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PrintFourth grader revolts against ‘mission madness’
Editor, Index-Tribune:
I am a fourth grader and read the article, “End the mission madness” (Index-Tribune Our Schools page, Jan. 29). I loved it because I feel that Native Americans were treated brutally and horribly by the padres.
Right now in my class, we are doing a unit on the missions and I believe that the subject of the Native Americans and their share of the mission period has been completely glossed over. When I brought up the subject to my teacher, she said that people can have different opinions, but I’ve heard her talk and I know she really means the missions are always right.
Thank you editor, and writer Sierra Jenkins, for publishing this article in the newspaper and showing people you don’t have to always believe what people want you to believe in.
Natalie Sandoval
Sonoma
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Congratulations, Natalie! You have already learned an important lesson about learning: Listen and read carefully, and Always ask questions. Never decide to accept something you hear or read as "fact" until you have had a chance to get answers to your questions and do your own research. Thanks to the internet, you have many ways to check facts which, as your teacher should know, are different than "opinions."
As you have discovered, fact-checking is particularly important when learning history, which is sometimes"revised" to make events or conditions in history appear better or different than they actually were, to serve some purpose of those doing the revision, or because people who write the books don't bother to research the facts. Official California state history acknowledges that the Indians were indeed treated brutally by priests at the Missions, & often kept in virtual slavery.
Likewise, Sonoma's General Mariano Vallejo, for whatever other good he may or may not have done, was said to once have been involved in the Indian slave trade. And your teacher may have told you that during the Gold Rush that followed California's independence from Mexico, Indians were systematically murdered by white settler militias.
Keep learning, Natalie!
I couldn't agree more with Mr. Edwards. Natalie, I am SO proud of you for being a critical thinker and asking lots of questions and I'm glad that you enjoyed my article. Keep talking to lots of people with different perspectives! No matter what age we are, we are always learning.