Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir

video project must have been a lot like turning the
corner to find the (dead) person you were talking
about suddenly in your face, talking back.
Kimberly, echoing my thoughts, chortled quietly,
“Yes, Virginia, there really are live Mission Indians.”
The problem is, thanks to Mission Mythology,
most fourth graders will never know that.
That’s why it’s time for the Mission Fantasy Fairy
Tale to end. This story has done more damage to
California Indians than any conquistador, any priest,
any soldado de cuera (leather-jacket soldier), any
smallpox, measles, or influenza virus. This story has
not just killed us, it has taught us how to kill
ourselves and kill each other with alcohol, domestic
violence, horizontal racism, internalized hatred. This
story is a kind of evil, a kind of witchery. We have to
put an end to it now.
But where to start? What’s the best way to kill a
lie? Like bad spirits, they are notoriously immune to
arrows—in fact, they are often known to rise after
being killed, even after being buried. We must know
where to aim, pick our targets, remain clear-sighted.
I say “we” because my efforts here are part of a