BajaNomad - 1956 translation of book: Observations On California 1772-1790 by Sales

1956 translation of book: Observations On California 1772-1790 by Sales

David K - 10-11-2013 at 03:19 PM

Just added to my collection, to increase our awareness of Baja's past...

There is very little in the way of first hand details of what Baja was like once the Dominicans took over the peninsula mission operations. Father Luis Sales was in Baja California from 1772 until 1790. Sales founded and was stationed at San Miguel from 1787 (that is the mission north of Ensenada at La Misión). Three letters greatly detailing mission life survived and were published in Spain in 1794 and only 10 copies were known to have survived when Charles Rudkin and Glen Dawson published their English translation, in 1956.

I now have much to read... :cool:

If and when I find some earth-shattering data, I will report back!

Taco de Baja - 10-11-2013 at 04:24 PM

Is that one of the Dawson's 50 book series on Baja?

My dad bought many, many books from Dawson's over the years on Baja and all other topics; including the entire 50 book series on Baja.

As an amazing side note, I Goggled "Glen Dawson" and discovered that he is still alive at 101! What an incredible life story he has too. Wow!

Dawson

John M - 10-11-2013 at 05:49 PM

Taco de Baja - et al

No, this is not one of the Baja California Travel Series books. It is from an earlier set - the Early California Travel Series - much harder to find and much more expensive - they published far fewer copies than the 500 or so for each volume in the Baja series.

Dawson actually expanded the BCTS by one after volume 50 - the Index was published - it is Modest Fortunes Mining in Northern Baja California by Chaput/Mason/Loperena and published in 1992 (the Index was published in 1991).

These are treasures for the history minded person.

John M

[Edited on 10-12-2013 by John M]

BajaBlanca - 10-11-2013 at 05:58 PM

wow, that is a book I would love to read. I guess the original is in Spanish ..... that is the one I would opt for!

David K - 10-12-2013 at 07:45 AM

10 copies of the 1794 Spanish book vs. 300 copies of the 1956 English translation... Good luck! The attention to detail and accuracy is very high in this English version, with plenty of footnotes. The details on how the natives of Baja lived are greater than any previous description I have read... I got to page 72 last night (218 page book) which was the first of three letters Luis Sales wrote to his friend in Valencia, Spain. This letter was written while Sales was at Mission San Miguel 1787-1790.

David K - 10-14-2013 at 05:35 PM

Finished the book (218 pages) and it indeed contains one of the most complete descriptions of the Indian life and day to day living in Baja, through the eyes of a missionary.

Father Baegert of Mission San Luis Gonzaga also wrote much detail of the (Guaycura) Indians in his 1772 'Observations in Lower California'. Baegert was a Jesuit who was expelled along with all other Jesuits from New Spain back to Europe.

This book is by a Dominican Priest who was on the peninsula from the year Baegert wrote his book to 1790... so not a lot of time after. Naturally, experiences are different since Sales was stationed along the cool northern Baja Pacific coast instead of the Magdalena desert plain of San Luis Gonzaga mission.

In the long run, the Indians of Lower California did not impress them very much after the many years spent with them... and near the end of Luis Sales book (which are the contents of letters he wrote to a friend describing Baja) he says this:

"You have seen that all that there is here in California is starvation, nakedness and misery."

Since very little text has survived from any Dominicans serving in Baja (1773-1855), this book is indeed a treasure (to me).

[Edited on 10-15-2013 by David K]

elbeau - 10-14-2013 at 07:45 PM

Quote:

Father Baegert of Mission San Luis Gonzaga also wrote much detail of the (Guaycura) Indians in his 1772 'Observations in Lower California'. Baegert was a Jesuit who was expelled along with all other Jesuits from New Spain back to Europe.

