By 1750 the Franciscans were educating ten thousand Native American converts and the children of four thousand Spanish settlers.
Jesuits Embrace Native American Ways
In the meantime, the Spanish had sent Jesuit missionary (a member of the Society of Jesus) Eusebio Kino (1645–1711) and two other Jesuit priests to Primería Alta (northern Mexico and southern Arizona; see Chapter 2). Unlike the Franciscans, the Jesuits believed that Native American religion should be combined with Christianity. Beginning in 1687 Kino established about twenty missions where he introduced wheat and cattle, along with other European crops and livestock, to the Pimas and the Papago. Carefully teaching Catholic beliefs, he appointed Pima and Papago converts as teachers who assisted him in the schools. Between 1687 and Kino's death in 1711, the Jesuits baptized (admitted to the church through anointment with water) more than thirty thousand Native Americans. After Kino died, however, the missions were neglected and eventually abandoned.
Between 1717 and 1724 Franciscans started ten missions along the west coast of the Gulf of Mexico to keep the French out of the region. They taught Christianity to the Apache, Comanche, and clans known as theNoteños.
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