Indian Life at Mission Santa Cruz

What was daily life like for Native Americans at Mission Santa Cruz? What did they eat? What jobs did they do? An introduction to life at Alta California’s 12th Spanish Mission.

Where is Mission Santa Cruz Located?

Mission Santa Cruz is located near the northern coast of Monterey Bay, on the west side of the San Lorenzo River. It had probably the smallest population of all of the missions, and eventually was neighbors with the town of Villa de Branciforte, founded by the Spanish government in 1797. Villa de Branciforte was one of the three towns or pueblos established during the Spanish period in California. The others were the pueblos of San José and Los Angeles.

Learn more about how towns were founded.

Who Founded Mission Santa Cruz and When was it Founded?

Mission Santa Cruz was founded on September 28, 1791 by Fr. Fermín de Lasuén.

How a Mission Site Was Chosen

Missions were usually founded where there was good land for agriculture and a reliable water source. This would happen after consultations and negotiations with local Indian groups. Negotiations were crucial, since the the mission could be destroyed if it was not supported by local native people.

Once a mission site was located, Spanish would then negotiate with the leaders of local tribes about joining the mission. Once they did join, however, they were considered citizens of the mission and of Spain. They were expected to live within its boundaries. These boundaries corresponded roughly to the borders of their traditional lands, unless they joined the mission from far away.

What Native Americans lived at Mission Santa Cruz?

The tribes present at the mission were Ohlone, native to the area, and later Yokuts people from California’s Central Valley.

Of course, not all Indians in areas under Spanish control joined the missions or became Christians. Long into the Mexican era, there were native settlements or rancherías in many places in Alta California. Some non-Christian Indians lived and worked in towns and ranchos, speaking Spanish and even adopting Hispanic clothing.

Native American Housing at Mission Santa Cruz

In the early years of the establishment of a mission, Indians would live in their traditional dwellings. These were usually conical-shaped houses made of tree branches. Some Indians would eventually build houses for themselves of adobe bricks, or move into housing near the mission church.

Natives could travel outside the mission periodically to visit kin, to trade or hunt, or take part in military expeditions. Others would live in asistencias or doctrinas, native ranches that were connected to a  particular mission. At some missions, such as San Diego de Alcalá, Christian Indians would live in their own villages among non-Christian natives. They would come to the mission church for Mass and to receive the sacraments. Families with the highest social status within their communities, would often live within the mission compound.

The Interrogatorio

Some of the most important information about the life ways of California Indians during the mission era comes from the Interrogatorio (Questionnaire) that the Government of Spain sent to the priests of the California missions in 1813. Each mission answered in more or less detail, depending on the temperament and experience of the missionaries, who replied according to their observation of native life in the mission and their (sometimes partial) understanding of  indigenous customs outside the mission. The answers that are here are adapted for clarity from the translation by Maynard Geiger in the book As the Padres Saw Them (1976).

The questions about Mission Santa Cruz were answered by Fr. Marcelino Marquinez and Fr. Jayme Escude on April 30, 1814.

Who Else Lived at Mission Santa Cruz?

The padres were asked to explain who else lived at the mission along with Native American people. In their answer, they talk about “Americans,” but they don’t mean people from the U.S. Instead, they are talking about people from Latin America, in particular, Mexico.

The populace of this mission of Santa Cruz is divided into two classes, the one, Indians; the other, Americans. The Indians have come into the mission from their pagan homes and after being baptized have remained with the missionaries or were born at the mission.”

The Americans appear to be honorable mestizos whom the supreme government of Mexico sent here eighteen years ago as colonists of the new town of Branciforte  where they dwell and have their moveable goods and lands.” 

There is, moreover, a guard composed of a corporal and five soldiers, four of whom are married. Their lineage may be looked upon as the same as that of the inhabitants of Branciforte.” 

What languages were spoken at Mission Santa Cruz?

The Spanish government asked the padres to comment on the different languages the Native people spoke.

The Indians of this mission speak as many dialects as the number of the villages of their origin. It is, indeed, a matter of surprise that although one village is only two leagues or less away from another, the Indians of the said villages are not allies, and the dialects are so distinct that generally not a great deal can be understood of one by the other.”

Generally, the Indians of this mission speak Spanish,  due to the regular contact they have with the inhabitants of the town which is only a half a league away from the mission.” 

Indian Clothing at Mission Santa Cruz

Once Native American people came to the mission, they were given some clothes to wear. Here the padres describe the clothes.

