Third site of Mission Santa Clara, CA-SCL-30, structural orientation of Mission quadrangle and neophyte cemetery, 1781 to 1918. Drawing by Mark G. Hylkema (Allen & Hylkema, 2009).
The Third Mission cemetery lies northeast of Lucas Hall and the Third Mission quadrangle, and it was where the neophytes, the Native Americans who lived and worked at the Mission Santa Clara de Asís, buried their dead. The arrival of the Spanish shattered the lives and cultures of native Californian groups, including local tribes like the Muwekme Ohlone, and these groups are still recovering from this great loss of life.
The soldiers and Franciscan fathers who came to start the mission unintentionally brought European diseases, like measles and smallpox, to California native groups. The combination of disease, repression of traditional practices, and poor sanitation and nutrition at the Santa Clara Mission caused many neophytes to die, particularly women and children (Stodder 1986).
Historical records show that burials were consistently higher than birth rates, as much as three times more deaths than births in some years (Jackson 2002):
Births and Deaths recorded at the Santa Clara Mission, 1777-1840 (Jackson 2002).
Further Information:
Robert H. Jackson’s slideshow on the demographics of the Santa Clara Mission
Telling the Santa Clara Story: Sesquicentennial Voices, edited by Russell K Skowronek. 2002.