Missions Taught New Skills to Local Indians
* In its Oct. 13 Valley Briefing, The Times again pushes cultural relativism. Yes, an old Indian culture was “obliterated” by the missions. But the native culture was a Stone Age culture. It is inevitable that such primitive cultures are replaced when far more advanced cultures contact them.
The missions, unlike the English colonial system, treated the natives as human beings and quickly taught them the skills of civilization, such as agriculture, a written language and the ability to construct permanent shelters.
MICHAEL MURNANE
Tujunga
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