The missions were very big. The missions had some rooms for the padres who lived on the mission. The padres gave jobs to the indians. Father Serra was one of the best padres. The indians lived around the missions.
The indians got food from hunting and from the trees. They ate meat, crops, fish, and they made corn into tortillas.
The indians worked hard on the mission. The indians had a lot of jobs. If you were an indian child you would gather olives. The olives were on the trees. The indians made bricks to make a mission. First they mixed clay with water and with a little bit of straw. Then they filled the wooden forms with the mixture of clay, water, and straw. When the bricks were dry they took them out of the forms and let them dry in the sun, and bake until they were hard.
The soldados were mean to the indians. The soldados lived on the presidios. The soldados went looking for the indians that had escaped from the mission.
Father Serra started the mission. Father Serra was born in the island of Majorca. He came to Mexico and was then sent to Califronia to start the missions.
Some padres taught the indians the Spanish method of living. They showed them how to take care of cattle, sheep, chickens and how to grow the crops that have come from Spain. One padre even taught the indians at his mission to sing Christian songs for church services. The padres believe that the indians needed to learn the Spanish culture to be good Christians.
This report is about the different tribes of indians that came to live and work on the mission. When the indians came, the padres changed all their indian names to Spanish names. The mission was started by Father Junipero Serra in 1776. Also, the indian tribes had to study the Bible every single day. The indians worked hard day and night. They were brought to the mission by the Spanish, which made them neophytes.
Also, the indian women cooked every day to prepare the meals. The people living on the mission ate tortilla bread every day. Tortilla bread was a flat round bread made of corn or wheat.
Some of the children's jobs were to pick green olives. Green Olives was one of the most important crops that was raised on the mission. Indian children took their long poles with them as they went to gather olives from the trees. When they struck the branches of the trees with their long poles, hard green olives came splashing down. Lamps burned the oil made from crushing and pressing the olives. People also used the oil for medicine and for cooking.
The indian men built missions and churches out of adobe. Adobe is a building material mixed with straw, water, and earth. Each brick weighed thirty pounds or more. The bricks had to dry for three days. The indians scraped off the rough edges to make it smooth. The indians made candles out of split willow branches.
The indian tribes that came to the mission, couldn't ever follow their indian religion, but had to follow the Christian religion. Some indians liked living on the mission and many didn't.