Baegert's book is tremendously important for its detail about the Guaycura, but WOW...he wasn't exactly a cup-is-half-full kind of guy. My favorite part is his description of trying to pray in front of the cross in his room each day while the c-ckroaches were constantly busy procreating on it.

bajacalifornication - 10-14-2013 at 07:59 PM

Everybody have a different perspective. "You have seen that all that there is here in California is Starvation, Nakedness and Misery"
Starvation= Diet, Nakedness= Al Natural and Misery= Material Wealth does not equal Happiness.

David K - 10-14-2013 at 09:36 PM

That he found many starving and in misery had a lot to do with changing what was natural for the Indians, to the Spanish/ European lifestyle... which obviously didn't work well.

What the modern-day admirers of Indian life may not know or accept was how easily the Indians of (Baja) California committed murder, abortion, war, etc. on each other before becoming neophytes (Christian converts).

What was interesting to read was how quickly they tossed an unconscious body onto a fire (before confirming death). There was population control, adultery, elder abuse, child abuse and other behavior that was stopped by the missionaries. As with most things, there are more than one version of a story. Reading the words by people alive at the time is a great look into the past... a time machine!

WOW,,david ...thats a cool read

captkw - 10-14-2013 at 09:40 PM

please fax my issue to 555-555-000..thanks in advance..

David K - 10-14-2013 at 09:45 PM

There are still some copies available for $70 + on Amazon, or do what some do, and get your library to bring in one.

A year later...

David K - 8-6-2014 at 03:10 PM

Almost a year since we chatted about the Dominicans and lack of written materials from their time in Baja, and low and behold I found a gold mine of data collected from documents that have survived. I am compiling them into useful data sheets for future casual history researchers.

A correction to last years comment about Padre Luis Sales: He did not arrive in California until September, 1773. See the final three paragraphs for the details on why in this preview of an upcoming article I am working on:

(the following is still under construction)

Dominicans at Baja California Missions (1774-1849)

Once the 1767 Royal order was delivered to the Jesuits and they were removed from all their missions in the New World, an opportunity for other Catholic Orders to have a hand in the mission field was available. The Franciscans were already chosen to replace the Jesuits, but the Dominicans had pleaded for some responsibility in California. Years of negotiations and revisions would transpire before the Dominican priests actually began serving the Baja California missions. The following is a summary of some of the events leading to the Dominican arrival in Antigua (Old) California, later called Baja (Lower) California.

A request for the administration of some of the Jesuit founded missions of Baja California was made on July 24, 1768, by Dominican Fray Juan Pedro de Iriarte y Laurnaga. Iriarte was Procurator General for the Province of Santiago de Mexico, residing at the Royal Court of Madrid. He asked especially for those missions between the twenty-fifth and twenty-eighth degrees of north latitude.

On December 17, 1769, the King decided that ten Dominican fathers, destined for the nearest former Jesuit missions, should go there, but left the exact posts unspecified.

On January 17, 1770, the Procurator-General, Fray Juan de Dios de Cordoba, recommended that Iriarte's petition be granted, that the requested territory of Baja California be allocated, since there was urgent need tor the conquest of Nueva (New) California as a check against foreign encroachments.

On June 15, 1770, Juan Pedro de Iriarte and Juan de Dios de Cordova asked the King for a grant of twenty four missionaries, at royal expense, for the missions of Baja California. Iriarte, on July 10, 1770, issued a circular to the convents of the three Spanish Provinces of the Dominican order, announcing that the King had granted them a mission field in Baja California, and calling for volunteers.

On April 30, 1772 the division of California was settled and the Dominicans accepted all of Baja California and the Franciscans had Nueva California, later called Alta (Upper) California, as far north “as they can extend their spiritual conquests”. This arrangement was approved by the Council of the Indies on May 11, 1775. [p39]

Two boats were used to bring the Dominicans to California sailing from San Blas in September, 1772. Storms separated the boats and disaster would fall upon one. A storm-caused shipwreck, disease and bad food forced one boat back to shore at Mazatlán. On board the doomed boat was their leader, Padre Iriarte. After arriving at Mazatlán he was taken to San Sebastián, where he died.

