Abstract
Mapping Cultural and Social Change in California Missions
Track: User Presentations - Teaching
Authors: james sandos, Tish Sandos, David Smith, Diana Sinton
Using a database of priestly registers kept at every mission in the state of California from 1770s-1840s, we have mapped Indian languages and villages in the Mission San José outreach area. Using the time slider function of ArcMap,these maps show change overtime as high mortality rates forced priests to recruit new members at ever greater distances from the mission compound. Furthermore, the project maps Mission Indian elite groups who acted as brokers to aid the transition of newcomers to the mission.
As part of the Learning Spatially initiative at the University of Redlands, this project not only contributes to new scholarship on California's missions, it also provides tools to aid 4th grade teachers in telling the mission story accurately and free from myth. A further project goal is to develop a template to allow fourth graders to map individuals and families throughout the California Mission system.