THE MISSION SAN FERNANDO FALLS INTO RUIN.

CHERISHING OUR VALLEY           2013

     Many Americans are unaware that before our Revolution, the Church of England (the Anglican Church) was the official or established religion of our colonies. Priests of the English church were paid by the crown, and not surprisingly for the most part they resisted our independence. Americans were required to support England's church and its properties through taxation. It is not surprising that our nation's political founders wrote into the Constitution that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion".

     The Spanish empire also had its established religion, the Roman Catholic Church. The king and queen of Spain called themselves their "most Catholic majesties."  Spanish missions, like those in Alta California, were as much factories to produce obedient Spanish subjects as to save their souls. The missions San Fernando Rey de España (Saint Ferdinand King of Spain) and San Gabriel were part of that system.

     At the time when the heroic people of Mexico overthrew their Spanish masters, one in every four acres of land in Mexico were the property of the Catholic Church.  (Some historians claim that half of the land of Mexico was owned by Spain's established church.) In 1833, the new Republic of Mexico secularized the California missions, removing them from the authority of Spanish bishop and  religious orders under the control of Spain and made them into community parish churches. Church lands were turned over to ranchers and others loyal to the new Mexican Republic. For the Indians who provided free labor for the missions, working for the rancheros was little more than an a transfer of owners.

No longer under the control of the Catholic Church, the Mission San Fernando fell into disrepair and ruin. Historic postcard of the Mission San Fernando from Gary Fredburg 2013.  (click on the image to enlarge it.)

THE SANTA SUSANA PASS CONNECTS TWO COUNTIES

CHERISHING OUR VALLEY                    2013

The Santa Susana Pass was a steep and scary trail, when it served as one of the few connection paths

joining the Chumash of Ventura County and the Native Tongva people of the San Fernando Valley. The pathway was one of the few travel alternatives for 8,000 years prior to the arrival of Spanish Europeans. 

Coastal trails coming up from San Diego disappeared when they met the high cliffs of the Malibu coast. And, because sea travel was very difficult for the Chumash with their small redwood log canoe, the rugged Santa Susanna Pass at the northwestern end of the San Fernando Valley was an important connection from pre-historic times. 

In the mid-1800s, the path was turned into a road by the new California state government. One of its early uses was for stage coaches and freight wagons. 

 When I first began teaching at Moorpark College, I had to use this narrow road through the Santa Susana Pass from my home in what is now West Hills. It took me a long, long time.

Santa Susana Pass - Vintage Postcard - Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Gary Fredburg 2013 - (click on the image to enlarge it.) The Pass goes between the Santa Susana Mountains and the Simi Hills.

The Expedition of Gaspar de Portola entered the San Fernando Valley through the Sepulveda Pass on August 5th, 1769. The Expedition was seeking an inland pass to get around the impassible Malibu cliffs. There is no proof that scouts from that group found the Santa Susan Pass, but the name of the location may hold a clue. The feast of the Catholic saint, Saint Susana has long been celebrated on August 9th. This was four days after the Spaniard explorers arrived in the Valley.

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USEFUL RESOURCE FOR STUDENTS OF SAN FERNANDO VALLEY HISTORY

CHERISHING OUR VALLEY             2013

Bob Lisenby, Board Member of the Campo de Cahuenga Memorial Historical Association has shared with us a very important information site of the Huntington (Library) in Pasadena. Here are some of the values available through the site for historians:
http://www.huntington.org/information/ecppmain.htm

•	Community historians can study in greater detail the individuals and families who settled California’s first presidios and pueblos
•	Anthropologists and ethno-historians can examine the settlement patterns of Indians in Alta California and their movement to the missions
•	Historical demographers can bring greater detail to their attempts to understand the pace and magnitude of Indian population decline in Alta California
•	Scholars of religion can study the practice and administration of Catholicism in the California missions and the lives of California’s Franciscans
•	Social historians can study the structure and growth of the missions and the secular communities of Spanish and Mexican California
•	Genealogists can more easily trace and identify the people who lived in California from 1769 to 1850
•	Historians of colonial America can more easily incorporate regions and peoples beyond the eastern seaboard into the narrative of our country’s early history, and
•	Scholars can attain an increased awareness of the tremendous diversity that has long characterized the people of the Golden State and the American Southwest

