Joshua Liggett Ronald E. McNair Scholar Project Advisor Charles Ettner, Ph.D.

1. Understanding the Tangled WebInteraction of Indigenous Peoples and Missionaries at Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad Joshua Liggett Ronald E. McNair Scholar Project AdvisorCharles Ettner, Ph.D. Department of Anthropology

2. The Project Simply: An Analysis of Mission Records

3. The Project: This research is aimed at providing a more vivid understanding of the many peoples who lived and died at Mission Soledad. Particularly, understandings of interactions At Contact The main goal of this line of research is to elucidate the various patterns found in the data of those persons of Esselen and Chalon ancestry, who were the primary groups housed at Mission Soledad. Involves examination of various mission records of Mission Soledad, to include baptismal and marriage records Note: there are no extant death records from Mission Soledad. Comprised of the Catholic Missions of the South Coast region, extending as far north as Chowchilla, south as far as Visalia and east as far as Fresno and Clovis, even into the foot hills near modern-day Coarsegold. 1812? 1797 1840 1792

4. MissionNuestra Senora de la Soledad

5. Background Nuestra Senora de la Soledad, or Mission Soledad, was founded in 1791 and one of twenty-one Franciscan missions established in what was formerly known as “Alta California”. Recent work has been done on the inclusive region north to San Francisco Bay area, and south to San Jose. The principle investigator, Dr. Randall Milliken, identified the impact of the California Mission system. Particularly, Milliken identified how the tribes were brought into the mission system. On another note, Milliken also analyzed the various effects on the tribes or tribelets in question. This particular line of research, similar in kind, to the work of Milliken, takes up the study where he left off.

6. The Mission Records

7. The Mission Records

8. Various Origins Tribes – Tribelets – Tribal Areas

9. Pomo Tribelets Tribelets Tribe: Arroyo Seco Tribelet: Rancheria de Arroyo Seco Tribal Area/Region:As Shown to the Right As put forth by Randal Milliken, Ph.D. in his article on Priest Valley (2006) In the loose regional community, clusters of family groups shared numerous short-term villages within extensive named territories. The territorial boundaries of such regions were vague, and the constituent villages lacked centralized leadership. Precise areas such as tribelet and village locations Vague, harder-to-define areas like communities, groups, and homelands

10. Esselen Territory

11. Baptismal Totals Above: The Aspasniajan Village of Pino Middle: Conversion of Paiiu Village Below: Village totals for Arroyo Seco Region, Graph of Village Totals 792 1793

12. Mission Soledad Baptisms, 1770 - 1775 1770 - 1773 1774 – 4/1775 5/1775 – 12/1775

13. Baptismal Totals

14. Marriage Records …At a Glance

15. A Sample of Marriage Records

16. A Look at Cantua Creek Listed in Mission Records as “frente de San Benito” Esselen Groups Strong documentation N

17. While the goal of this line of research is to elucidate the patterns by which Native Americans were sought out by the forces of conversion coming from the missions of California, it is important to note that beyond the data, the numbers and the records are the lives of real people who lived, loved, and died. While the missions brought certain boons to Alta California, disease and destruction of culture also entered the world of Native California due to the mission system

18. The End…? There are many more missions to beyond Mission Nuestra Senora De La Soledad the results of this study will lay the ground work for the various missions to follow This presentation is the first report on a line of research that will extend throughout the remaining missions of California

19. Questions