Carey McWilliams book, Southern California an Island on the Land, charts the life of the Native Americans from before the arrival of the Spanish missionaries in the 1683 to the period when Anglos began moving in large numbers to Southern California. The chapter entitled, “The Indian in the Closet”, begins by describing the typical lifestyle of Native Americans in Southern California before this period. According to McWilliams, Native Americans lived in pockets across the region. They were separated by the mountainous topography and their diet consisted primarily of acorns. The arrival of the Spanish changed this. They set up missions, pueblos and presidios where Native Americans once lived. The San Fernando mission played an important role in upsetting Native lifestyle. The goal was to make Native Americans “civilized” by teaching them how to create settlements, converting them to Catholicism, and by giving and enforcing Spanish law. Native Americans began to associate missions with death because their numbers in California decreased from a total of 130,000 in 1769 to 1,250 by 1910. Some of the major factors of death were disease, forced labor, sexual practices, bad sanitation, and diet (they were fed just enough to live). Some Native Americans fled eastward and into the mountains. For those that stayed, they were forced into hard labor and were paid in beads. Many were whipped and all were forced to go to church. Some were allowed to escape their camps, but were followed and ultimately led the Spanish to capture more slaves. Along with being undernourished, they were kept ignorant to be more easily kept in subjection. After the Secularization Act in 1833, many lands were sold and Native Americans were freed, however, most became indentured servants on Ranchos where they remained for the rest of their lives.