NEW OLD IMAGES OF THE MISSION SAN FERNANDO

CHERISHING OUR VALLEY                       2013

The Mission San Fernando Rey de España has many reasons for being viewed as a major treasure in our community. Founded as a bastion of empire of Spain, the mission brought Catholic Christianity to our region of Southern California, was secularized by the government of an independent Mexico, was scouted by Kit Carson, allowed to fall into ruin by Andreas Pico as an adjunct to his rancho, provided an overnight retreat  for the leader of the world's Catholics Pope John Paul II, and continues to this day in both historic and modern roles. 

Cemetery of the Mission San Fernando Rey c. 1895 - historic postcard - gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Gary Fredburg 2013.  (click on image to enlarge it.)

This "Santo Campo," seen here in a neglected state, continues its original function today as Mission Cemetery. Very near this ancient burial site, the beloved performer Bob Hope and Dolores Hope are buried.

 Travelers in covered wagons at the Mission San Fernando c. 1895.  Excerpted from a booklet entitled the Fabulous San Fernando Valley published by Western Federal Savings - date unknown.  Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Gary Fredburg 2013. (click on image to enlarge it - and view section of the photograph below.)

"The only known existing photograph of a San Fernando Mission Indian Woman"  Fabulous San Fernando Valley published by Western Federal Savings - date unknown.  Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Gary Fredburg 2013. (click on image to enlarge it.)

WAS ROJERIOR REALLY 124 YEARS OLD?

CHERISHING OUR VALLEY                     2013

Rojerior - Historic Postcard 1899 - Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Gary Fredburg 2013.  (click on image to enlarge it.) 

Was Rojerior, the Tongva (Fernandino) Indian choir master, 124 years old in 1899?  Rojerior volunteered at the Mission San Fernando Rey de España. This was the claim on a postcard published by M. Reider in Los Angeles in 1899. and mailed to Miss Cora Brown at 6026 Echo Street in Los Angeles.

Many people in the 19th century were unaware of their actual birth dates. No doubt calling Rojerior 124 would be better for post card sales as well.

DAY 3 - CHUMASH PEOPLE IN CALABASAS

CHERISHING OUR VALLEY      2013

      Not much has changed in the area along Ventura Boulevard from Woodlake to Valley Circle Drive, since my first walking experience there a few years ago.  Three uninspiring office buildings face the boulevard and two private residences. There is a long, boarded up building that serves as a Christmas tree lot in the winter. A tinsel decorated booth stands sadly in the vacant tree lot.

        Day 3 was the perfect time for the battery of my camera to die, so I made an attempt to use my cell phone camera. In the meanwhile, here are a few photographs of the American Indian replica houses in Calabasas Creek Park.

 

       Two groups of Native Americans lived in the western most parts of the San Fernando Valley, at the time of the Spanish conquest. They were the Chumash and the Tongva. They appear to have been relatively peaceful. Air-filled tulle reeds were used by the Tongva as bed mats and for insulated sides of their huts.

        As progressive as the Native Americans were in the days before the arrival of the Spaniards, it is doubtful that they had ancient rebar. Instead they likely used carefully cured branches of willow.

THE VALLEY'S FIRST EUROPEAN NAME

PRESERVING OUR VALLEY HERITAGE     2013

 Santa Catalina de Bononia de Los Encinos  - Holiday Card by Gerald Fecht 2012

     In the year 1791, a group of Spanish explorers climbed their way through what is now called the Sepulveda Pass and entered the San Fernando Valley. Within that expedition, led by Gaspar de Portolå, was Franciscan friar Padre Juan Crespi. The adventurous Spaniards were seeking an inland route from Santa Monica Bay around the impassable jagged rocks of the Malibu coast.

