Meanings
plural Mission Indians
- A Native American who lived in one of the Catholic missions in California.
Prior to the American conquest of California 1846-1848, some of the secularized Mission Indian families obtained formal Mexican land grants.
2007, Muwekma Ohlone Tribal Website, Muwekma Ohlone Tribe: A Brief History...2 more examples
1904. Constance Goddard Du Bois. Mythology of the Mission Indians, The Journal of the American Folk-Lore Society, volume XVII, No. LXVI. page 185-8.http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/mmi/index.htm Mythology of the Mission Indians...the mythology of the Luiseño and Diegueño Indians of Southern California.
1906. Alfred L. Kroeber, Two Myths of the Mission Indians, Journal of the American Folk-Lore Society, volume XIX, No. LXXV pp. 309-21.http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/tmmi/ What are to-day known as the Mission Indians are those Shoshonean and Yuman peoples who occupy the portion of southern California which lies between the principal mountain ranges and the sea.
Cite this entry
Mission Indian. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Mission%20Indian
“Mission Indian.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Mission%20Indian. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Mission Indian,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Mission%20Indian.
Source: Mission Indian on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.