The newly independent Mexican government frees enslaved Chumash Indians in California (the Chumash had already endured 65 years of enslavement by the Spanish). However, the Mexican government does not return land, but instead gives land grants to Spanish families and sells off large tracts of Chumash land. Land-less, the Chumash struggle and their numbers continue to dwindle. Prior the establishment of the missions, they numbered around 22,000, but their numbers had declined to 2,788 at the time of Mexican Independence (Native Voices, "1834: Mexico denies return of mission lands to Chumash").