big cattle ranches called ranchos in California.

And so many of people leaving the missions often could participate in some of the same labor tasks at the ranchos as they could at the missions.

And these were largely gendered, so women were often domestic servants, cooks, things like that.

Men, particularly cowboys or vaqueros in Spanish, scholars have said had the most seamless transition from the missions to the ranchos and probably enjoyed quite a bit of independence because they could be out on that cattle range.

But unlike the mission, the ranchos did in some cases pay people, pay Native people, and certainly there was less oversight in religious matters and kind of the whole aspect of cultural assimilation.

The ranchos really just wanted labor.

and didn't really care about the rest of it.

So that is something that we explore through mainly looking at the petitions in that mostly exploring those land grants that were given to indigenous folks of the Bay Area.

Did any of that change the exploitation of native labor that we mentioned earlier?

earlier?Yes and no.

So the, you know, the missions, um, operated under, you know, what a lot of scholars would say was kind of like a forced communalism.

Native people were not really allowed to leave the missions except with permission, and part of the, um, realities of living in a mission community w- were that you were expected to, um, perform daily labor tasks.

Of course, native people basically say this is-- that we were enslaved.

Our ancestors were enslaved.

Um, and so, you know, you could argue the finer points of that, but I think the lived experience was probably very akin to enslavement.

So that is something that we, we explore, uh, through mainly looking at the, this, the petitions and that mostly exploring the, those land grants that were given to, um, Indigenous folks, uh, of the Bay Area.

Did any of that change the exploitation of Native labor that we mentioned earlier?

Yes and no.

So the missions operated under what a lot of scholars would say was kind of like a forced communalism.

Native people were not really allowed to leave the missions except with permission and part of the realities of living in a mission community were that you were expected to perform daily labor tasks.

Of course, Native people basically say this is that we were enslaved, our ancestors were enslaved.

And so, you could argue the finer points of that, but I think the lived experience was probably very akin to enslavement.

And so when the missions were secularized, that means they were turned into parish churches.

So that is something that we explore through mainly looking at the petitions in that mostly exploring those land grants that were given to indigenous folks of the Bay Area.

Did any of that change the exploitation of native labor that we mentioned earlier?

Yes and no.

So the, you know, the missions, um, operated under, you know, what a lot of scholars would say was kind of like a forced communalism.

Native people were not really allowed to leave the missions except with permission, and part of the, um, realities of living in a mission community w-were that you were expected to, um, perform daily labor tasks.

Of course, native people basically say this is-- that we were enslaved.

Our ancestors were enslaved.

Um, and so, you know, you could argue the finer points of that, but I think the lived experience was probably very akin to enslavement.

So that is something that we, we explore, uh, through mainly looking at the-- this-- the petitions and that mostly exploring the-- those land grants that were given to, um, Indigenous folks, uh, of the Bay Area.

big cattle ranches called ranchos in California.

And so many of people leaving the missions often could participate in some of the same labor tasks at the ranchos as they could at the missions.

And these were largely gendered, so women were often domestic servants, cooks, things like that.

Men, particularly cowboys or vaqueros in Spanish, scholars have said had the most seamless transition from the missions to the ranchos and probably enjoyed quite a bit of independence because they could be out on that cattle range.

But unlike the mission, the ranchos did in some cases pay people, pay Native people, and certainly there was less oversight in religious matters and kind of the whole aspect of cultural assimilation.

The ranchos really just wanted labor.

and didn't really care about the rest of it.

So that is something that we explore through mainly looking at the petitions in that mostly exploring those land grants that were given to indigenous folks of the Bay Area.