Page "Spanish missions in California" Paragraph 21

By way of confiscation of the missions between 1834 and 1838 the approximately 15, 000 resident neophytes lost the protection of the mission system, along with their stock and other movable property ; by the transfer of California to the United States, they were left without legal title to their land.

Via the Act of September 30, 1850, Congress appropriated funds to allow the President to appoint three Commissioners, O. M. Wozencraft, Redick McKee and George W. Barbour, to study the California situation and "... negotiate treaties with the various Indian tribes of California.

" Treaty negotiations ensued during the period between March 19, 1851 and January 7, 1852, during which the Commission interacted with 402 Indian chiefs and headmen ( representing approximately one-third to one-half of the California tribes ) and entered into eighteen treaties.

California Senator William M. Gwin's Act of March 3, 1851 created the Public Land Commission, whose purpose was to determine the validity of Spanish and Mexican land grants in California.

On February 19, 1853 Archbishop J. S.

Alemany filed petitions for the return of all former mission lands in the state.

Ownership of 1, 051. 44 acres ( for all practical intents being the exact area of land occupied by the original mission buildings, cemeteries, and gardens ) was subsequently conveyed to the Church, along with the Cañada de los Pinos ( or College Rancho ) in Santa Barbara County comprising, and La Laguna in San Luis Obispo County, consisting of.

As the result of a U. S. government investigation in 1873, a number of Indian reservations were assigned by executive proclamation in 1875.

The commissioner of Indian affairs reported in 1879 that the number of Mission Indians in the state was down to around 3, 000.