On October 14, 1772, nine Dominican priests and one laybrother arrived at Loreto. Ten days later one of the priests died. Nearly six months would pass before the news of the other ship carrying Dominicans had wrecked and their leader, Padre Iriarte (and two other priests) had died.

Nearly seven months passed before two boats brought the eighteen Dominicans who survived the shipwreck. They arrived at Loreto on May 12, 1773, and three days later were given their assignments. Now with 26 Dominicans, each of the missions would be assigned two, except for the far north missions of Santa María and San Fernando, which shared the same two priests. The Indians of Mission Santa María were transferred to Mission San Fernando the next year. Padre Luis Sales arrived on September 21, 1773 being delayed by his illness from the disastrous events of a year earlier.

Stay tuned for more from Baja's fascinating history! :cool:

sargentodiaz - 8-8-2014 at 02:41 PM

Prior to the coming of Europeans, the Stone Age natives of the California peninsula lived almost like the animals around them. They covered themselves in tattoos and paint, lived day-to-day with death always on their mind, and ate anything that came to hand. That means reptiles, insects, and anything else they could find edible.

They had no sense or understanding of love or compassion or morality. Women basically led society and, as in the animal word, selected a sexual partner based upon his strength and ability to provide. If he failed to do so, she simply walked away and found someone else.

The main person of authority was not a tribal chieftain in our understanding but a "healer" claiming superiority by being "touched" and able to tell them how to survive. As for the use of the many medicinal herbs available in the area, I can find nothing that says they knew of or how to use them.

And there are many "modern scholars" who wish to claim that Europeans took these poor people living an idyllic lifestyle into slavery and caused their deaths by European disease.

I don't see any of their descendants - anywhere in the Americas - regressing to that life!

mtgoat666 - 8-8-2014 at 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sargentodiaz
Prior to the coming of Europeans, the Stone Age natives of the California peninsula lived almost like the animals around them. They covered themselves in tattoos and paint,...

Hmmmmm, sounds like many people I know today...

Quote:

Originally posted by sargentodiaz
They had no sense or understanding of love or compassion or morality.

That sound like a loaded statement! What's your basis for throwing out that indictment?

Quote:

Originally posted by sargentodiaz
Women basically led society...

Oh, the horror! Dios mio!

BajaBlanca - 8-9-2014 at 07:41 AM

history- just love reading about it too.

David K - 8-9-2014 at 10:36 AM

Working on the Dominican period in Baja (1773-1855), and finding more and more details that have not been published before... See some of it in my new articles that Discover Baja is posting on their blog and newsletter... more to come.

Mission treasures are all in books and papers, and they are still more to be discovered!

El Vergel - 8-11-2014 at 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
There are still some copies available for $70 + on Amazon, or do what some do, and get your library to bring in one.

I know I'd enjoy this read, thanks David!

My local Library doesn't have a copy. There are three of these books in Los Angeles. No kidding! One is in the UCLA Library ($125 for a non-student to get a card!) and two are in the special collections/rare books section in the Downtown L.A. Library. None of the the books may be checked out but can be perused in the Library only. Maybe getting one from Amazon is the ticket!

elbeau - 8-12-2014 at 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sargentodiaz
...the Stone Age natives of the California peninsula lived almost like the animals around them...

