Juaneno Kiitcha Hut Mission San Juan Capistrano California is a photograph by Karon Melillo DeVega which was uploaded on August 3rd, 2010.
Juaneno Kiitcha Hut Mission San Juan Capistrano California
The Spanish entered the Americas driven by the Three Gs: Gold, Glory, and God. ... more
Title
Juaneno Kiitcha Hut Mission San Juan Capistrano California
Artist
Karon Melillo DeVega
Medium
Photograph - Photograph - Digital Photography
Description
"The Spanish entered the Americas driven by the Three Gs: Gold, Glory, and God.
The massive amounts of wealth that the Spanish acquired through their conquests of Mexico and Peru inspired expeditionary forces to move north to Florida, New Mexico and California. In all of these areas, the initial invasion was a Christian missionary force backed up by soldiers. source: http://www.nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/345/californias-mission-indians
at the Mission San Juan Capistrano California according to history, the Nation of the Juaneno (sometimes spelled Juanino) peoples were friendly, and actually many of the people chose to live at the mission. This hut is very typical of the type of shelter the Juaneno people lived in prior to the Spanish "invasion" and subsequent changes in the lifestyle of the native people.
Built from willow branches and tule leaves, it is called a Kiitcha and was the traditional housing for the native americans before the Spanish arrived. The large stone (sometimes called the "gossip rock" may have been used by the native people (sometimes referred to as "neophytes" at the mission) to grind acorns, corn, wheat and other seeds and grains.
Considering the founding of the Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1776 in the golden state of California while on the east coast of America there was much different activity. 1776 was a Leap Year of the Gregorian calendar.
The American Revolution was happening with battles against the British, new States in the United States were being formed, the Liberty Bell, Edward Gibbon published the first volume of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations, the British evacuated Boston, Rhode Island became the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III of Great Britain, the Continental Congress appointed a committee to draft the Declaration of Independence, etc. and here in California, the Mission San Juan Capistrano was founded by Father Presidente Junipero Serra and work began with the Spanish Catholics establishing more missions in California, including Mission San Francisco de Asis in what is now San Francisco.
I love to think about the world as it was at that time, and what life must have been like for the indigenous people in this land prior to this "new" effort at civilization
© Karon Melillo DeVega
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Uploaded
August 3rd, 2010
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Comments (1)
Michael Torres
My wife and I read this and have to apologies be is written is inaccurate. My wife is of those people and the correct name of the people are The Acjachemen" The Spanish tried to erase their name by calling them "Juaneno People". You wrote which is egregiously not true, "(actually many of the people chose to live at the mission)" . The Spanish by forced held the women and children hostage and made the men work or they would kill his family. Often times the women were given to Spanish soldier and slave overseers as gift for jobs well done. In other words the people were held as slaves and the mission were Spanish Slave Plantations. On other fact. Father Junipero Serra was a know pedophile and was especially attracted to little boys. There are statues of him all over the Americas with little boys. When you visit the Mission you will see nothing about the indigenous people and their culture. What you will see is everything about how good the Spanish and Priest were to the people. All lies. When you visit the gift shop you will see only item to buy from the catholic church. Nothing the represents the Acjachemen People who were enslaved there.