This source talks about how the Indians were essential parts to the Spanish settlements in the New World, specifically New Mexico, and how the Franciscan missionaries attempted to convert them and assimilate them into Spanish society. The author argues that missions were the most important part of colonization, as the missionaries were the ones who lived in Indian communities that were colonized and had the most personal interaction with the Indians. However, the author also argues that the Spanish lacked to realize that they could not simply take Native religions away from …show more content…
In addition, the author asserts that religious conversion was only a small aspect of missions; missions were a source of work for the missions and a site for cultural transformation and control, as the missions redistributed land and resources to the Pueblo Indians as they intervened in their societies. This work contributes to studies of relationship between land and people, as the Indians valued their land as having spiritual meaning as it gave them harvest; this land was taken by the Spanish and they were put into forms of slavery. In addition, it contributes to the viewing of New Mexico as a distinct mission society, as the missions were set up by geography because of its proximity to the Rio Grande, a source of great business and income, and its conversion to a royal colony in 1610, which gave the New Mexican establishment greater imperial