I'm always on the lookout for new information about Baja so maybe you can enlighten me:

Which "animals around them" built balsas and canoes and safely navigated them miles out into the open ocean?
Which "animals around them" were experts in carving fish hooks and crafting atlatl-propelled harpoons?
Which "animals around them" mined and crafted obsidian to an extent unparalleled in the North American southwest? (Valle de Azufre)
Which "animals around them" utilized weapons and tools like the bow, the arrow, the quiver, the atlatl and dart, the javelin, the wooden scimitar, or the ornate knives that they created from shark teeth embedded in wood and secured there by strong glues?
Which "animals around them" possessed bull-roarers for long-distance communication?
Which "animals around them" kept a written history by carefully inscribing symbols of that history into impressively-prepared wooden tablets?
Which "animals around them" would carefully carve and inscribe figures into mother-of-pearl to be worn as decoration.
Which "animals around them" skillfully carved intricate religious idols of human figures wrapped with a snake?
Which "animals around them" carried on two distinct cultural patterns, one being a coastal pattern and the other inland with vastly different modes of subsistence?
Which "animals around them" engaged in trade across distances so large that those at the tip of the peninsula had their own word for "maize" and recognized it as a food product that could be obtained from other tribes hundreds of miles to the North.
Which "animals around them" crafted intricate silk-like nets for decoration and utility?
Which "animals around them" created stone structures to trap fish with the outgoing tides?
Which "animals around them" placed foundation stones in the ground for their dwellings or ceremonies with specially placed stone pointers in each of the cardinal directions?
Which "animals around them" worked as a community to build special roads and resting places for their religious leaders?
Which "animals around them" had a language system that encompassed "every sound" used by Europeans, making it easy for them to learn Spanish?
Which "animals around them" had specially carved hooks for harvesting fruit from high overhead?
Which "animals around them" utilized wooden tools to harvest roots effectively?
Which "animals around them" used manos and metates to grind legume seeds, cactus seeds, and a wide variety of grains?
Which "animals around them" developed tools specifically for weaving fine linens?
Which "animals around them" kept dogs and caged birds as pets?
Which "animals around them" created well-woven blankets in an artistic pattern and kept clean and which "could have been used anywhere as a fine coverlet or rug"?
Which "animals around them" crafted musical instruments?
Which "animals around them" dug wells for water?
Which "animals around them" crafted ladders in order to harvest palm fruits?
Which "animals around them" would organize large gatherings in order to practice religious ceremonies, to trade with each other, and to compete in sporting events.
Which "animals around them" utilized a large case to carry their items and which they would attach to their ear-piercings, leaving their hands free for hunting and warfare?
Which "animals around them" were capable of weaving bowls that, without any sealant, were watertight and which could be used to roast seeds.
Which "animals around them" invented their own way of popping seeds to create a food similar to popcorn?
Which "animals around them" mixed and prepared cement grave markers so strong that modern archaeologists still have trouble breaking it 2,000 years later?

There are plenty of other things to list, but we'll let that suffice for now. The point is that you are trying to simplify complex prehistoric cultures into zippy one-liners that give you some perverted sense of moral superiority.

Your pretended understanding of the life of Baja natives is short-sighted and pretentious. You try to paint the world in black-and-white terms where anyone who disagrees with your European-superiority world view is automatically stereotyped as being believers of the "idyllic lifestyle" of the "noble savage".

Your closed-mindedness prevents you from seeing the world as it is and leads to many prejudices. Even before they became physically extinct, the natives of the peninsula went through a systematic, forced, cultural extinction. The Spanish had to continually use military force to keep the Baja natives from deserting the missions and going back to their old habits. But, of course, you "don't see any of their descendants - anywhere in the Americas - regressing to that life!".

Your view of other cultures is closed-minded and petty. You're so shocked by things like the nakedness and eating habits and warfare of the Indians that you can't even begin to look at those things as cultural traits rather than as barbarisms and then you add to your ignorance by proclaiming some kind of moral superiority upon the noble, peace-loving Europeans as if they brought peace to the Indians. They brought cultural and physical extinction to the Indians.

I guess there is an upside though, now that they are all dead they no longer "cover themselves in tattoos and paint, or live day-to-day with death always on their mind".

Thank you for your priceless gems of wisdom.

