Title: Digital History
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Content: In increasing numbers Indians deserted and mission buildings fell into disrepair. Mexican independence led to the final demise of California's mission system. Soldiers, rancheros, and farmers coveted the rich coastal lands that the missions controlled. Between 1834 and 1836, the Mexican government confiscated California mission properties and exiled the Franciscan friars. The missions were secularized--broken up and their property sold or given away to private citizens. Secularization was supposed to return the land to the Indians. The plan for secularization of 1834 assigned one half the mission lands and property to neophytes in grants of thirty-three acres of arable land along with land "in common" sufficient "to pasture their stock." In addition, one half of the mission herds were divided proportionately among the neophyte families. In actuality, however, most Indians either were put to work on ranchos or went to live among Indians in the interior. Some former mission Indians congregated in local rancherías (dwelling areas on the perimeter of a hacienda) where an indigenous Spanish and mestizo culture developed.