Research paper by Yessica Islas & Jalena Radovic
University of Santa Clara

Summarized & condensed by Maria Rieger
Moraga History Center Researcher

The expedition of Juan Bautista de Anza took place in 1775-1776, bringing early settlers from Tubac, New Mexico to what is today California and finally becoming the founders of the Presidio of San Francisco. They also founded missions San Francisco de Asis (called Dolores) and Santa Clara, as well as the Pueblo de San Jose.

Each of those establishments would need houses for the living and a "camposanto" (holy ground or burial grounds) for those who died. The expedition members were Roman Catholics and their ancient religion was about to be introduced to the Ohlone of the Bay Area, who similarly had an ancient set of beliefs. This paper deals on how their burial practices differed and affected each group.

The Ohlone believed that although the body dies, the soul goes into another world called "The Island of Death", where all the souls of the dead go after death. (Malcolm Marolin, 1977 book).

The Ohlone carried out fundamental rituals they believed were needed to avoid angering the ghost of the deceased, which they greatly feared. Weeping and sobbing involving all the village members began even before death. The widow cut her hair with a knife and burned it with live coals, smearing her face and head with ashes and beating herself with pestles. Messengers were sent to other villages (actually small rancherias) to come and join in the rituals. Friends and relatives would gather firewood for a pyre in which the corpse of the deceased was burned along with his/her belongings.

The body, sometimes adorned with feathers and beads, was positioned in a special manner, placing the knees under the chin and the hands against the cheeks. Once the body was put in this flexed position, it was wrapped in blankets and skins and laid upon the pyre to be burnt. All the possessions of the deceased were gathered throughout the village and were broken, cracked or disfigured in some way, in other words "killed" and thrown onto the pyre to be burned with the body.

The guests mourned piteously and from time to time danced around the pyre. At times they threw valued possessions, such as beads, baskets or garments into the pyre, as gifts to the deceased person.

Once the ceremony was finalized, the corpse handlers were given gifts and underwent a ritual of cleansing that consisted of bathing, fasting and chanting that lasted for days until their bodies were "made new".

The cremation of the deceased was common in the San Francisco Bay Area, unless the deceased had too few friends and relatives to gather the necessary firewood, in which case the body along with the deceased possessions were buried and not cremated. In other areas burial was more common and cremation reserved for important people.

Whether the body was cremated or buried, the Ohlone believed that the soul began its journey westward across the ocean to the Island of the Dead, where it was greeted with great parties, dances, and food. However, this was not considered a happy land and family members and villagers feared that the soul might stay amongst them and cause serious damage.

A widow remained confined for a year after her husband's death, as if contaminated. After a year she would return to her normal living and was able to remarry (Note 1). Mentioning the name of a deceased was taboo, as even pronouncing the name of a dead person was to court disaster.

This practice brought problems when the Spanish arrived in California. Father Amoros of Mission San Carlos expressed frustration at not being able to trace their ancestors, as the Ohlone were not able to mention their names and had no recording ways. This was another difference between the two cultures and their views about death and the world of the spirits.

The Spanish

Within the Spanish colonial world, attitudes towards death were intrinsically tied to the Roman Catholic faith. The Church was one side of the coin with which colonization took place, the other side being military power. The attitudes," rituals and beliefs regarding death were integrated in the Roman Catholic tradition and were the same in all the Spanish Empire.

Death was viewed as a transition from which the soul, which inhabited the physical body, began living a spiritual life. It was not the end of existence, but rather the beginning of an eternal one.

Death permeated into every aspect of the lives of those living in the colonies. Colonists were frequently reminded that the saints and angels lived in the present, in a parallel life, not just in the past. The priest was fundamental in aiding the dying process to ensure that humans would go to a new and better existence after life.