David K - 8-12-2014 at 05:55 PM

In his defense, I think sargentodiaz was using 1700's European terminology to bring awareness to how the natives may have been thought of by some, back then.

elbeau - 8-13-2014 at 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
In his defense, I think sargentodiaz was using 1700's European terminology to bring awareness to how the natives may have been thought of by some, back then.

If so, then my apologies, but I still don't see the sarcasm that you're seeing in his post.

David K - 8-13-2014 at 12:50 PM

Have you seen his blogs on Father Serra and more?

elbeau - 8-14-2014 at 06:40 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
Have you seen his blogs on Father Serra and more?

No I haven't so maybe I was off-base in my response. Can you provide a link?

SFandH - 8-14-2014 at 06:52 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by elbeau

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
In his defense, I think sargentodiaz was using 1700's European terminology to bring awareness to how the natives may have been thought of by some, back then.

If so, then my apologies, but I still don't see the sarcasm that you're seeing in his post.

There is no sarcasm in his words. I read and interpreted it just as you did, as though the words express what the writer thinks.

Is there a guess about how many people lived on the peninsula just before the Spanish arrived?

[Edited on 8-14-2014 by SFandH]

danaeb - 8-14-2014 at 07:34 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by sargentodiaz

The main person of authority was not a tribal chieftain in our understanding but a "healer" claiming superiority by being "touched" and able to tell them how to survive. As for the use of the many medicinal herbs available in the area, I can find nothing that says they knew of or how to use them.

Really? I'll help you out. Google "medicinal herbs in baja indigenous people". There hundreds of links to scholarly articles on the subject.

David K - 8-14-2014 at 07:38 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by elbeau

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
Have you seen his blogs on Father Serra and more?

No I haven't so maybe I was off-base in my response. Can you provide a link?

The link is in his signature, at the bottom of his posts... here it is: Father Serra's Legacy @ http://msgdaleday.blogspot.com a History of California and the Franciscan missions.

David K - 8-14-2014 at 08:05 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by SFandH

Is there a guess about how many people lived on the peninsula just before the Spanish arrived?

The Spanish began arriving in 1533-1534, but only for brief periods or to collect pearls until the first permanent mission (Loreto) was founded in 1697.

The Indian population before Loreto was founded was estimated at 50,000 (south of the San Pedro Martir mountain range). [from Dave Werschkul's 2003 book 'Saint's and Demons in a Desert Wilderness'].

rts551 - 8-14-2014 at 10:07 AM

could it be that many of these writers are protecting the history and views of Catholicism?

David K - 8-15-2014 at 07:07 AM

Sure, it would be only natural for the padres to see their work as one of good and doing the king's bidding. It is pretty obvious the feelings of the Dominicans were more harsh than some of the Jesuits, who recognized the tribes on California as nations and endeavored to learn their languages. Yet, even some Jesuits wrote of the primitive style of living of the Californians. Having the writings of people who were alive during those years is still the best look into the past we have.

rts551 - 8-15-2014 at 07:36 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
Sure, it would be only natural for the padres to see their work as one of good and doing the king's bidding. It is pretty obvious the feelings of the Dominicans were more harsh than some of the Jesuits, who recognized the tribes on California as nations and endeavored to learn their languages. Yet, even some Jesuits wrote of the primitive style of living of the Californians. Having the writings of people who were alive during those years is still the best look into the past we have.

Best look......Including the writing and other clues that the original inhabitants left (at least those that were not destroyed while doing the King's bidding)

David K - 8-15-2014 at 08:22 PM

The original inhabitants did not have a written language... Also, the cave art was done by a race of people from long before the time of the natives the Spanish met. History goes back a long time... hard for some to imagine.

sargentodiaz - 8-16-2014 at 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by elbeau

Quote:

Originally posted by sargentodiaz
...the Stone Age natives of the California peninsula lived almost like the animals around them...

