Santa Clara

A Mission Record of the California Indians, by A.L. Kroeber, [1908], at sacred-texts.com

p. 26

Santa Clara. ⁶²

There are three languages at this mission, two of them related (bastante parecidos), and the third, which is of the east, totally distinct.

Sometimes they bury the dead, sometimes burn them. ⁶³ As to whether they place food with them, we believe that they do not.

They do not know any distinction of superiority. Only in war do they obey the chief, and the wizards and magicians in matters of superstition. In everything else everyone does what he pleases. In their dissensions and disputes the strongest party wins.

Footnotes

26:62 Santa Clara is in Costanoan territory, but it is probable that Miwok or Yokuts Indians were brought here as they were brought to San Jose and San Juan Bautista. It is in this way that the third and totally distinct language mentioned is to be explained. The missionaries at Santa Clara in 1811 were Magin Catalá and Jose Viader.

26:63 It would appear from the San Francisco account below, and from other evidence, that burning was the more customary.