During the late 18th and early 19th century, when a person was close to death, a priest would be called for the final rites. Without his aid to perform these final rites the process of dying was believed incomplete. The rites were offered as confession, penance, absolution, communion and extreme unction. A crucifix was placed in the hands of the dying person and when he/she had stopped breathing the church bells would ring their "toque de muerte" (toll of death) informing the entire community of the passing of one of its members.

After this, the wake would take place, as village members came to pay their respects. The body was kept in the house, illuminated with candles. The body was washed, clothed and prepared for the funeral, which usually took place the following day. The body was carried on a litter (palajuela) to the church, where a brief ceremony took place. The procession then proceeded to the cemetery, where a priest would say the final prayers. Mourners expressed their grief over the death by sobbing loudly and in the case of a deceased person of high social status, groups of women called "lloronas" wailing as an expression of grief, were an integral part of the funeral procession.

Cultures Colliding

Archaeologists have been able to find out how the dead were buried at the Missions, thanks to digs conducted at several locations. In Santa Barbara, coffins made of redwood boards were found, decorated with two different sizes of square nails. The lid of the casket was covered in coarse fabric, held over the wood with flat-headed copper tacks. In Santa Clara Mission, there have also been finds of nails and square cut tacks. This pattern can be found in mission sites around the country. In Saint Augustine, Florida, for example, "Spanish coffins were decorated with iron and brass tacks and nails." In some locations, personal adornment items have been found. In Santa Clara, coffins contained a high number of them.

During the era of the establishment of the missions in California, they were the sites where Spanish and Ohlone cultures came together. The Spanish lifestyle was imposed on the Ohlone, as the Indians were regarded by the Spanish as "gente sin razon" (people without reason) and were expected and forced to adopt Spanish customs and rituals, as the only correct way to salvation. Only by assimilating and changing their culture and activities, would the Indians become "gente de razon" (people of reason.)

One example of an Ohlone ritual that was prohibited by the Spanish was the burning of corpses and their possessions. Conflicts emerged when the Padres reacted in surprise to this burning.

For example, When Father Magin Catala died in 1830 at Mission Santa Clara, the part-Ohlone Clarenos, who had loved him, wanted to help him proceed to the afterlife. A witness, Felix Buelna, had to rush to preserve one of the deceased's prayer books, as the Indians burned all of his belongings as it was their custom. It is important to note that this took place in 1830, fifty-three years after the establishment of the missions and by natives who were mostly second generation Christians.

Another difference was the ideologies about life after death. Although both cultures believed in the continued existence of the soul after death, as mentioned before, the beliefs of its destination greatly contrasted each other. What was seen in the missions was religious syncretism (an attempt to reconcile different doctrines) that is, an incorporation of new beliefs into old ones, not totally abandoned. "The fact that Catholicism became part of the lives of the Ohlone and other California Native Americans cannot be denied (as their descendants remain faithful parishioners of most missions to our days), but there was a decree of syncretism throughout the missions era, in part because of the continuing movement of new recruits into the missions." (Russell Skowronek, 1998 study).

One example of practices continued by the Indians was their practice of painting their bodies red or black when they were mourning. According to La Perouse, the priests compromised and forbid only the use of red paint, permitting them to continue painting their faces in black, a traditional European color of mourning. This example shows the resiliency of a culture that was forced to change its ways. The attitude and prohibition by the priests changed from mission to mission; therefore the degree of practices that were maintained also varied. Some missionaries even found it beneficial to permit certain practices, in order to draw more natives to conversion.

Because of the clear power structure and the religious nature of the missions, Indians assimilated into Spanish culture and rituals. However, this did not happen without them maintaining some of their cultural beliefs and ideas. The conversion process did not strip away life-long beliefs, but set the stage for a compromise, one in which new ideas became fused with old ones.

NOTE 1, by Maria Rieger
The researchers do not say what happened when women died, whether widowers were also "purged" and had to cover themselves with ashes. Probably they found no documentation on the subject. However, knowing how these same ceremonies are held in countries like India, probably these taboos were imposed only on women.