Group of Indians Opposing Sainthood for Serra Begins a Pilgrimage to Missions

A small group of California Indians and their supporters who oppose the beatification of Father Junipero Serra began a “spiritual pilgrimage” Saturday, tracing the steps of the 18th-Century Franciscan from Mission San Diego to Mission Carmel on the Monterey Peninsula, where Pope John Paul II is scheduled to visit on Thursday.

“We are here to pay our respect to all Indian people who have suffered so much in the building of the missions,” Anthony Miranda, tribal chairman of the 150-member Costanoan Band of Carmel Mission Indians, said in San Diego. Not far away, a weathered monument was inscribed: “In this holy place lie the bodies of those who built the mission. May their souls rest in peace.”

It had been expected that while in Monterey the Pope would announce Serra’s beatification--the second of three steps to sainthood. Shortly before his departure for the United States, however, the Vatican announced that there was not enough time to complete the complex procedure.

Serra’s critics charged that under the California mission system he founded, Indians were cruelly treated, used as forced labor and exposed to Western diseases, all of which contributed to their near extinction.

But Jerry Nieblas, a descendant of Juaneno Indians who is now on the staff of the Capistrano Mission, disagreed Saturday.

“I don’t believe they were treated that harshly,” Nieblas said. “Father Serra brought us to where we are today. I think he should be made a saint.”

The two-day car caravan started at dawn, when Father Nicholas Dempsey, associate pastor of Mission San Diego, unlocked the gates of the courtyard for the Indians. Miranda lit some sage and passed it over his three friends as they entered the area, shaking a gourd rattle.

Standing before a plaque marking the mass grave of Indians at the San Diego Mission which reads, “Memorial to Indians: California’s First Cemetery,” the group prayed briefly.

The same ceremony was repeated at missions at Oceanside, San Juan Capistrano, San Gabriel and San Fernando, where the caravan was joined by a group of non-Indian supporters.

“We are in solidarity with all Native Americans’ struggles,” said Deirdre Meehan, one of five members of the Los Angeles chapter of the Big Mountain Support Group who joined the caravan. “This is important because it’s another example of how history has been rewritten and revised in favor of the white European point of view,” she said.

The combined group then headed north toward Carmel, with strips of black ribbon trailing from each vehicle’s antenna.