Mission Indians

Mission Indians Native Americans of S and central California; so called because they were under the jurisdiction of some 21 Spanish missions that were established between 1769 and 1823. The major groups were the Chumash, Costanoan, Diegueño, Gabrieleno, Juaneño, and Luiseño. The first mission was established at San Diego. The native population was taught and forced to work at agriculture. The land and the herds of sheep were theoretically owned by the Native Americans themselves, but were held in trust by the Franciscan fathers. The Mission Indians now live on reservations in California. In the 1990 U.S. census there were over 2,000 Native Americans identifying themselves as Mission Indians in the United States, as well as some 3,000 Chumash, 1,000 Costanoan, 2,200 Diegueño, 500 Gabrieleno, 1,500 Juaneño, and 2,800 Luiseño.

Mission Indians, general term applied to Indians of many tribes, chiefly the Yuma and Shoshone, who were Christianized and gathered into communities by the Spanish Franciscans in southern California (1776–1830s). They were driven out of the missions by the Mexicans, and were neglected by the Americans until after the Civil War, when, largely at the instigation of Helen Hunt Jackson, the government took steps to care for them. Since 1974 they have been located on 31 small reservations in southern California. Mary Austin's Isidro and Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona are romantic depictions of the life of the Mission Indians.

Shoshone Indians, primitive North westerntribe, sometimes erroneously called Snake Indians, which gave its name to a great linguistic family of various cultures, scattered through Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, Texas, Oregon, and California. The Shoshonean tribes include the Comanche, Ute, Paiute, Hopi, Bannock, and Mission Indians. The Shoshone figure in books by Joaquin Miller, the Mission Indians in Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona and Mary Austin's Isidro, and the Paiute in Mrs. Austin's The Land of Little Rain.