Indian Deaths in Mission Era

Re “Tragic Side of Mission Era Being Told,” Sept. 2: Among mission neophytes, infant mortality was very high. However, comparing that death rate with other countries for the same time frame, California mission infant deaths were not better or worse than in Europe and the U.S.

There is a fundamental religious element that must be considered. The Catholic Church makes it mandatory to baptize any individual in threat of imminent death. The mission padres thus baptized many a dying Indian who was not a Christian convert. Their names were duly inscribed in the Book of Baptisms and the Book of Deaths.

It is estimated that when the Spanish entered California in 1769, the Indian population numbered between 100,000 and 150,000. In 1850 the figure was approximately 100,000. However, between 1849-1846, under American rule, the population was cut in half to 50,000. By 1900, the census recorded only 15,500 Indians.

Disease was a major factor in the mission era. However, the germ theory was not proved until the 1870s. The mission padres tried to do their best in respect to health matters, but bacteria was one of their silent enemies. They did understand quarantine, and by the early 1800s vaccination. Smallpox did not appear among the California populace until 1837, when a Yankee who had smallpox landed at Monterey. By this time, the mission having been secularized in 1835, the Indian populace had been left to fend for themselves.

DOYCE B. NUNIS JR.

Professor Emeritus of History

USC

* There is a mission that your Aug. 31 article did not include. The Mission San Antonio de Pala was founded in 1816, in San Diego County, as an “asistancia” (assisting) mission to Mission San Luis Rey. It is on the Pala reservation, just east of Highway 15.

It is a tiny but beautiful mission that is a jewel--beautifully restored and maintained, with a beautiful chapel that was dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua. It is the only one of the original Spanish California missions that still serves the indigenous population--in this case, the Cupeno Indians, who have lived on the reservation since they were relocated there in 1903.

ANN LUKE

Sierra Madre