ABSTRACT
At Santa Barbara it was said that the shamans were more highly regarded than any Christian Indian, no matter how faithfully he had served or how saintly his life. The padres deplored the circumstances which gave the gentiles liberty to accept or reject Christianity without loss of the assets of civilization. The amalgamation of Indian religion and Catholicism began with the initial conversions, for the Indians managed to bring many of their traditions into the missions—both with and without ecclesiastical permission. Divorce has remained an important aspect of life among the southern California Indians, and the Christian emphasis upon marriage as a permanent state seems to have had little impact. Hugo Reid, one of southern California's most perceptive observers of the remnants of the Mission Indians, realized the depth to which the old religion was a part of the new.
