16, March 2016 Kudos to Stanford & Harvard
It is an absolute affront to native-Americans to continue to honor Junipero Serra,
the founder of California’s Missions.
According to
historian, Alvin Josephy, thousands of native Indians perished after Serra’s
missionaries arrived. Soldiers were employed to kidnap children and when their
parents came looking for them they too were captured and used as slaves.
Escapees would be severely punished. Fathers and mothers would be separated
from their children. The women were separately housed and used as sex slaves by
the soldiers. Living conditions were
appalling and an epidemic of disease resulted in the death of many more thousands.
Serra justified the savage beatings as a small price to pay for the joy of
moving Indians out of their ‘dark past’ to become ‘enlightened Christians’.
Pope Francis made a terrible mistake when he canonized Junípero Serra. I fully
support Stanford students’ efforts in expunging Serra’s names and replacing
them with notable Native Indian names. Students at Harvard Law School are also demanding the replacement of its seal with a crest of an 18th – century slave holder. Kudos to Stanford and Harvard.
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