 Mission Indians

Mission Indians are the indigenous peoples of California who lived in Southern California and were forcibly relocated from their traditional dwellings, villages, and homelands to live and work at 15 Franciscan missions in Southern California and the "Asistencias" and "Estancias" established between 1796 and 1823 in the Las Californias Province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.Spanish explorers arrived on California's coasts as early as the mid-16th century.