I'm always on the lookout for new information about Baja so maybe you can enlighten me:

Which "animals around them" built balsas and canoes and safely navigated them miles out into the open ocean?
Which "animals around them" were experts in carving fish hooks and crafting atlatl-propelled harpoons?
Which "animals around them" mined and crafted obsidian to an extent unparalleled in the North American southwest? (Valle de Azufre)
Which "animals around them" utilized weapons and tools like the bow, the arrow, the quiver, the atlatl and dart, the javelin, the wooden scimitar, or the ornate knives that they created from shark teeth embedded in wood and secured there by strong glues?
Which "animals around them" possessed bull-roarers for long-distance communication?
Which "animals around them" kept a written history by carefully inscribing symbols of that history into impressively-prepared wooden tablets?
Which "animals around them" would carefully carve and inscribe figures into mother-of-pearl to be worn as decoration.
Which "animals around them" skillfully carved intricate religious idols of human figures wrapped with a snake?
Which "animals around them" carried on two distinct cultural patterns, one being a coastal pattern and the other inland with vastly different modes of subsistence?
Which "animals around them" engaged in trade across distances so large that those at the tip of the peninsula had their own word for "maize" and recognized it as a food product that could be obtained from other tribes hundreds of miles to the North.
Which "animals around them" crafted intricate silk-like nets for decoration and utility?
Which "animals around them" created stone structures to trap fish with the outgoing tides?
Which "animals around them" placed foundation stones in the ground for their dwellings or ceremonies with specially placed stone pointers in each of the cardinal directions?
Which "animals around them" worked as a community to build special roads and resting places for their religious leaders?
Which "animals around them" had a language system that encompassed "every sound" used by Europeans, making it easy for them to learn Spanish?
Which "animals around them" had specially carved hooks for harvesting fruit from high overhead?
Which "animals around them" utilized wooden tools to harvest roots effectively?
Which "animals around them" used manos and metates to grind legume seeds, cactus seeds, and a wide variety of grains?
Which "animals around them" developed tools specifically for weaving fine linens?
Which "animals around them" kept dogs and caged birds as pets?
Which "animals around them" created well-woven blankets in an artistic pattern and kept clean and which "could have been used anywhere as a fine coverlet or rug"?
Which "animals around them" crafted musical instruments?
Which "animals around them" dug wells for water?
Which "animals around them" crafted ladders in order to harvest palm fruits?
Which "animals around them" would organize large gatherings in order to practice religious ceremonies, to trade with each other, and to compete in sporting events.
Which "animals around them" utilized a large case to carry their items and which they would attach to their ear-piercings, leaving their hands free for hunting and warfare?
Which "animals around them" were capable of weaving bowls that, without any sealant, were watertight and which could be used to roast seeds.
Which "animals around them" invented their own way of popping seeds to create a food similar to popcorn?
Which "animals around them" mixed and prepared cement grave markers so strong that modern archaeologists still have trouble breaking it 2,000 years later?

Wow! You really laid into me, didn't you?

I was simply trying to point out how the natives lived a day-t0-day life with the simplest of means to survive. That they survived at all is credit to their intelligence and grit.

At the same time, they were completely helpless against the whims of nature. No rain - no food. Disease - no defense.

Yes, they adapted extremely well to their environment. But they could not go beyond the most basic of existence.

sargentodiaz - 8-16-2014 at 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by elbeau

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
In his defense, I think sargentodiaz was using 1700's European terminology to bring awareness to how the natives may have been thought of by some, back then.

If so, then my apologies, but I still don't see the sarcasm that you're seeing in his post.

I meant no sarcasm whatsoever. Had the Jesuits never arrived in Baja, I'm certain they would still be living in their Stone Age manner until other Europeans of lesser good will, would have wiped them out and taken their land away from them.

The same held true for the natives of Upper California. They lived okay in a land that should have provided them a far better living if they had been better equipped to deal with it.

