Amerindian Tongva People, Toypurina (1760–1799) revolted against Spanish colonization. A medicine woman, she led a revolt against the settlers.
The Spanish Catholic Mission
Toypurina was born in 1760 among the Tongva people, the "people of the earth", living in California. She was only nine years old when the first Spanish settlers settled in the region, before creating the Catholic mission Mission San Gabriel Arcangel [English] two years later. By the time the missionaries arrived, about 5,000 Tongvas were living in the area.
Accompanied by soldiers and workers, the Spanish missionaries undertake to evangelize the Amerindians, by force if necessary; between 1771 and 1834, the Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, which spreads throughout the region, carried out more than 25,000 baptisms. So much so that the Tongvas came to be called Gabrieleño, Gabrielino, or San Gabrieleño in reference to the Catholic mission. At the same time, diseases transmitted by Europeans are wreaking havoc; in 1806, an epidemic of measles killed a quarter of the Native American population in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Refusal of cultural assimilation
In 1781, to strengthen the Spanish presence and hold on the region, forty-four settlers recruited from northern Mexico were sent to found what would become the city of Los Angeles, then called El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de los Ángeles de la Porciúncula .
Toypurina, then twenty-one years old, has become a respected medicine woman and spiritual leader, who speaks several languages and deals with neighboring villages. Like many Native American leaders, Toypurina is revolted by the forced cultural assimilation suffered by her people and the violence of the settlers; she sees the Spanish missionaries as a threat to her way of life, traditions, status and authority.
Revolt
In 1785, Toypurina convinced six villages to join her in a revolt against Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, with the goal of killing all of the Spanish settlers. Aided by mission neophyte Nicolas José, shocked by the destruction of Native American cultures, Toypurina led the attack in October. But a soldier overhears their plans, and denounces them to the missionaries. On the night of the revolt, Toypurina, three other ringleaders and many warriors are captured.
During his interrogation, Toypurina assumes his actions and his motivations by saying:"I am angry with the padres, and all those of the mission, for living on my native soil, for having entered the land of our ancestors and for robbing us of our tribal domains” .
At the end of the trial, Nicolas José and Toypurina are found guilty of having been the main leaders of the attack.
Baptism
During the trial, Toypurina states that she wishes to be baptized, presumably to escape the consequences of her judgment. Two years after the revolt, she was baptized by Father Miguel Sanchez, who gave her the name Regina Josepha. After the baptism, Toypurina was exiled to Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, the most distant mission from San Gabriel Arcangel.
Two years later, Toypurina married a Spanish soldier named Mañuel Montero, with whom she had three children:Cesario, Juana de Dios, and Maria Clementina. She died in May 1799, at the age of 39.