Letter to Patrick R. Donahue: mission carmel stamp

Dear Mr. Donahue,

I am writing this letter on behalf of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and as a descendant of Native Americans taken to Mission Carmel.  We were recently notified of the release of the Carmel Mission stamp when the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band dancers were invited to dance at the February 28, 2012 release of this stamp.

Your recognition of Mission Carmel as an historic location is insensitive and insulting.  It is our perspective that recognizing the missions is tantamount to recognizing the beauty, architecture, and “saturated color” of any other massacre and/or genocide site anywhere else in the world.

Furthermore, the text of your public information release says nothing of the Indians that were forced under slavery conditions to build the mission and then were forced to live there as prisoners for the remainder of their life.

Mission Carmel was originally built in Monterey next to the  Monterey Presidio.  The priests were forced to move the mission to Carmel because the soldiers were raping the Indian women and girls.  The raping of our ancestors did not stop when the mission was moved to Carmel.

Anthropologists estimate the Native American population at first contact with the catholic mission at 350,000.  It is estimated that approximately 150,000 Indians died during the mission period.  It’s ironic that this is the same number of people that visit Mission Carmel each year as stated in your press release.  The Amah Mutsun formally request that the Mission Carmel stamp not be released and that no consideration ever be given again to honor the massacre and/or genocide of California Indians.

It must be stated that the missions were not only responsible for the first wave of massacres of California Indian men, women, children and elderly, but they were responsible for exterminating too many Indian cultural practices including languages, indigenous knowledge, religious and spiritual beliefs and practices and stealing the land they lived on for thousands of years.  So many people lost their lives in consequential revolts and attempted escapes from these slave missions. How the federal government can attempt to bring respect and honor to such an institution is unbelievable.

Consequently, the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band respectfully request that the USPS withdraw the Carmel Mission stamp from its planned release and replace it with a stamp that recognizes the true and tragic history of the California Indians.  As an alternative we recommend that a stamp be issued that recognizes the contribution of our Tribal ancestor,  Ascencion Solorzano.  Ascencion provided approximately 97,000 pages of anthropological field notes to an ethnohistorian from the Smithsonian Institute.  We’ve been told this is the second largest collection of any Tribe in the United States.  Based on this information our Tribe is able to continue on the path that our ancestors followed.

Sincerely,