Re: American Food and American Indians

[Guest guest]

>

> Something in our food contributes to adipose growth. In a

> PBS special " The West " it talks about the priest who went to

> early California, writing about " converted " Indians: " They

> get fat on our food and die. "

> Maybe the wheat, oats?

>

> Regards.

>

>

JW,

It may not have been only the food that killed them. The American

Indians were grossly mistreated. The Indians were virtually slaves

who probably were fed the worst kind of food.

http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/serra.htm

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Despite the frequent conflicts between military and religious

authority, for Alta California's Indians the missions and their

Franciscan administrators were part and parcel of an enormously

destructive colonization process. The Spanish, largely through

disease, were responsible for a population decline from about 300,000

Indians in 1769 to about 200,000 by 1821. The strenuous work regime

and high population density within the missions themselves also caused

high death rates among the mission Indians. By law, all baptized

Indians subjected themselves completely to the authority of the

Franciscans; they could be whipped, shackled or imprisoned for

disobedience, and hunted down if they fled the mission grounds. Indian

recruits, who were often forced to convert nearly at gunpoint, could

be expected to survive mission life for only about ten years. As one

Friar noted, the Indians " live well free but as soon as we reduce them

to a Christian and community life... they fatten, sicken, and die. "

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