Native Californian Freedom Fighters
Resistance to the California Concentration Camps, Slavery, & Genocide
“I hate the padres and all of you for living here on my Native soil, for trespassing upon the land of my forefathers, and despoiling our tribal domains.”
- The Tongva shaman, Toypurina, during her 1786 trial for leading a rebellion [1]
Native Californian’s resisted the soldiers at the Northern California missions from the start of the Catholic church’s attempted colonization. In fact, no Native people were baptized at Mission San Francisco de Asís during its first year of operation due to a series of violent confrontations between soldiers and local Natives. A similar situation prevailed after the establishment of Mission Santa Clara de Asís in 1777.
The resistance empowered Native Californian’s to flee the Mission San Francisco in large numbers. By the end of the summer of 1795, at least 280 had fled, a high enough percentage to threaten the survival of the mission which required forced labor.
The tule marshes of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta were an important refuge for San Francisco Bay Area mission-persecuted Native people seeking freedom. [2]
One of the earliest and most successful demonstrations of Native resistance to colonization was the destruction of Mission San Diego on November 4, 1775. The Ipai-Tipai organized nine villages into a force of about 800 men who completely destroyed the Mission San Diego.[3] At the time, it was questioned whether the mission system could survive the Native resistance. [4]
Ten years later, the 1785 San Gabriel mission (present day Los Angeles) rebellion was led by Gabrieleño and Toypurina (an influential shaman). In the early fall of 1785, Toypurino organized the revolt during a new moon. They planned to kill their captors and destroy the mission buildings. The revolt was thwarted by a Spanish solider who overheard them planning.[5]
During her trial, Toypurina was asked why she led the attack party. Toypurina glared at Governor Fages and hissed:
“I came to inspire the dirty cowards to fight and not to quail at the sight of Spanish sticks that spit fire and death, nor retch at the evil smell of gun smoke – and be done with your invaders.” -Toypurina [6]
Toypurina was imprisoned for years at the mission presidio’s jail. She was then exiled to Mission San Carlos (present-day Carmel). [7]
Later in September of 1795, over two hundred Native Californians deserted the San Francisco Mission.
Resistance occurred throughout the mission period, but the clerico-military administration did not tolerate violent or even non-violent resistance. They responded by attempting to prevent escapes, sending out armed parties to capture runaways, and punishing recaptured runaways. [8]
Despite this, underground resistance within the mission communities was common. In 1811, Nazario, a Native man who cooked at the San Diego Mission, was subject to 124 lashes. Following the assault, Nazario then poisoned one of the priests. Since the Natives often viewed the Franciscan missionaries as powerful shamans or witches, it was appropriate in Native culture to poison as this was the traditional Native way of dealing with such concerns. [9]
Native people also poisoned a number of priest “witches” at Missions San Miguel Arcángel and San Antonio de Padua (modern day Fort Hunter military base) in 1801. [10]
In 1812, a group of Native people (two of which had escaped the Mission Santa Clara de Asís) killed a Franciscan missionary at the Mission Santa Cruz because of his plans to punish Native captives there with a cat-o’-nine-tails (with barbed metal on the ends of the leather straps). [11]
In October 1813, a group of Spanish forces from Mission San José & Mission San Francisco had set out to capture runaways from Mission San José. They attacked a village where they thought the runaways might be hiding. However, instead of fleeing, the Native people were armed and prepared, and fiercely countered the attack. As the Native people fought, they taunted the soldiers, shouting that the Spaniards were “useless fighters.” The Native people unleashed hails of arrows on the military force in a battle that lasted three hours and ended with the Native people disappearing into the thick brush & swampy ground. The soldiers never caught them.[12]
In 1814, two Native men at Mission Santa Clara de Asís, Marcelo and Inigo, attacked a Franciscan missionary who oversaw mission labor. [13]
One of the most famous Mission revolts occurred in 1824, when two thousand Chumash-speaking Natives razed Mission Santa Inéz (outside modern day Sacramento), captured Mission La Purísima Concepción (modern day Lompoc), and threatened to take Missions Santa Bárbara, and San Buenaventura and San Gabriel Arcángel (modern day Los Angeles). [14]
In 1828, Native Californians, under the leadership of Yokuts chiefs Estanislao (Stanislaus) and Cipriano (Huhuyut), revolted against the Mexicans in the San Joaquin Valley. Among those joining the revolt were refugees from the Santa Cruz, San José, and San Juan Bautista Missions.[15]
These several hundred Lacquisemne Natives from Mission San José and significant numbers of other Yokuts-speakers from Mission Santa Clara de Asís fled and formed a multi-national refugee band on the lower Stanislaus River. Others came from Missions San Juan Bautista and Santa Cruz. A common enemy for these freedom fighters was the coastal slave-raiders that continued to ravage Native communities. [16]
Cipriano was from the Yokuts-speaking nation Josmite (Pitemas). Estanislao sent a message to Father Narciso Durán of Mission San José (who was the Franciscan Father-President of all the California missions at that time), telling the Father that the Native people were rising in revolt and would defend their homelands.
This Native resistance occupied most of what is now southern San Joaquin and northern Stanislaus counties, actively raided Coastal ranchos, and encouraged Native Californians to flee Missions San José, Santa Clara de Asís, Santa Cruz, and San Juan Bautista. [17]
Legend has it that Estanislao left his mark at raid sites by carving the letter “S” with his sword, which may have provided inspiration for the fictional character “Zorro.” [18]
Father Durán in November 1828 requested military intervention in response to the raids, directing that “Everything depends upon capturing dead or alive a certain Estanislao from this mission and a person from Santa Clara de Asís called Cipriano.”