     Father Crispi wrote in his journal: "We saw a very pleasant and spacious valley. We descended into it and stopped close to a watering place, which is a large pool. Near it we found a village of heathen, very friendly and docile. We gave this plain the name of Santa Catalina de Bononia de las Encinos. It has on the hills and its valleys many live oak and walnuts.

     The site where the Portolå Expedition stopped can be visited to this day. It is the beautiful Los Encinos Historical Monument on the northeast corner of Ventura and Balboa Boulevards. The native Tongva Village has long disappeared but the warm spring that quenched their thirst forms forms a charming pool at the site. Descendents of the ancient Tongva still reside throughout the Los Angeles area. Early Spanish colonists called the road that passed Los Encinos northward toward the Mission San Juan Buenaventura, El Camino Real. Today called Ventura Boulevard, it is one of the busiest highways in the United States.

     The California live oaks (los encinos) that inspired the first European title for the San Fernando Valley, though endangered still grow throughout the region. Alas, few people today know of the Italian nun who was the Valley's first patron saint.

     Saint Catherine of Bolognia (Bononia in Spanish) was born in 1413 near the oldest university in Europe - founded in 1088 AD. She was raised as the privileged child of an aristocratic family, but rejected her advantages to serve her religion as a Franciscan sister in the Poor Clares, followers of the beloved saints Clare and Francis of Assisi. Catherine spent her life in service to the poor, in study and the creation of works of art. Today, Santa Catalina de Bononia is invoked as the patron saint of artists and as the protector of California live oak trees.

CAHUENGA TONGVA ENCAMPMENT

DISCOVERING OUR VALLEY     2011

I've been told that "gna" is an ancient Tongva word meaning village. The Tongva, sometime referred to as Mission Indians, Fernandiños or Gabrieliños spoke a Uto-Aztecan language.  Since the pre-European Tongva were hunter-gatherers, their villages appear to be temporary or seasonal gathering places. 

Temporary gna or gathering place of the Cahuenga Tongva people at the Hollywood entrance of the Caheunga Pass (date unknown). Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Michel Stevens 2011.  (click on image to enlarge)

LEARNING ABOUT THE TONGVA

2010 THE YEAR OF VALLEY ADVENTURES



Modern Americans of Tongva Heritage - Sanchez Adobe Montebello - June 2010 - Photo by Gerald Fecht for The Museum of the San Fernando Valley.

Contemporary concept of a Tongva hut at the time of the Spanish conquest. Mission San Gabriel Archangel 2010. Photo for the Archives of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley by Gerald Fecht 2010. (click on image to enlarge).

href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_0SkqXoTtKxyD4cLFRlfNTbIpBryzdBQ2g_IuyrL4pjfGz_4-XSxvK8uVx6rqZn4D8rKhcRjSoKXTZhnPdCt0Bq3He2C8HRrC6r-Ris8SOf6_KKkZ0JN3iCUNA0F5I1Y91OjRWiG6Cy0/s1600/TongvaDictionary.jpg">Rare manuscript dictionary of Tongva words. Museum of the Mission San Gabriel 2010. Little effort was made to preserve the languages of conquered populations.

Unfortunately for the Tongva and other native American tribal groups conquered by the Spanish, their new masters systematically eliminated their cultures. Tongva and Chumash children were brought into mission "schools" and required to speak only Spanish. When children or their parents were baptized, they were given Christian first names and Spanish surnames.

This frieze on the front of the new parish church at the Mission San Gabriel Archangel demonstrates clearly how the Spanish conquest of the native peoples of Los Angeles Country is depicted by those who won the encounter. Soldiers and ships are seen only in the background and a European missionary presents his theology to a docile and awaiting population.