Land and Rights

The Mexican National Congress passed the Secularization Act of 1833 to reduce the power of the Catholic Church and open up mission lands for colonization and settlement (Allen 70). Even though the Indigenous peoples in California were promised grants of land and citizenship, it didn't come into fruition. Many neophytes were forced into new forms of labor, often working as servants or laborers for Mexican ranchers. Violence and punishment persisted, and those who were displaced or left without work were often criminalized as "horse thieves" (Haas 165, 178).

Allotments of mission land were supposed to be for Indigenous individuals and families at first, but they were mostly available for wealthy settlers and Californios to acquire. At Mission Santa Inés, many members in the Chumash community were able to receive small tracts of land in 1844, but it was rare for them to have substantial portions of land for ranches (Haas 170-171). Not much is mentioned about the Chumash owning their own land, but the mission emphasizes how the Franciscan order continued their work by establishing a spiritual presence for the neophytes who remained under their guidance. Again, this narrative centers around missionary benevolence while overlooking the broader structures of dispossession. 

Outside of the mission grounds, there are signs that mark which tracts of land are owned by the Chumash nation. But their presence is overshadowed by the Danish-settled town of Solvang, which claims a good portion of what was once Chumash territory. The built environment functions as another layer of erasure as the mission's history is still told through a European lens.

Citations

Allen, Rebecca. "Alta California Missions and the Pre-1849 Transformation of Coastal Lands." Historical Archaeology, vol. 44, no. 3, 2010, pp. 70. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/25762258.

Haas, Lisbeth. "Indigenous Landowners and Native Ingenuity on the Borderlands of Northern Mexico." Saints and Citizens: Indigenous Histories of Colonial Missions and Mexican California, 1st ed., University of California Press, 2014, pp. 165, 170-171, 178. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt5hjhhx.11.