The Demise of Native Californians

Southern California Native people suffered brutally at the hands of newcomers to the area beginning in the late 18th century with the arrival of Spanish missionaries, followed by Mexican “Californio” rancheros, followed by Americans and other European immigrants starting in the early-mid 19th century.
Until the arrival of these immigrants to the New World, California had the greatest populations of Native peoples anywhere north of the Valley of Mexico, some estimates even as high as one million.  Native people have occupied Southern California for at least eleven thousand years!
Within a century of occupation by foreigners, the native population had been decimated to a few thousand people scattered around the region. Many had to hide their Indian identity in order to survive, or to avoid forced relocation to postage stamp-size reservations, adopting Spanish surnames or marrying and mixing in with Mexican and other ethnic families. That tribes and bands of California natives exist at all today is not just a miracle, but a testament to the resistance, tenacity and strength that resides within humans when they are constantly under the pressure of annihilation.