Children of Coyote, Missinaries of Saint Francis

In this examination of Indian-Spanish relations in colonial California, Hackel focuses on local events at particular missions, places those events in the context of the California mission system, and draws comparisons between colonial California and other areas of the Spanish Borderlands, New Spain, and early modern Europe. He explores the incorporation of Indian communities into the missions, their demographic decline, conflicts between Indian and Spanish notions of marriage and sexuality, Franciscan religious instruction, Indian labor, mission-presidio economic relationships, and the Spanish legal system.