250 year anniversary of the Ca. Missions.

I first met Caroline Ward several years ago as she and her son Kagen stood on the grass adjacent to the San Gabriel Mission. I listened intently along with a group of people that gathered that day as Caroline spoke of the horrors her ancestors were subjected to in the early days of the California Missions. It was during what was called, "The walk for the Ancestors". A story then covered by multiple magazines and newspapers.

As being descendants of the Tataviam tribe of Indigenous people here in California both Caroline and her son spent two months walking to each Mission one by one, paying their respects to not just their own but to all Indigenous tribes of people who suffered tremendously under the rule of California Mission system. They were joined by many different people, some from other tribes and others who shared a common interest.

The Indigenous point of view sheds a great deal of light during what is now the 250 year anniversary of the California Missions. Unlike the stories that skim across the surface of how Father Sierra headed north with a handful of baptized Indians on a mission to build Missions, there was a tremendous amount of loss of life and suffering that went along with the founding of the Missions.

Natives were buried alive between the adobe walls. A story also told by the ancestors to historian John Peabody Harrington. If you weren't forcibly baptized you didn't have a soul and had no rights. Caroline has many ancestors who were buried at several of the Missions here in California. It was during her walk for the ancestors that she inquired about their burial place, and was told was told upon visiting several of those Missions that they were at peace underneath the pavement in the parking lot. One of the people she spoke to had no idea where the original native builders of the Mission were buried.

Caroline Ward had not only heard the horror stories of the past, but even today in our present reality she was witnessing first hand the total disregard for her ancestors, the first people of the land. Speaking of land, it was not just the wealthy who were able to purchase the land that the Missions were built upon says Ward, but you had to be a Christian in order to buy the Mission land that is now owned by the Catholic Church.

Is it time for these lands and Missions to be returned to their rightful owners, the descendants of the original builders, the people of the earth? "We would like to transform these Missions into educational centers, Caroline Ward says. A place where the native tribes could educate and teach people to care for the earth and restore their spiritual values and morals that have been lost over the centuries."
The earth's people are still here, and are still eager to sustain life.

This article was written by Patricia Huff of South Pasadena Ca.