As the Franciscans discovered, they simply did not have the discipline to live an agrarian lifestyle.

rts551 - 8-16-2014 at 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by sargentodiaz

Quote:

Originally posted by elbeau

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
In his defense, I think sargentodiaz was using 1700's European terminology to bring awareness to how the natives may have been thought of by some, back then.

If so, then my apologies, but I still don't see the sarcasm that you're seeing in his post.

Awfully nice of them to help them along

"The Population of Native California was reduced by 90% during the 19th century—from more than 200,000 in the early 19th century to approximately 15,000 at the end of the century, mostly due to disease." wikipedia

mtgoat666 - 8-16-2014 at 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by sargentodiaz

Quote:

Originally posted by elbeau

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
In his defense, I think sargentodiaz was using 1700's European terminology to bring awareness to how the natives may have been thought of by some, back then.

If so, then my apologies, but I still don't see the sarcasm that you're seeing in his post.

We will never know what their society and culture was like, because the population was quickly decimated by disease after arrival of Europeans, and the only recorded history is that of biased Jesuits.

rts551 - 8-16-2014 at 10:28 AM

Indigenous languages were prohibited and any written language destroyed in favor of European language.

rts551 - 8-16-2014 at 11:11 AM

Hey maybe they are making a comeback...we got some people in Arizona run around naked, painted skin, skin piercing, hallucinogenic drugs, breeding out of wedlock... skin is a little bleached though.

elbeau - 8-18-2014 at 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
The Indian population before Loreto was founded was estimated at 50,000 (south of the San Pedro Martir mountain range). [from Dave Werschkul's 2003 book 'Saint's and Demons in a Desert Wilderness'].

An estimate of 40,000 to 50,000 was originally given Baegert and was recognized by Cook (1937) and by Homer Aschmann (1959) (http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31822012237509;vie...).

Aschmann's treatment of the subject for the central part of the peninsula is by far the most thorough. His numbers generally agree with Baegert's estimate but he points out that one of the biggest problems with any estimates like his own stem from the fact that there was cultural contact which likely included the spreading of diseases between the Europeans and the Baja natives for roughly 150 years before the Jesuits arrived. He also points out that even the Jesuits did not provide much useful demographic data during the early years of missionization. There is currently no way of knowing how drastic the population shift in the peninsula was between 1533 and the founding of the peninsular missions.

One example that is cited by Aschmann is the Jesuit account of their first encounter with the inhabitants of Cedros Island. The island had been visited by ships stopping for water for two centuries before 1732 when the Jesuits decided to find their way to the island and bring the population to San Ignacio for missionization. When they arrived they found that a full three-quarters of the island's population had recently died of Smallpox, even without being taken to the missions.

It is important to understand that we have almost no substantial descriptions of any of Baja's native cultures until after they had been exposed to one and one-half centuries worth of European diseases.

As DK points out, the natives did not have any written language to preserve their culture through periods of transformation. We don't know all of the details about how they passed on their stories and mythologies, but one thing worth noting is John Harrington's description of how tribal knowledge was passed on from one generation to the next among the Yuman tribes just north of the peninsula.

Through many interviews he found that the way that history was passed from one generation to another was through dreams. Now, this initially sounds like a horrible way to preserve history, but there was more to it than just going to sleep, seeing your history, then waking up and telling it. They would be taught about the details of their history from certain elders who had been dreaming such dreams for most or all of their lives. This means that a person dreaming an historical dream would know what they were supposed to see and experience in the dream beforehand. They would then purposefully try to have that particular dream and if they thought that they were successful, they would need to describe every detail that they could remember from the dream to their tribe's elder 'dreamers', almost like reporting it to a committee of people who were each already considered to be an expert in that particular dream.

The new dreamer would receive criticism and correction from these tribal elders which they were expected to fix the next time that they dreamed the dream.

In contrast to this, when we read books or hear stories, our minds imagine the people and places that are being described, but we rely on the written words themselves to be accurate enough to give us the right 'picture' in our minds of what it is describing.

