Legacy and Native American Controversy
There is controversy over the California Department of Education's treatment of the missions in the Department's elementary curriculum; in the tradition of historical revisionism, it has been alleged that the curriculum "waters down" the harsh treatment of Native Americans. Modern anthropologists cite a cultural bias on the part of the missionaries that blinded them to the natives' plight and caused them to develop strong negative opinions of the California Indians. European diseases that the California Native Americans had no immunity to caused a significant population reductions from the first encounter through the 19th century.
Read more about this topic: Spanish Missions In California
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