Baltazar's Rebellion of 1779

Baltazar came from the Point Lobos area known as Isxchenta, a Rumsen Ohlone village. He came to the Carmel Mission sometime around 1775 (the year he was baptized).

What began as civil disobedience and casual opposition by Baltazar eventually turned into an attempted coup. Batazar fled the Carmel Mission in 1779 along with a band of several other mission natives. Baltazar turned south to the Big Sur coast, meeting his daughter and her people, the Sargentaruc, who organized ways to resist Spanish forces.

As Spanish forces continued to cut off resources and reinforcements to Baltazar’s rebellion, it became increasingly difficult to sustain the resistance. Baltazar died in the fall of 1780 of unknown causes, and many members of his group hesitantly returned to the missions for the promise of seeing their family and friends again.

Art by Louis Choris- “Indian of California.” Painting is not of Baltazar, but of a typical Ohlone man in the Bay Area and likely similar to what Baltazar looked like.

 FROM: Point Lobos