Beginning in 1769, the Spanish build 21 missions in California with Indigenous slave labor. They enforce Christianity and prohibit traditional Native spiritual practices. More than 300 separate Native bands in southern California are forced to give up their traditional lifeways of hunting and gathering. Santa Barbara records over 4,000 deaths of Natives due to enslavement and disease. It is estimated that the Coastal Indian population of 70,000 at the start of the mission period dropped to less than 15,000 in just 30 years (Nies, 1996). Indian communities resist through poisoning priests, burning churches, and uprisings (Native Voices, "1769: Spanish missions crush traditional cultural ways").