1. Spanish Missions in Georgia
A Document Based Lesson
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2. Georgia Performance Standard SS8H1
The student will evaluate the development of Native American cultures and the impact of European exploration and settlement on the Native American cultures in Georgia.
a. Describe the evolution of Native American cultures (Paleo, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian) prior to European contact.
b. Evaluate the impact of European contact on Native American cultures; include Spanish missions along the barrier islands, and the explorations of Hernando DeSoto.
c. Explain reasons for European exploration and settlement of North America, with emphasis on the interests of the French, Spanish, and British in the southeastern area.

3. Essential Question
What impact did Spanish Missions have on the Native American cultures of the late Mississippian Period?

4. Spanish Missions in Georgia
Overview:
The Spanish chapter of Georgia's earliest colonial history is dominated by the lengthy mission era, extending from 1568 through Catholic missions were the primary means by which Georgia's indigenous Native American chiefdoms were assimilated into the Spanish colonial system along the northern frontier of greater Spanish Florida.
The Documents
Document A: Indian-Spanish Map of Coastal Georgia (1930)
2. Document B: Location of Spanish Missions in Georgia (map)
Document C: Spanish Mission Efforts in the Southeast
Document D: Layout of a Mission Community
Document E: Repartimiento (Obligatory Labor)
Document F: Encomiendas & The Repartimiento System
Document G: Franciscan Friars Among the Native Americans of the Late Mississippian Period
Document H: Official Franciscan Report to His Majesty Philip III on October 16, 1612
Document I: Fray Blas Rodríguez : Final Sermon at Mission Santa Clara de Tupiqui
Document J: English Competition
Document K: Map of English Raids
Document L: Spanish Mission Ruins
Franciscan Friar
Content Source- New Georgia Encyclopedia (
Image Source-

5. Spanish Mission
A series of religious and military outposts established by Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan Order.
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Barrier Islands
A coastal landform and a type of barrier system, are relatively narrow strips of sand that are parallel to the mainland coast.
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Franciscan
Members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Franciscans led the Mission effort in the American Southeast.
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Colonial System
The establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory.
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6. Source- New Georgia Encyclopedia (http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org)

7. Background Essay Terms
Conversion
Mission
Friar
Mediation
Subordinate
Secular
Hereditary
Autonomy
Allegiance
Repartimiento

8. Hook Exercise
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Questions:
What message is the artist trying to convey in this cartoon image? ________________________________________________________________________________
How do you think this image relates to the “New World” colonization efforts made by Europeans during the late 16th Century? ________ ________________________________________________________________

9. Indian-Spanish Map of Coastal Georgia (1930)
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Questions:
According to this map, what was likely the “generic name” that the Spanish gave to Georgia’s coastal region? _______________________________
Using the map for reference, what was the likely reason that this place was chosen for the building of Spanish Missions (Churches)? ______________________________________________________________
Using your knowledge of geography and climate, what could be produced in the lands of Georgia’s coastal region? _______________________________
_______________________________

10. Missions in Georgia (Map)
Location of Spanish
Missions in Georgia (Map)
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Questions:
What were the three primary regions established by the Spanish during the Mission Period? ______________________
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What do you think was the primary cultural feature that made each region unique? ____
How many Spanish missions were there in Coastal Georgia? _____________________
What is a garrison? ___________________
What was the southern most mission? ____
What was the northern most mission? _____
On which of Georgia’s major geographical features were most of the missions located?

11. Spanish Mission Efforts in the Southeast
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Questions:
Besides Georgia’s coastal region, in which other parts of the American Southeast did the Spanish use missionaries to establish interlinked Christian (Catholic) communities? __________________________________________________________________________________
What are the basic economic needs of these small Christian communities? __________________________________________________________________________________

12. Layout of a Mission Community
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Questions:
Using the top picture for reference, what was the basic layout of a typical Spanish Mission village?
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According to architect Richard Thornton, Wahale (Guale) villages were required to place a cross and a Spanish flag near the entrance to their villages. Why do you think that they were required to do this?

