Disease and Demographic Patterns at Santa Cruz Mission, Alta California

The establishment of Santa Cruz Mission in 1791 in northern Alta California introduced a tragic pattern of high mortality and low birth rates to the Indian community living in the region, which led to a dramatic decline in population levels. Epidemics, respiratory disease, and dysentery exacted a heavy mortality. Missionaries at Santa Cruz baptized 2,321 Indians between 1791 and 1846, but only 557 of these were natal baptisms (i.e., baptisms of children born at the mission), an average of 10 births per year (Santa Cruz Baptismal Register). Continual decline in the mission population forced the missionaries to recruit gentiles (non-Christian Indians) from the coastal mountains north and east of modern-day Watsonville and ultimately from the Central Valley in order to maintain a sufficiently large labor force. The basic pattern described above, the inability of the Indian population to stabilize in the face of high death rates, was not unique to Santa Cruz, but occurred in other mission groupings in northwestern New Spain. To understand the dynamics of Indian depopulation at Santa Cruz Mission, a number of demographic patterns can be examined that document high mortality and its manifestations. To calculate the degree of decline among the local population and population fluctuations, it is necessary to estimate a contact population size for the Santa Cruz area. Furthermore, a discussion of gentile recruitment as related to total mission population sheds further light on the process of demographic change