An excerpt from a 1994 book of cultural ecology discussing Spanish missions.

In this excerpt from A River Ran Through It ... : The Cultural Ecology of the Santa Clara Valley Riparian Zone, Erin Reilly discusses the history of Spanish missions and the environmental consequences of Spaniards’ presence on the California coast. Reilly describes how the Spanish missions introduced a shift in thinking, from the indigenous peoples’ view of the earth “as living and deserving of attention and respect” to the Spaniards’ view of the earth “as a vehicle of production” (41).