Ni‘ka - Part 1 of 3 - FROM THE VAULT

Wherever you are in this hemisphere, you are on Native land. Never forget, that before the Spanish arrived in California, for thousands of years, from sea to shining sea, this was indian country, with more than 300,000 Natives living here, representing more than 100 tribes, each with its individual traditions and cultures, most completely lost by the arrival of settlers. Write that down, and burn it into your brain. Never forget that the Russians, European-American colonists, and Spanish missionaries‘ arrival on the Pacific coastline forever changed the native people’s way of life. The first known interaction with the Natives in California was in the Monterey area in 1602, when Sebastián de Vizcaíno’s Spanish expedition was searching for a safe harbor for their ships. Well over 100 years then passed with little attention paid to Alta California. Then, Gaspar de Portola’s expedition of Spanish missionaries arrived in the Monterey area in 1769 and Spain began colonizing. Erasing the identities of the California indigenous people who entered the mission, in exchange, they were given a wool shirt with long sleeves called a cotón, and a wool blanket. The women were also given a wool petticoat and men received a breechclout to cover their groin area. They were then forcibly baptized into the Catholic faith, and thrown into labor camps that were filthy and disease ridden.