The Indians had legal status similar to that of child citizens;

Indians were not property, and owned the mission ranch land. Indians were not given control of the land, but their ownership of it was guaranteed;

Physical punishments applied to Indians such as beatings for theft or continued absence from the mission land were ordinarily those used for children or apprentices. Considered excessive or cruel in modern times, they were milder than those used in most European societies in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries. Punishments for serious crimes were comparable to those used throughout Europe.;

Indian homes at the missions were often better than those of the soldiers;

Independent commentaries written about life at the missions do not agree on the severity or mildness of the treatment of the Indians. The only one written by a mission Indian (Pablo Tac, 1835) does not mention any severity;

On several occasions when large groups of Indians left missions due to revolt, they did come back later at the request of the friars. Armed Indians defended the missions on several occasions;

Indian Catholic priests worked here in California during the 1850's, 60's, and 70's;

Most native people in coastal California never joined the missions;

A number of friars were removed from the missions because their superiors considered them to be too harsh. Military commanders sometimes complained that the friars were too lenient, others, that they were too strict.

We teach that the Indians were neither slave nor free, but legally similar to child citizens of the empire and members of an economic commune. Consequently, the terms slave or free do not describe their status in the Spanish colonies.