The clothing of our converts is limited to a shirt called a cotón, a breech cloth to cover their nakedness and a blanket. The first and last are also in general use among the women who go about fully clothed in a skirt called pollera or basquina. All of the above-mentioned garments are of wool. “

Daily Schedule at Mission Santa Cruz

In order for the ranch and the farm to function, everyone had a task. They usually worked five hours per day during fall and winter, and six to seven during spring and summer, Monday through Saturday. Sundays were for rest and religious services, as were the special feast days of the Catholic calendar. There could be as many as 92 throughout the year.

For Indians on the mission, the church bell marked the rhythms of the day. Each day would begin with prayers and mass, then breakfast. After breakfast each person would go to work on his or her particular occupation until midday.

At midday they would gather for prayers and lunch. This was followed by a break, usually with a nap or siesta, as was common all over Latin America. After the break, they would return to work until about an hour before sunset.

If they had already finished their tasks, they could go home earlier. At sunset, people once again gathered for prayers and then supper.

What jobs did people do at Mission Santa Cruz?

Since most crops the missions grew were seasonal, the agricultural tasks the Indians carried out would change throughout the year. From December through March, for example, it was time to sow seeds. In April and May, it would be time for shearing sheep, branding cattle and other livestock-related jobs. June through September was spent harvesting crops planted earlier in the year. The rest of the year might be spent in various maintenance tasks.

There were also more specialized workers who made soap, tanned leather, did weaving, or worked as blacksmiths year round. Men performed some of these jobs, while women did others.

Men’s jobs at Mission Santa Cruz

The padres listed some of the more common jobs:

All the Indians with the exception of the four who oversee the others work at their respective chores and trades. Some are carpenters, others are blacksmiths. There are tanners, shoemakers, gardeners, teamsters, weavers and stone masons. In a word they are taught those occupations towards which they have some inclination.” 

These jobs were common male occupations. Artisans from Mexico or Indians from missions in Baja California often taught the skilled tasks.

Women’s jobs at Mission Santa Cruz

The padres listed typical women’s jobs:

The women sew, wash and cull wheat, sift the flour, pick weeds.” 

Most work was done on a quota system. Each person would have an amount of things to produce each day or week, like a certain number of adobe tiles to make or cloth to weave. Once they met their quota, the workers were free to spend their time as they wished.

Even children did work at the missions, though not the type of work adults performed. Usually children would be responsible for things such as keeping birds or small animals out of the gardens, or serving at Mass or other religious functions.

Food at Mission Santa Cruz

According to the padres, the Indians ate both the food grown at the mission and things they gathered or hunted.

The food of the Indians consists of beef (which is given them in abundance), venison, rabbit, quails, cranes, geese, ducks and as many of the land animals and reptiles as nature provides them. Here, ordinarily, they also eat salmon and lamprey, many of which are caught in the river that flows nearby the mission. 

Since the ocean is so close at hand, which at points is hardly a league away, the Indians fish there also and eat various fish such as codfish. Nor do they consider the seal or whale disgusting to eat when they become stranded on shore, which is a quite common event.” 

Besides the ration of meat, wheat, Indian corn or beans which is distributed to them every week, they are given three meals a day and in such abundance that with what is left over alone the many pigeons the mission raises can be fed. Doubtless the cost of a meal for each Indian amounts to over one real without taking into account what the Indians grow in their own cornfields.”

The Indians of Santa Cruz sow some of their own crops so it merely remains for us to add that of the mission without any cost to them, and provide them with oxen, plows, seeds and whatever else they need.” 

Illness and Disease at Mission Santa Cruz

In the early 19th century, sickness was a big problem at Mission Santa Cruz. Many Native Americans died because of epidemics (which the padres call “pestilence”). They complain about not being able to cure the diseases that attacked people and wish there were more doctors. The only professional doctor was at Monterey.

…We acknowledge with sorrow that since the year 1811 many Indians of Santa Cruz have died and the number possibly exceeds 25 percent of those baptized… The reason for such a considerable loss is a type of pestilence. The main reason however, is the absence of doctors. For although the discovered part of California stretches for a distance of 130 leagues only, in all this mission territory only in the presidio of Monterey is there a surgeon who receives a salary from the king .”

The Sweat House

One of the common ways for Indians in California to care for their health and refresh themselves was the sweat house or temescal. It seems that there was such a building at Mission Santa Cruz.

At Santa Cruz we have no thermal baths but where such baths are, as at Mission San José, the Indians use them for all their ills and diseases. What is in quite common among them is the sweat house which is built in the earth. A great fire is built inside and they sweat extremely much.” 

There is much to learn about Indian life at Mission Santa Cruz, and historians and archaelogists continue to study it. Below you can find some further resources to help you understand more.

To Learn More

• The Ohlone: An Introduction
• Ohlone Culture
• Mission Santa Cruz Facts
• Why Did Native Americans Come to the Missions?