A California Missions Resource for Teachers
Secularization, decline, and restoration of the California missions
1) To what extent did the missions come to define the nature of social relations obtaining between Native Californians, Spanish colonists, and Mexican era settlers?
2) What impact did the Secularization of 1834 bring to bear on the life ways of the Native Californians?
3) How has heritage tourism played a role in the formulation of those histories presented in the media and public schools?
Daily Topics
- Mythic beginnings/Spanish colonial history
- How to read a Mission
- Mission art and music
- Mythic constructs and historical memory
- Piracy, the Spanish militia, and indigenous leadership
- Indigenous acculturation, conversion, and authority
- Mission life ways and political economy
- Secularization, decline, and restoration of the California missions