Oral traditions among the Yuman tribes are not comparable to our modern style of storytelling. The sights, sounds, smells, and feel of the world that they saw in their dreams was subject to scrutiny and correction until a person could actually experience exactly the same dreams as each other. They got to each experience the exact dreams that their elders had learned from the elders before them and then they would spend the rest of their lives working with others to make sure that the next generation could see their history as perfectly as they could.

I find this whole concept quite fascinating because in our society, each of us can consider the written evidence about a primitive culture and then, just like you see in this forum thread, we can come to very different conclusions about it. One person may view the written history and decide that Native Americans were cruel and warlike while another person may conclude that they were 'noble savages' that were just misunderstood...but no matter how hard we study all of our written evidence, none of us can see or touch or hear or smell a scene from that history in the way that a Yuman dreamer could.

Why do I bring this up in relation to a question about the prehistoric population estimate of Baja? Please ask yourself what must have happened to the history of cultures like the Yumans when the vast majority of their elders got wiped out in an epidemic. It would have been completely catastrophic to their cultures. The descriptions of the Jesuits, however well-intentioned (or not) that they might have been, were descriptions of cultures that were probably already in a state of significant decline.

We know that epidemics wiped out the cultures under missionization, but we have no idea what happened to those cultures in the 150 years beforehand. We tend to pass on the descriptions that the Jesuits gave us rather than look at the picture of those cultures that continues to emerge based on ongoing archaeology and discovery. Remember, Baja was called the 'forgotten peninsula' because of the sparcity of archaeological work performed there in the past. Let's let the picture develop a little before we pass judgement too harshly upon its original people.

David K - 8-18-2014 at 11:09 AM

Thank you Elbeau for the added data... I appreciate it!

Mexitron - 8-18-2014 at 12:34 PM

Elbeau---elegantly stated. My first thought is of the Australian Aborigines and their dreamtime.
I had never heard of this method of passing down history but it speaks to the capabilities of aspects of the human mind which modern human society have let wither away. No wonder we thought the Indians were savages, we didn't understand them! This method of passing down history somewhat promotes the idea of the larger human unconscious (Jung et al) and points to Rupert Sheldrake's ideas of morphic resonance as well (in that the particular tribes would have their own collective unconscious, a smaller subset of probably a quasi-multigroup collection of tribes...and so on to the entire set of humanity and so on).
I find the mythologies of the America's Indians to be quite rich. While we can experience our wilderness, say poetic things about it, take nice pictures of, the native Americans were this place and their mythologies eloquently point in that direction. It does sound like most observations of the Baja natives were of a civilization on its way out...it would have been interesting to have more enlightened denizen inquiring about their existence when we first encountered them.

elbeau - 8-18-2014 at 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mexitron
...it speaks to the capabilities of aspects of the human mind which modern human society have let wither away...

I think that in a way, we went through several centuries where scientific, written descriptions of our world and its history replaced almost all other methods of learning, but the pendulum is swinging back very quickly.

For example, I can go read the journal of a WWII soldier and develop a picture in my mind of what the Normandy invasion must have been like, but what I would probably actually do is go home and grab my Roku remote and rent "Saving Private Ryan" and experience the sights and sounds of the invasion myself. Of course, I'm not actually watching D-Day, I'm experiencing exactly what the producer of a movie thinks the beaches of Normandy looked like to a soldier that morning. Our audio-visual systems are very effective ways of giving us group experiences. Much more so than just reading words from historians.

...of course, the accuracy of our audio-visual experiences are dependent on the accuracy of the scriptwriters, producers, and actors...much like the Yuman elders who would teach their dreams to the next generation. There is room for error, but the richness of the experience is undeniable.

rts551 - 8-18-2014 at 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by elbeau

Quote:

Originally posted by Mexitron
...it speaks to the capabilities of aspects of the human mind which modern human society have let wither away...

Heavens no. There is no error in history ....what are you a re-vision-ist?