Deborah Mirandas Bad Indians

Week 4

In 1769, near-genocidal policy was launched under the direction of Father Junipero Serra,

with the founding of California's first mission. California Indians who are descendants of those

few survivors from the missionization of Southern California have responded to the news of

Junipero Serras canonization in many ways gatherings at various missions for prayer honoring

the Ancestors or peaceful protests but Indians did not always easily accede to the cruel mission

life. They rebelled several times, in one instance burning nearly all the buildings of Mission La

Pursima in Santa Ynez. Sport killing was once common, the hunting of Indians, the large sums

of money that were paid for California Indian heads and scalps, the open, flagrant, killing of

Indian children. History is about power justifying, maintaining and supporting the illusion that

western civilization, western control of, western ownership of this land was inevitable,

beneficial, and destined.

Miranda explains canonization-fodder as being meant to curb other desired historical

facts being misrepresented within Serras heroic record of evangelization, which had once been

built, for fame, self-importance, and acclaim. Indians moved to the mission and coexisted

alongside the missions, many times Native Americans were reduced, undisciplined, and state and

concentrated at the missions. Soon after the arrival of Spanish colonists, new diseases appeared

among the tribes near Spanish missions. 60,000 deaths were recorded by smallpox, measles, and

diphtheria against which the Indians harsh life-styles began to come into contact by the

missionaries, and poor sanitation and health care.

One of the major tenets of genocide is that there needs to be a central government

running the whole thing. The United States government, its agencies, and its personnel have been
against Native Americans because of colonization or the need to establish a prosperous union.

The federal government also participated in this by reimbursing the state of California for the

killing of Native people. Agencies, and those involved with carrying out the measures designed

to inflict genocidal acts against the Native American population must be held in violation of

customary international law, as well as conventional international law. United States federal law

contains no statute of limitations on war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Resolving the question of genocide in American Indian history, it is important to recognize that

European and U.S. settler colonial projects unleashed massively destructive forces on Native

peoples and communities. These include violence resulting directly from settler expansion,

intertribal violence (frequently aggravated by colonial intrusions), enslavement, disease, alcohol,

loss of land and resources, forced removals, and assaults on tribal religion, culture, and language.

Today little knowledge exists of what happened to the thousands of deceased Indians

who toiled within the missions. If sites are found containing the remains of those Indians, those

areas must then be clearly marked for visitors and declared hallowed ground. Descriptions of the

enslavement of California's Indians within the missions and the horrible ordeals they endured be

clearly and visible provided to all visitors. America has not buried the shameful history of

slavery in its Southern states.

Progression for the revitalization of Native American lands has since begun, Pope Francis

apologized on behalf of the catholic church for the churchs role in the colonial invasion of the

Western Hemisphere, Francis says I humbly ask for forgiveness, not only for the defense of the

church but also conquest of so-called conquest of America. Canonization judges the misdeeds

of the past according to the standards of the present. schools, public sites, and tributes.