What jobs did Native people perform at Mission Santa Clara?
Native Californians baptized at Mission Santa Clara entered an unfree labor system that was designed to support the Spanish colony. Men worked in agriculture, either as field hands or with livestock. Others built the mission buildings. Women often created goods for use at the mission and practiced crafts such as weaving.
Because nearly everyone worked at the mission, most individuals’ contributions went unrecorded. However, the mission records can help us identify the specific jobs that some Native people held at Mission Santa Clara.
In most cases, the surviving records identify individuals who worked closely with the Franciscans in the running of the church (for example, as interpreters, pages, or sacristans) or those who held jobs that gave them extraordinary freedom (for example, cowboys or boatmen).
![Louis Choris, Danse des Californiens [at San Francisco], California Cornerstones: Selected Images from The Bancroft Library Pictorial Collection. The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.](https://www.scu.edu/media/college-of-arts-and-sciences/native-cemetery-memorial-website/ohlone-cropped-galler-version.png)
Louis Choris, Habitants de Californie. The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
BIOGRAPHIES
Ohlone village mural (detail) - concept design provided by Linda Yamane, Ohlone artist and consultant, in collaboration with artist Amy Hosa; final mural painted by Andhi Spath of Pacific Studio, assisted by Chris White.
Carlos María, Ohlone, Carlos María, Ohlone, 1766-1785
Born before the Spanish arrived in the Bay Area, Carlos María spent his childhood in his ancestral village near present-day Cupertino. Carlos María entered the mission system alone on December 28, 1777, around the age of 11. The Franciscans failed to record his Native name.
Carlos’ father was deceased and his mother, Tomojom, was not baptized until after Carlos María’s death in the spring of 1785 at age 19. It is possible that Carlos María’s mother had her son baptized as a way to protect her family from the unknowns of the early mission period.
Carlos María married a young Ohlone woman named María Delphina in 1783, but she died less than a year later. In the last years of his short life, Carlos María served as a sacristan at Mission Santa Clara. In this role, he likely assisted priests in managing and maintaining the sacristy, altar, and church, while also ensuring proper execution of liturgical functions.
Baptismal# 68a, Marriage# 62, Death# 240
CONNECTION TO TODAY
Monica V. Arellano of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area reflects on daily life at Mission Santa Clara and how the struggles endured by ancestors impact Tribal life and descendants into the present.