Analysis Of Deborah Miranda's Article
Ending the Mission Fantasy Fairy Tale
When living in California, most elementary students in fourth grade learn about the Missions lead by the Spanish when coming to California in the 1700’s. It was Junipero Serra who founded the first mission in San Diego, California in 1769 and recently was declared a saint by the Pope. After this announcement, many people came forward with their own opinions on the Popes decision, creating quite the controversy; especially in San Diego where Serra’s work took place. Native American writer and poet, Deborah Miranda, wrote a small piece on the Missions in California titled “Lying to Children About the California Missions and the Indians,” where she explains her frustration on the Californian school systems and the way they teach children about the Missions in California and Native Americans.
Miranda argues that schools “glorifies the era and glosses over both Spanish and Mexican exploitation of Indians,” in which they are lying to them and painting a fantasy over what really happened during the missions, while giving false accusations about Indians today. Through her argument she tells a story of how she met a little girl and her mother, and the conversation they had over the topic. With the use of other articles, I’ll clarify and expand on Miranda’s main argument and analyze her main claims that support her argument.
When reading Miranda’s article “Lying to Children About the California Missions and the Indians,” two major claims that were brought to the table along side her main argument; 1. The California school system misinforms the children on Indians, both past and present day, and 2. The way the California school systems teach the Missions need to come to an end. Miranda explains that when the schools teach children about Indians, they described them as “godless, dirty, stupid, primitive, ugly, passive, drunken, immoral, lazy, weak-willed people (Miranda),” before the Spanish came to the rescue and started the missions in 21 different areas in California. Later in her article Miranda tells a story of how she met a little girl and her mother who were actually making a video for the child’s mission project at school.
After explaining to the mother that she was a member of the Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen Nation, the mother asked for a photo and her information to google her work, while the little girl “was shocked into silence (Miranda)”. Miranda then states to a friend that was with her, saying “that poor kid has never seen a live Indian, much less a ‘Mission Indian’—she thought we were all dead!” Because the school systems misguide the children about present day Indians, and “generations of Californians have grown up steeped in a culture and education system that trains them to think of Indians as passive, dumb, and disappeared,” this ties back to Miranda’s main argument about how the California school systems paint a false picture on the Spanish missions for the children.
Another claim Miranda presents at the end of her article is that the way the California school systems teach the Missions need to come to an end, because the way that it is taught to the children is nothing but lies and causing “more damage to California Indians than any conquistador, any priest, and soldado de cuera (leather-jacket soldier), any smallpox, measles, or influenza virus (Miranda).” When explaining the events that took place during the missions, the school system uses language where the children aren’t fully informed on what really happened. For example, the textbooks they use, use exciting language to tell about events that took placed, or language that paints a picture that the missions benefited the Indians, all while sympathizing with the Spanish stating:
“Mile after mile, day after day, week after week, the group traveled across the rugged terrain. As their food ran low, many of the men grew tired and sick. Father Serra himself suffered from a sore on one leg that grew worse each day. And yet he never gave up, calling on his faith in God to keep himself going (Miranda).”
By using this kind of language, the school system is not painting an accurate picture for the children in telling what life was really like for the Indians during the missions, and therefore this way of teaching needs to come to an end because of the damage it is causing.
With Miranda’s main argument being that the California school system is teaching children lies about the Missions that went on in California, she claims that they misinform the children about Indians and the way they teach the children needs to come to an end due to the damage that it is causing. In her first claim that children are being misinformed about Indian’s and their treatment during the missions. In this lesson for fourth graders learning about the missions in California it states:
“Last, but not least, cultural assimilation of the native Americans to Spanish religion as well as lifestyle was not pushed immediately or forcefully upon the Native Americans entering the mission, but rather the first generations of Nat. Americans who entered the missions were often allowed to keep many of their former practices and ways of life in the missions setting,”
greatly extending and also supporting Miranda’s claim on the information that the Indians were without a doubt mistreated, and forced/pushed into actions they didn’t want to participate in. Miranda’s article and the lesson plan connect in a way of showing that schools are indeed misinforming children about Indians, and textbooks expected to be used by the children would state that “At the missions, the priests worked to create loyal Spanish subjects. . . . They would move the California Indians into the missions, teach them to be Christians, and show them European ways (Miranda),” which connects to Miranda’s claim. Both Miranda’s article and this lesson plan relate to the topic on the Indian’s during the mission and the mistreatment of them, although the lesson plan tries to complicate Miranda’s claim by opposing, but instead it extends her claim by showing that the school systems really do mislead children when talking about Indians, and the daily events that took place during the missions.
Another one of Miranda’s claims was that the way the school was teaching the children about the missions needs to come to an end due to the damage that is being caused with the lies. Recently the Pope announced that Junipero Serra would be declared a saint due to all the “good” deeds he did during the 1700 missions in California. This created a huge controversy between people due to many people living in California and people who are Native American, feeling like Serra was anything but a saint. Schools in California teach children that the missions were a good thing that happened, even though it completely destroyed the Indian culture and eventually most of the population.
Today children are lead to believe that Indians don’t even exist, that they all died during the missions (Miranda) and with that creates major damage in the sense of that is completely false. Cutcha Baldy, a Native American writer, wrote an article “Pope Francis decides to make Father Junipero Serra a saint OR In Which I Tell Pope Francis he needs to take a Native Studies class like stat,” which states her argument that Serra is anything but a saint and she goes into detail on all the reasons why. Cutcha’s article illustrates Miranda’s claim by explaining what really happened during the missions and how the school is teaching lies to children, which in Miranda’s opinion need to come to an end. Cutcha goes off to explain how “massive mission system [was] attempting to “civilize” and convert Native people to Catholicism,” but in reality it turned into wiping out the whole Indian population.
The school systems try to make the missions seem less horrific than what it really was and by doing that Miranda claims that it’s not right and needs to come to an end. Cutcha’s article connects to Miranda’s article by expressing how the missions were a terrible event that happened to the Indians, and in that sense they share a common ground with they’re hatred for the missions and some of the outcomes in present day times. For Cutcha she’s disapproves that Serra was claimed to be a saint by the pope, while Miranda disapproves the school system teaching lies to the children about the missions, and paint a false image for it.
As a whole, the outside texts like Cutcha’s article and the mission lesson only support Miranda’s argument that the California school systems paint a false image of the California mission in which they are basically telling the children lies. They show that the way the schools are describing the missions aren’t completely accurate, which is exactly was Miranda is arguing for. Miranda being Native American and a professor she establishes ethos naturally and by explaining that lying to children is morally wrong, she also establishes pathos in her article with using facts and personal stories to insert logos as the final piece.
The article written by Miranda and her argument effected me in a way of allowing me to be more aware of what really happened with the missions in California, and how the school systems paint a fairytale out of it. Coming from Missouri, learning about the missions was not a priority in our education. Miranda’s article helped me understand that even school systems can manipulate and easily influence children in a way that in the long run can cause more damage than they thought of.
