Slag--Here is a nice summary of the genocide that Junipero Serra supervised.Indian Country Diaries, California Genocide


I lifted this little comment, with a cited quote, from Lies I was Raised With--which is a long and meandering essay about the Native American Genocide written by an activist who once attended Junipero Serra Elementary School in Ventura--

>Serra's legacy was the death of at least half of California's native population, and a much >greater extermination rate in mission country, of around 90%.

>The authors of Indians, Franciscans, and Spanish Colonization stated,

>"Indian demographic collapse in the missions was not intended but intentional, since >Franciscan congregación [forcing the Indians into the missions and keeping them there under >force - Ed.] continued despite the negative impacts on Indians even though one civil official, >governor Diego de Borica in the 1790s, identified the problem and suggested solutions never i>mplemented by the Franciscans."[55] 

Whatever was in Father Serra's heart, it doesn't excuse genocide--and, even by the standards of his time, his treatment of the Native population wasn't simple a "human foible"---