The sound of the bell called the Native Americans to morning prayers They headed from their cramped quarters to the church After prayers was a full day of work meals more prayers and religious instruction Each event in their daily schedule would be announced by tolling bells A CHILD’S LIFE AT A MISSION Children played a special role in mission life In the eyes of the padres children represented the future success of the missions Unlike their parents they easily picked up the Spanish language and customs At some missions the padres tried to keep parents from teaching Native American ways to their children The children were forced to live in separate buildings from their adult relatives Children spent much of the day at church and learning the Spanish language and crafts Girls were taught to weave sew cook and make pottery Boys learned skills such as preparing leather from cowhide blacksmithing carpentry and painting Children were also made to work They could chase hungry birds away from the crops They helped pick vegetables and fruits A boy might also assist in the ringing of the bells At Mission San Juan Capistrano in California boys helped turn the stone mill that crushed olives for making oil Older boys stomped on grapes with their bare feet to make wine 6
A magazine illustration from 1877 shows Native Americans on a California mission weaving baskets and rope There yet remains the ruins of an immense church which was destroyed by an earthquake in 1812 when many Native Americans were buried in its fall It still bears the appearance of having been one of the best finished structures in the country Alfred Robinson a New England trader who visited California in the 1830s and 1840s describing the San Juan Capistrano Mission in his book Life in California 7
Two or three Spanish padres had the job of running things in the day ahead They were the teachers and the rule makers of the mission community They saw themselves as the shepherds of the natives souls One of the priests had woken in darkness in his simply furnished room He had put on his habit a coarse gray robe with a rope belt and gone to ring the bell that started the day In the barracks the soldiers were roused to duty The men put on their uniforms They wore thick leather vests to protect them from arrows They gathered their swords and long rifles The soldiers were in charge of maintaining order at the mission One of their main duties was making sure none of the Native Americans ran away and chasing down and whipping those who did I scarcely know what to do in these troublesome times I made the vows of a priest instead I must manage temporalities sow grain raise sheep A padre at Mission San Juan Bautista California in a letter to a New Spanish government official horses and cows I must preach baptize bury the dead visit the sick direct the carts haul stones It was the start of a typical day during the height of the California missions But dozens of other missions in what is now the American Southwest had already come and gone Even prosperous California missions such as this one would fall into ruins in just a few decades 8
From around 1600 to the 1830s mission communities dotted the landscape of present-day New Mexico Texas Arizona and California These areas were not yet part of the United States Instead first Spain and after 1821 Mexico ruled the land The missions were an attempt by Spanish rulers to turn Native Amercans into loyal Spanish subjects The attempt failed but missions forever changed the people of the American Southwest As priests exit a mission chapel Native Americans stop their activities and kneel to show respect 9
