The history of Native California as taught in the public schools
and historic sites of the state often glosses over the horrors,
genocidal extermination and slavery that was inflicted upon the Native
peoples by the Missions, gold miners and other so-called pioneers. The
mission system was little better than enforced work camps at best and
concentration camps filled with sexual crimes, massacres and abuse at
worst. Antonia Castaneda in her "Sexual Violence in the Politics and
Policies of Conquest: Amerindian Women and the Spanish Conquest of Alta
California," catalogs and critically analyzes both the prior situation
of Native Americans in California in relation to rape and other sex
crimes (they were unheard of) as well as the unabashed way in which
soldiers attached to the mission system went about raping and kidnapping
Native American women in proximity to the Missions. By 1776, California
Natives were fearful of the Spaniards and routinely hid their wives and
daughters from their exploratory expeditions. (p. 19). Although,
priests complained about the widespread rapes and sexual assaults they
were still part of the system that impressed men in to forced labor and
subjugated women. As California transferred from Spanish to Mexican and
then American control, the situation for California Natives went through
some serious changes. The Californios maintained the systems of
enforced labor that had been established under the Spaniards. In
Vacaville, at the ruins of the Pena Adobe there is a dilapidated grave
yard with a mass grave for Native American workers labeled simply
“Unnamed Indians.”
The gold rush and subsequent
population boom in California led to a change in tactics and perhaps
methodologies. So-called pioneers established Native American slavery as
a source of labor and prostitution. “Sutter {of Sutter’s Fort fame}
also sold Indians into slavery. The reputable Indian historian Jack
Forbes asserts that Sutter’s forces captured Indians from remote
villages and then sold them to rancheros in coastal California. This
slave trade also included the kidnapping and selling of Indian children.
In 1876, at his home in Lititz, Pa., Sutter dictated his reminiscences
to the famous California historian and bibliophile Hubert H. Bancroft.
Based on the information provided, Bancroft reported that "from the
first, [Sutter] was in the habit of seizing Indian children, who were
retained as servants, or slaves, at his own establishment, or sent to
his friends in different parts of the country[Alta California].” (http://www.historynet.com/john-sutter-and-californias-indians.htm/3)
Schoolchildren are often taken to Sutter’s Fort for fieldtrips. The
sordid history of the enslavement of children, perhaps their own age, is
neglected as the children view historic rooms and dioramas. “More than
4,000 Native children were sold into slavery at prices ranging from $60
for a boy to $200 for a girl” (Chatterjee, p. 11). Girls fetched a
higher [rice because they could be used in prostitution which was a more
lucrative endeavor than the hard labor that the boys were destined for.
“From 1850 until 1863, California Indians could legally be taken and
forced to become unpaid servants. Confronting a labor shortage, on 22
April 1850, legislators passed an "Act for the Government and Protection
of Indians," which legalized white custody of Indian minors and Indian
prisoner leasing. Under the act, children could, with consent of
"friends or parents," be held and worked without pay until age fifteen
(for females) or eighteen (for males). The act also empowered whites to
arrest Indian adults "found loitering and strolling about," or "begging,
or leading an immoral or profligate course of life." When a court
received a "complaint" along these lines, court officers were required
to capture and lease "such vagrant within twenty-four hours to the best
bidder." (http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/whq/39.3/madley.html)
It is doubtful however that with little to no legal recourse for the
Native Californians that white slaveholders felt bound by the four-month
limit.
“Over the twenty years of the Gold Rush, the
numbers of indigenous people plummeted from 150,000 to 31,000. Most
starved to death after being forcibly removed from their ancestral lands
and prevented from maintaining their traditional ways of living. Many
more died from diseases brought in by the miners, or were killed in a
series of massacres organized by local townspeople and by private
militias financed by the State of California.” (Ibid) The State paid out
a million dollars to private militias in scalping missions which
converts to $29,055,735.49 in the year 2008. Even after the Gold Rush
itself had ended the slaughter of inconvenient Native peoples continued
in California as well as their enslavement. An example of one of these
brutal massacres is the “discovery” of Round Valley in Mendocino County.
“In May 1854, Frank Asbill and others were traveling through the Coast
Range looking for a route from Petaluma to Weaverville, a route that
could be used to ship supplies to the gold miners who were now flooding
the state. On May 15, while gathering up his horses, Frank Asbill
spotted beautiful Round Valley. He gathered up his men and rode into
Round Valley where he proceeded to kill 40 Yuki Indians.A bronze plaque
has been placed by the state of California to mark the spot where Frank
Asbill "discovered" Round Valley. It doesn't mention the massacre that
happened later that day. The plaque, spotted with bullet holes, was
stolen several years ago. It was eventually recovered from the Alameda
County Flea Market, where it was being sold as junk.” (http://revcom.us/a/v19/910-19/917/rndvaly.htm)
The Native peoples of California lived in one of the
greatest and most abundant lands on earth. Many lived completely
subsistence lives, because there was so much food and game that farming
was simply unnecessary. The enslavement, forced Christianization, sexual
assaults and military actions of the Spanish Missions began the process
of destroying the idyllic life that the Native Californians had
possessed. The complete horror of the Gold Rush era completed that
destruction. It is no wonder then that many of the Indigenous people now
residing in California have come from other tribal groups. The sparcity
of reservations in California is staggering when compared to the
hundreds of thousands that lived in this area before European Contact.
These centuries of slavery, rape and genocide decimated large chunks of
the Native population and contributed to California's damaged
ecosystems. Many California Native people can trace their family back to
children who survived massacres during the 19th century. There was no
doubt a large amount of culture, language and religion that was lost
forever because of these atrocities.
Sources:
Castaneda,
Antonia “Sexual Violence in the Politics and Policies of Conquest:
Amerindian Women and the Spanish Conquest of Alta California.” In
Building With Our Hands: New Directions in Chicana Studies edited by
Adela de la Torre and BeatrÃz M. Pesquera, 15-33. Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1993.
Chatterjee, P. (2003). GOLD, GREED
& GENOCIDE. News from Native California, 16(3), 10. Retrieved from
Academic Search Premier database.
“John Sutter and California’s Indians” Wild West Retrieved from http://www.historynet.com/john-sutter-and-californias-indians.htm/3
Madley,
Benjamin. “California's Yuki Indians: Defining Genocide in Native
American History” Western Historical Quarterly vol. 39 n. 3 retrieved
from http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/whq/39.3/madley.html#REF56
“Native Peoples in Northern California: Bitter Memories at Round Valley”
Revolutionary Worker #917, July 27, 1997 Retrieved from http://revcom.us/a/v19/910-19/917/rndvaly.htm
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