This Picture, the Trail of Tears, was painted by Robert Lindneux in 1942. It commemorates teh suffering of the first “Trail of Tears” with the Cherokee People in 1838. Image credit: The Granger Collection, New York.

By Wayne Kirkbride

It was a predictable outcome for the native population in the territory of California, soon to become a state. Across the eastern seaboard from the earliest days of Atlantic coast settlement, native tribes and nations faced an expanding population of newcomers to the American shores. The expansion rolled over people whose ancestors migrated themselves thousands of year’s prior and spread out across the Americas. The native peoples of California had no knowledge of what their native kin was subjected to, of how their lands were appropriated, of how atrocities would be carried out both by the white settlers and those who fought back against the unstoppable tide of settlers.

Before the Gold Rush in California there was one era of the relationships between the Europeans and Americans and the native populations throughout California. That era is a subject unto itself, left for another article of that period. The most sweeping event in California’s history was the almost overnight change brought by the discovery of gold near Sutter’s Mill. Not only did the Gold Rush bring thousands seeking their fortune in the gold fields, but also others, who realized the riches the land offered in farming, cattle, timber, and commerce. On lands that supported generations of different native populations with abundant game, fish, seeds, and other native plants, came the settler intent on fulfilling “Manifest Destiny” – to subdue the land and anything or anyone that stood in the way.

The influx of settlers onto Indian lands lead to legislation in 1850 as California passed “An Act for the Government and Protection of Indians”. Among one of the act’s provisions was the permission of slavery of Indian children, or in polite terms, indenturement of Indian children.

To further “protect” the Indians and offer security to the settlers that were increasingly moving in, the US Government passed an act in 1852 that allowed military posts created for the relocation of Indians throughout the US and its territories. One such post was the Nome Lacknee Military Post established in 1854, named for the tribe in the area called the “Nome Lacka” in what today is Tehama County. One person described how one group of Indians felt upon seeing the reservation land for the first time: “…the poor Indians began to show some sign that they had a regret in leaving the place of their birth. The women in the wagons set up a peculiar plaintive cry used by them at their funerals, while the men walked behind the wagons in mournful silence” (San Francisco Evening Bulletin, Sept. 22, 1857). By 1857 there were between 2,500-3,000 Indians at the post. The post is later abandoned in 1862.

In 1858, there were an estimated 10,000 Indians in the state, of which only 3,200 consented to live under the white man’s direction. The rest tried to continue their way of life, but increasingly ran into conflict with settlers who built fences, and ran their cattle on areas the Indians hunted. The Indians, some in retaliation, some for food, began killing some of the cattle. This brought the fury of the settlers upon the local tribes when they raided Rancherias, killing men, women and children. Any Indian even suspected of taking their cattle was killed.

California government sent a special committee to Mendocino in 1860 to investigate what they called the “Mendocino War.” At a ranch in Round Valley they convened to hear the settler’s story and take depositions. One 38-year-old farmer of Long Valley recounted a raid at an Indian village by him and others. “All the Indians fled when we came, but one,” he said. “We shot his head off.” The same settler retold the story of one December day in 1859 when a party of 40 men crossed the Eel River between Long and Round Valleys and attacked a Rancheria at dawn, killing 20 of them, including bucks, squaws and children and took two women and one child prisoner. “A week later we found two wounded bucks and one old squaw, all of whom we killed.”

In another deposition, one of the settlers said he never had any problems with the Indians, never lost any cattle and he always treated the Indians kindly. Another settler retold the incident when he and others picked out 20 redmen, accused them of killing and started shooting them. “Eight redmen were shot and five hung – the rest managed to escape.” When the committee asked one of the settlers if many squaws were killed by the settlers, he replied, “I think one squaw died from a bullet and all the squaws in one particular incident were killed before they would not travel. The infants were put out of their misery and one 10 year old girl was killed for being stubborn,” he said.

The committee’s majority report said the white men were to blame for the Indian troubles and that in four months in 1860; more Indians of Mendocino County had been killed than in a century of Spanish and Mexican rule. The chairman speaking in the minority opinion said the Indians were a cowardly lot and proposed a system of peonage. The Indians, under this proposal would be assigned as servants to the local ranchers and laws would be passed to prevent any third party from interfering between “master and servant.” Nothing is known if this investigation ever changed anything, and apparently no white settlers were brought up on murder charges.

Conditions between the native populations and the white settlers grew worse. Reprisals for Indians’ deaths lead to children’s deaths at the hand of the Indians. The citizens of Chico petitioned Governor Leland Stanford for men and means, and an Army to assist in “quelling these Indian outrages.” People from several northern California tribes were brought to Chico and detained. Five Indian men were hanged at Helltown, east of Chico, on suspicion of “committing depredations upon property.” Those Indians not surrendering to the detention were ordered shot.

In September of 1863, Captain Starr of the California Volunteers as commander, and 23 US cavalrymen were ordered to march 461 Indian people 100 miles from Camp Bidwell in Chico to Round Valley to a reservation known as Nome Cult. Many were sick and old and could not continue the trip during the ascent from the Sacramento Valley into the Coast Range. About 150 were left behind at Mountain House between September 12 and 14. When news of this reached the commandant at Fort Wright in Round Valley, he ordered wagons and food for those struggling up the mountain. After 13 days, the Army was able to save “only a portion of them”. One of the men described the horrific scene: “…about 150 sick Indians were scattered along the trail for 50 miles…dying at the rate of 2 or 3 a day. They had nothing to eat… and the wild hogs were eating them up either before or after they were dead.” Only slightly more than half of the original 461 members survived the march, which became known as the Koncow (Maidu) Trail of Tears.

By the late 1870’s many Indians had escaped the reservation, but were generally left alone. Their homelands were no longer theirs and war with the whites had only brought more grief to their people. Compromise and assimilation into the newcomer’s society became the only way to survive.