Estanislao and Cipriano prepared for the confrontation by putting out a call to arms to Native patriots in the Central Valley. Soon there was a skirmish along the Stanislaus River between the Native freedom fighters and Mexican soldiers from the San Francisco presidio. The Natives taunted and lured the hot-headed soldiers into their chosen battlefield and killed or wounded most before the remaining solidiers retreated to the coast. [19]
A subsequent Mexican expedition took place in early May 1829. Over a hundred soldiers were sent to apprehend Estanislao and his followers. The rebel band was holed up in the dense riparian forest along the Stanislaus River, probably somewhere near present-day Riverbank or Oakdale, although some researchers have located the battle site as far downriver as Caswell Memorial State Park. The Native patriots had constructed elaborate defensive structures & held off the attack. [20]
This victory by the Native patriots over Mexican forces was a milestone in large-scale armed resistance among California Native people. It was a substantial Native victory over the invading Spanish & Mexicans. It was also noteworthy because the Native fighters included individuals originally from many Native nations, dialects, and languages in the San Joaquin Valley, Delta, and the lower Sacramento Valley. Moreover, the Native patriots effectively countered European battle tactics and used defensive earthworks, trenches, and barricades to defend their homelands. [21] [22]
Yozcolo, a Lakisamne Yokuts man from the Central Valley, had participated in the 1828 revolt, and later, in 1839, Yozcolo led his own uprising against Mission Santa Clara de Asís where he freed 200 women and girls from the monjerío and fled to the foothills beyond present-day Los Gatos. Soldiers pursued and ultimately killed Yozcolo. Colonial authorities displayed his severed head on a pike outside the Mission Santa Clara de Asís (modern day Silicon Valley) Church as an attempted warning against further uprisings, though the Native people continued to fight back. [23]
Native Californian’s continue to resist the occupation of their land and the colonization of their people.
Learn more about Silicon Valley’s Concentration Camps:
Support Native Californians
Please consider donating to, or otherwise supporting, the Native Californian peoples who’s ancestors were enslaved, beaten, kidnapped, imprisoned, and massacred. Here is a non-extensive list of local tribes & nations:
Tamien Nation (Santa Clara Valley), https://www.tamien.org/
Muwekma Ohlone Tribe (San Francisco Bay Area): http://muwekma.org/
Chumash Ohlone Tribe (San Francisco peninsula): https://ohlonetribe.org/
Amah Mutsun Ohlone Tribe (Gilroy & Hollister): http://amahmutsun.org/
Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Nation (Monterey): http://www.ohlonecostanoanesselennation.org/
Tachi Yokut Tribe (San Joaquin Valley), http://www.tachi-yokut-nsn.gov/
[1] Elias Castillo, A Cross of Thorns: The Enslavement of California’s Indians by the Spanish Missions, (2015); KCET, Toypurina: A Legend Etched in the Landscape of Los Angeles, https://www.kcet.org/history-society/toypurina-a-legend-etched-in-the-landscape-of-los-angeles
[2] David R. Stuart, The Native Peoples of San Joaquin County: Indian Pioneers, Immigrants, Innovators, Freedom Fighters, and Survivors, The San Joaquin Historian, San Joaquin County Historical Society (2016)
[3] U.S. National Park Service, A History of American Indians in California, www.npshistory.com/publications/california/5views/5views1b.htm
[4] Elias Castillo, A Cross of Thorns: The Enslavement of California’s Indians by the Spanish Missions, (2015)
[5] Elias Castillo, A Cross of Thorns: The Enslavement of California’s Indians by the Spanish Missions, (2015)
[6] Elias Castillo, A Cross of Thorns: The Enslavement of California’s Indians by the Spanish Missions, (2015)
[7] Bethania Palma Markus, The “Golden State’s” Brutal Past Through Native Eyes, Truthout (2013)
[8] U.S. National Park Service, A History of American Indians in California, www.npshistory.com/publications/california/5views/5views1b.htm
[9] Ojibwa, Indians 101: Indian Resistence to the California Missions, (2010)
[10] David R. Stuart, The Native Peoples of San Joaquin County: Indian Pioneers, Immigrants, Innovators, Freedom Fighters, and Survivors, The San Joaquin Historian, San Joaquin County Historical Society (2016)
[11] Ojibwa, Indians 101: Indian Resistence to the California Missions, (2010)
[12] Elias Castillo, A Cross of Thorns: The Enslavement of California’s Indians by the Spanish Missions, (2015)
[13] Lee M. Panich, Narratives of Persistence: Indigenous Negotiations of Colonialism in Alta and Baja California (2020)
[14] David R. Stuart, The Native Peoples of San Joaquin County: Indian Pioneers, Immigrants, Innovators, Freedom Fighters, and Survivors, The San Joaquin Historian, San Joaquin County Historical Society (2016)
[15] Ojibwa, Indians 201: Indian Rebellions at the California Missions, (2015)
[16] David Stuart, Homeland Defense: Cucunuchi (Estanislao) and the Native Freedom Fighters, Soundings Journal (2020)
[17] David Stuart, Homeland Defense: Cucunuchi (Estanislao) and the Native Freedom Fighters, Soundings Journal (2020)
[18] Chris Clarke, Untold History: The Survival of California's Indians, KCET (2016)
[19] David Stuart, Homeland Defense: Cucunuchi (Estanislao) and the Native Freedom Fighters, Soundings Journal (2020)
[20] David Stuart, Homeland Defense: Cucunuchi (Estanislao) and the Native Freedom Fighters, Soundings Journal (2020)
[21] David Stuart, Homeland Defense: Cucunuchi (Estanislao) and the Native Freedom Fighters, Soundings Journal (2020)
[22] David Stuart, Paradise Lost: An Indigenous History Timeline for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Soundings Journal (2021)
[23] Santa Clara University, Community Heritage, https://www.scu.edu/community-heritage-lab/media/