13. Repartimiento (Obligatory Labor)
Instruction and order which is to be observed in the draft of the Indians who are going to be brought from the province of Guale for the cultivation of the fields of this city and presidio this present year of sixteen sixty-six, which is in the following form and manner:
Firstly, from the village of Guadalquini, five Indians.
From the villages of Santa Catharina and Satoache, eight Indians.
From the village of Sapala, four Indians.
From the village of Tupiqui, four Indians.
From the village of San Phelipe, four.
Which in all are twenty-five Indians, and it is consistent with this reckoning if it is suitable to draft more people. He will see the disposition which there is in each one of the villages, according to the people they have, altering the quantities if it is suitable, bringing a count and copy of the people who go, and how many from each village, so that with the same [count] they can return to their villages upon finishing the cultivation. And likewise he will give the Yamasee caciques who find themselves in that province to understand the great necessity which there is of people in order to cultivate the said fields, and by being suitable to the service of His Majesty, I order them to give as many Indians of their nation as they can for the said effect, assuring them on my behalf good treatment, and that I will have them paid for their labor.
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Questions:
How many Native Americans from the Guale province were forced into the system of obligatory labor in this account?
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What type of work were they to be doing? ________________
What would the Native Americans be guaranteed according to this decree?
What right did the Spanish colonial leaders reserve for the future of the agricultural season?
Spanish leaders proclaimed that the Native Americans were obliged to serve the King of Spain with their labor. Do you think that this proclamation was justified? What, if anything were the Spanish providing to the Native Americans to put them in their service?
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14. Encomiendas (Spanish Plantations) & The Repartimiento System
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Questions:
What are the roles played by the Spanish and the Native Americans in this depiction of life under the Repartimiento System?
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15. Franciscan Friars Among the Native Americans
of the Late Mississippian Period
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Questions:
How are the depictions of the two priests (friars) quite different from the portrayal of the Native Americans in this image? ___________________________
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16. Official Franciscan Report to His Majesty Philip III on October 16, 1612
“Though [the natives] did not kill them because of doctrine, it is certain that they slew them because of the Law of God they were teaching them and because of our moral precepts—so contrary to their way of life and their customs. Specifically they slew them because we would not consent that any married Christian should have more than one wife This is the reason which the Indians gave and, recognizing their sin, this day cite for their slaying of the friars. It is a recognized fact in this land that since the death of these blessed religious the native people have been turning more docile and peaceful, attaining their present state. It is the pious belief that these blessed ones are in God’s presence, interceding for the conversion of this land.”
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Questions:
The Native Americans of the region killed five friars of the principal missions in According to the account, these missionaries were killed because of irreconcilable cultural differences. What were these major differences?
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2. What other reasons might there have been for the murder of the missionaries?
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17. Fray Blas Rodríguez : Final Sermon at Mission Santa Clara de Tupiqui
“My sons, for me it is not difficult to die. Even if you do not cause it, the death of this body is inevitable. We must be ready at all times, for we, all of us, have to die someday. But what does pain me is that the Evil One has persuaded you to do this offensive thing against your God and Creator. It is a further source of deep grief to me that you are unmindful of what we missionaries have done for you in teaching you the way to eternal life and happiness.”
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Questions:
According to Fray (friar) Blas Rodríguez, what had the missionaries done for the Native Americans? _________________
___________________________
Do you think that the missionaries were sincere in their efforts to convert the Native Americans to Christianity? ________________
Was the Spanish colonial system an impediment to their mission work? ______________________

18. English Competition
“The English are united and confederated with another nation of thieving Indians called Chichimecos, so that these make war on and disturb the natives already converted to the Catholic religion, and who find themselves under obedience to His Majesty, entering in the provinces of this jurisdiction to do all evil and damage to them, induced by the said English.”
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Questions:
What motives do you think the English had for making military alliances with Muscogee speaking Native Americans living north of the Spanish Missions?
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What economic motives do you think the English had for inducing the northern natives to attack Spanish settlements?
What religious motives do you think the English had for inducing the northern natives to attack?

19. Map of English Raids
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Questions:
Which Native American tribes allied themselves with the English in the struggle for control of the American Southeast? _______________
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What does this map show us about the waning Spanish influence in the American Southeast? _______________
What was probably the most important English stronghold in the American Southeast? ____
4. What were probably the two most important Spanish strongholds in the New World according to this map? ______

20. Spanish Mission Ruins
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Questions:
Using these images for reference, what was the ultimate fate of the Spanish Mission villages?
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What combination of factors led to their ultimate fate?

21. Decline of the Missions
Source:
Over the course of the mission period Indian population levels declined rapidly and substantially, plummeting well over 90 percent in many areas. Depopulation, combined with widespread forced resettlements dating to 1656 and 1657, eventually led to the abandonment of Georgia's interior missions. Beginning with a devastating 1661 raid on the Santo Domingo de Talaje Mission at the mouth of the Altamaha River, there were also armed slave-raids by Indians allied with the English. These raids finally resulted in the retreat of all coastal missions to the barrier islands by 1685.
During this same period, refugees who came to be known as Yamasee Indians also settled briefly among the Mocama and Guale. They fled during pirate raids against the missions in 1683 but later joined the English in slave-raids on Florida. A final pirate raid in October 1684 left Georgia's remaining missions in ruins, ending the mission period in this state. Georgia's surviving mission Indians retreated south of the St. Mary’s River, where they were pushed farther southward. All remaining missions across Spanish Florida had retreated to St. Augustine by the summer of The surviving descendants of Georgia's Guale and Mocama missions were among the eighty-nine Indians who chose to evacuate Florida with the Spanish in 1763, relocating permanently to Cuba.