Elusive Eden: A New History of California, fourth edition CHAPTER FOUR: ESTANISLAO’S REBELLION, 1829

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Elusive Eden A New History of California, fourth
edition CHAPTER FOUR ESTANISLAOS REBELLION,
1829
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• 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

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• 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

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• Riverbanks covered in oak, poplar, willow
• Plant, wildlife abundant
• Population density 10 persons/square mile,
  rivaled Chumash
• Traded with interior tribes, coastal groups

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• --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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• --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

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• 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

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• 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

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• Left few traces
• --River, county named for him
• --1950s state put up memorial at Caswell Memorial
  Park
• --Plaque imagined Estanislao as Great Plains
  warrior

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Old Mission Santa Barbara Damaged by earthquake
in 1925, the beautifully restored Mission Church
at Santa Barbara recalls Spains eighteenth-
century attempt to transplant European
civilization to the Pacific Coast. Photograph by
Richard Orsi.
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Mission San José in 1853 The 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 states 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.
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Father Narciso Durán and an Indian
Child Published 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
lOregon (1844). This item is reproduced by
permission of The Huntington Library, San Marino,
California.
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Narciso Duráns Map of Mission San José,
1824 Narciso Duráns topographical map of Mission
San Josés 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.
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Estanislao as a Great Plains Warrior This 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 states 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.