This article investigates Indigenous persistence within Mission Santa Clara de Asís in central California through the analysis of animal food remains. The Spanish colonial mission system within Alta California had a profound social and ecological impact on Indigenous peoples, altering traditional subsistence strategies and foodway patterns. Past research has highlighted the continued use of precolonial foods within the Alta California mission system alongside the daily consumption of colonial-style beef stews. This article expands on that literature to consider how Indigenous and colonial residents differentially acquired ingredients and prepared daily meals within the Alta California colonial mission system. This assessment demonstrates a sharp divergence between Indigenous and colonists’ daily diet, manifested in the continued use of wild food resources by Indigenous people as well as the maintenance of precolonial culinary practices in the preparation of cattle meat for daily stews. These findings complicate our understanding of foodways within the Spanish mission system and expand our understanding of Indigenous autonomy within conditions of colonialism.

本文通过对动物食物残留物的分析，调查了加利福尼亚州中部圣克拉拉德阿西斯传教区的土著居民的持续存在。上加利福尼亚州的西班牙殖民传教制度对原住民产生了深远的社会和生态影响，改变了传统的生存策略和饮食模式。过去的研究强调，在上加利福尼亚州传教系统中，除了每天食用殖民风格的炖牛肉外，还继续使用殖民前食品。本文扩展了该文献，以考虑土著和殖民地居民如何在上加利福尼亚州殖民传教系统内以不同的方式获取食材并准备日常膳食。该评估表明，原住民和殖民者的日常饮食之间存在巨大差异，这体现在原住民继续使用野生食物资源以及在准备每日炖菜的牛肉方面保留了殖民前的烹饪方法。这些发现使我们对西班牙传教系统内的饮食方式的理解变得复杂，并扩大了我们对殖民主义条件下土著自治的理解。