The Spanish had established a mission in the area in 1769 after the Portola expedition, leading to degradation of the local ecology due to grazing and purposeful cutting of oak trees which provided an important acorn crop to local the Kumayaay peoples. In addition to rapes of Native women (recorded in Spanish records), the Spanish also moved the mission closer to Kumayaay villages for the purpose of exploiting their labor as a part of the forced labor inherent in the mission system. After careful planning and intelligence gathering, hundreds of Kumayaay people from ~15 villages attacked the mission at San Diego de Alacá and killing head priest Father Luís Jayme. The Kumeyaay say "It was the start of an ongoing campaign of military resistance by the Kumeyaay that lasted for seventy-five years." The attack was a major setback to the already struggling Spanish Mission. Kumeyaay would go on to survive years of enslavement by the Spanish and then a campaign of genocide by the United States via the government of California. Kumeyaay activists of the 1970's were present at the Occupation of Alcatraz and arrested bringing food and medicine to the occupation of Wounded Knee. Modern day struggles against the border wall continue today.