Ahlone People overview

SANTA CRUZ MISSION PROJECT

Presented by Sean Heaney

The Native Americans from this area are called Ohlone.  They had several small towns or villages in this area before the Spanish arrived, had plenty to eat, tule houses to live in and did a lot of trading with nearby tribes.

            The Ohlone were known for their hospitality.  They tried to make visitors feel welcome, and they would give travelers food if they were hungry.   When the first Spanish explorers came here, they were given gifts of food by all the local people they met.  The explorers wrote in their journals that those gifts kept them from starving.  The Ohlone tribes people also gave them valuable shell beads and animal skins, and accepted glass beads and Spanish items in return.

            When the padres arrived in California, they asked the Ohlone people in this area to come live at the new Mission, become Catholics, work hard and be Spanish citizens.  The native people did not realize that the Spanish would not let them pray, work or behave in the ways they knew and if they got tired of this new life, they would not be allowed to leave.  Many of the workers died from the new illnesses brought by the Spanish, and some people ran away from the Mission.  Soldiers were sent  out to find runaways and bring them back.

            When there were not enough workers left at Santa Cruz Mission to do the important jobs, soldiers were sent out to the Central Valley to find more natives, and bring them back even if they didn't want to live at the Mission.  The men and women brought from the Central Valley were Yokut tribes people, and many did not like living there.  Workers who were caught trying to run away were beaten or whipped, even if they were very old or just children.

            Other Mission workers took pride in their difficult new lives, not seeming to mind the new rules and working hard to be good Catholics and good citizens.  Workers who tried to become members of the new culture had a few more rights and were treated with more trust and kindness.  If they worked very hard, or learned a valuable skill, they were moved into a special adobe just for workers and their families.  Each family got a room of their own with a door, a window and a fire pit.  They were allowed to put religious art on the walls, and they could store grain or other food in the loft just under the roof.