Describe, honestly and respectfully, the mission system's impact on Native Californians, including disease, forced labor, and loss of land and culture, alongside examples of resistance.
This week takes an honest look at something hard: the mission system caused serious harm to Native Californians. The single biggest cause of death was disease -- measles, smallpox, and other illnesses that Europeans carried but Native Californians had never been exposed to before, so their bodies had no natural defense against them. These diseases killed far more people than any other single cause during the mission era. Beyond disease, many Native Californians did not freely choose to join a mission, could not simply leave once baptized, faced corporal punishment for breaking mission rules or trying to leave, and saw their traditional land, language, and religious practices restricted as mission herds and fields expanded across their home territory.
It is just as true, and important, that Native Californians were not only victims in this story -- many resisted. In 1775, Kumeyaay warriors attacked and burned Mission San Diego. In 1785, a Tongva woman named Toypurina helped organize a plan to resist Mission San Gabriel. These acts of resistance do not erase the harm, but they are a true and necessary part of the record: Native Californians pushed back against a system imposed on them, using whatever power they had.
Mastery looks like: They can state that disease was the largest cause of death, describe at least one other real harm, and name one real example of Native resistance.
Common stumbles: Overwhelming a young learner with graphic detail; or, in the other direction, softening the history so much that the real harm is lost.