Mission San José in 1853The great California photographer Carleton E. Watkins made one of the first photographic images, a daguerreotype, of Mission San José in 1853. By this time, the imposing buildings that had impressed foreign visitors had fallen into disrepair. The large church to the right was demolished in the great 1868 earthquake, one of the state’s most violent, along the Hayward Fault. Not until 1985 did a combined church and civic effort succeed in restoring the historic building. Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Father Narciso Durán and an Indian ChildPublished in a travel account by a foreign visitor to the California missions, this likeness of Narciso Durán suggests the paternalistic relationship of missionary to Native. From Eugene Duflodt de Mofras, Exploring du territoire de l’Oregon (1844). This item is reproduced by permission of The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Narciso Durán’s Map of Mission San José, 1824Narciso Durán’s topographical map of Mission San José’s territory shows San Francisco Bay at the lower left and the complex of rivers in the San Joaquin Valley, beyond the Coast Range, at the upper right. This was the home of the Yokuts. Christianized Native villages are marked with a +, gentile villages with a 0. The mission appears along the vertical center line in the lower part of the map. Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Estanislao as a Great Plains WarriorThis plaque, at Caswell Memorial State Park along the Stanislaus River, depicts Estanislao as a Great Plains warrior, complete with eagle feathers, pigtails, and choke collar. The drama of the Plains Indian wars of the late nineteenth century made a great impression on the American popular mind, and all Natives began to be seen in terms of Plains Indian imagery. Reflecting common ignorance about the state’s original inhabitants, some early California local histories described Indians as roaming the landscape on horses, hunting the buffalo, and living in tepees. Photograph by Richard J. Orsi.