Tumacacori Mission Painting by William Norris Dakin

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Original, large-scale painting of Tumacacori Mission , Arizona by William Norris Dakin (Will Dakin) dated 1952. Painted from a sketch … Read more Original, large-scale painting of Tumacacori Mission , Arizona by William Norris Dakin (Will Dakin) dated 1952. Painted from a sketch done in 1936. Original frame.

WILLIAM NORRIS DAKIN:

Born in San Francisco, CA on Nov. 5, 1910. Dakin graduated from Burlingame High School and studied for three years on scholarships at the CSFA under Macky, Randolph, and Poole. During the 1930s he worked for Disney Studios and in the 1940s was a staff artist at Eimac Corporation. He died in Burlingame, CA on Dec. 16, 1992. His oils and drawings include urban and rural scenes, old mansions, marine vessels, and Mexican genre. Member: SWA; Peninsula AA; Society for Sanity in Art. Exh: Calif. State Fair, 1933 (1st prize); SFAA, 1935; SFMA, 1935; San Mateo Co. Fairs. In: Bancroft Library (UC Berkeley).

TUMACACORI MISSION:

Founded by Jesuit Father Eusebio Francisco Kino in January 1691, Mission San Cayetano de Tumacácori was the first mission to be located in what is now Arizona, and was part of the global Spanish mission system of colonization that attempted to create a self-sufficient agricultural community, convert local Indians to the Catholic religion, and generate revenue for Spain. Originally located on the east side of the Santa Cruz River, the mission moved, following the Pima Revolt in 1751, to its present location on the west side of the river. The mission was then rechristened San José de Tumacácori.

By 1757, the community had built a small adobe church. Following the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish empire in 1767, the Franciscan order took over management of the Pimería Alta missions. Around 1800, the community began construction of a larger church. Although in use by the early 1820s, the building was never entirely completed. Apache raids and other stress factors in the 1840s eventually led to the abandonment of Tumacácori in December 1848. The inhabitants moved to Mission San Xavier del Bac, just south of Tucson.

Today, Mission San José de Tumacácori is a popular tourist destination administered as part of Tumacácori National Historical Park. The mission church building is maintained in a state of arrested ruin, with the goal of preserving the original structure rather than additional restoration or speculative completion of architectural features.

The native people who lived in the region around Tumacácori called themselves "O'odham," meaning "people" in their language. They were known in the past by the problematic colonial terms Pima and Papago. Their homeland included the area that is now Southern Arizona and the northern part of the Mexican state of Sonora. The O'odham were farmers, raising corn, beans, squash and other crops using flood irrigation long before the Spanish came. The people called "Papago" by the Spanish are known today as the Tohono O'odham, or "desert people," and continue to live and farm in southern Arizona. People from other indigenous groups lived at and around the mission as well, including Yaqui, Apache, Yuman, and Opata, in addition to the mission priests who originated from various parts of Europe and the Americas. Disease often spread in waves ahead of the Spaniards, decimating native villages before Spaniards arrived, but the native peoples of Southern Arizona were resilient, surviving disease and European and American colonialism. See less