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- Herausgeber: Madison & Adams Press
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
In 1875, the Great Sioux War of 1876–77, the last serious Sioux war erupted, when the Dakota gold rush penetrated the Black Hills. The U.S. Government decided to stop evicting trespassers from the Black Hills, and offered to buy the land from the Sioux. When they refused, the Government decided instead to take the land, and gave the Lakota until January 31, 1876 to return to reservations. They were led in the field by Crazy Horse and inspired by Sitting Bull's earlier vision of victory. Sitting Bull was a Hunkpapa Lakota leader who led his people during years of resistance to United States government policies. He was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation during an attempt to arrest him, at a time when authorities feared that he would join the Ghost Dance movement. Contents: War With the Pueblos The Shoshone Uprising Wars With the California Tribes A Yuma Massacre The Rogue River Wars War With the Cheyennes Navajo Hostilities The Affair of Mountain Meadow The Spokane Wars The Fierce Apaches and Arrapahoes The Piegan Punishment Modoc and Lava Bed Custer and the Sioux The Nez Perces Wars The Utes of White River Messiah Craze and Ghost Dance Mastering the Situation Sentiment Respecting the Uprising
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Indian Wars under the Lead of Sitting Bull
Table of Contents
Introduction
The uprising of the Sioux Indians and their kindred tribes in the Dakotas, added to the possibility of a great conspiracy among all the mountain tribes of the West, for the purpose of rapine, at a date not later than the spring and summer of 1891, has excited lively interest in all that appertains to the Red Race,especially their wars, numbers, and the method of dealing with them.
The policy of the Government toward the Indian, prior to his removal beyond the Mississippi, was the cruel policy of extinction. Indians were then more numerous than now, braver,more in the way. It cost a great deal to subdue them, more to extinguish them. They were seldom friendly, but often dangerous enemies, prone to ally themselves with foreign nations, as was natural, for every civilized nation has treated them better than our own.
The time came, but not until the Indian had fully proved that he preferred extinction to slavery or to the adoption of our civilization, when it was deemed a wise policy to rid the lands east of the Mississippi of his presence. All west of the Mississippi was then deemed sufficiently open to make it safe for the transfer to take place. But in practice it did not prove so. The eastern Indian had a little of the salt of commerce in him and had cultivated some of the ways of industry. He found himself among enemies of his own race.He was scarcely less in the way—an Indian is always in the way—of our own advance. So, as one of its first acts of mercy, the Government availed itself of the cheap lands at its disposal,and fell to the policy of a species of Indian colonization, which took the form of granting the migrating tribes large reservations and a sort of self-government, provided they would stay at home, behave themselves and do whatever was asked of them. Most of the tribes did this, and those who confined themselves to the Indian Territory, have had little occasion to regret the dis-position which was made of them.
But that did not settle the Indian question by any means. The trans Mississippi lands, the lands of sterile plains, lofty plateaus and mountain gorges, were peopled by numerous tribes,more nomadic by reason of their immense territorial spaces, than those of the east; dependent for food on a lesser variety but a larger size of game, as the buffalo, and actuated by a savagery quite as cunning and remorseless as any we read of in the history of colonial times. While many of these tribes are of the same general family, as indicated by their speech and habits, the larger ones are quite distinct, being separated by wide plains or high mountain barriers. All of them have ever evinced the traditional hostility to the white man, regarding his advance as dispossess-ion and his methods of life as obnoxious.
Therefore, the West-Mississippi tribes soon came into a prominence which even overshadowed that which the East-Mississippi tribes had occupied in history. The constant opening of new lands by the whites, the discovery of gold in California, the development of agriculture and mining in various directions, all of the forces of our civilization which constantly brought the white man into contact with the western natives, just as constantly produced clashes of the two races.The consequences have been that pioneering has always been fraught with its old time dangers, and that the white man has been compelled to literally fight his way to the Pacific.
For fifty years the Government has tried to shape a policy for the western Indian, which had some of the elements of intelligent humanity init, but all of those years have been characterized by violent Indian outbreaks, and often protracted and bloody wars. All recognize that the policy of force which the pioneer uses when left to himself, is based only on his selfishness, and is essentially brutal. That the Government might escape the appearance of sanctioning perpetual murders, and the expense of continual embroilment, by sending troops whenever called for to protect settlers who had become involved with the Indians, it adopted, as most expedient, a policy for the Western Indians similar to that it had tried on with the Eastern. While it did not ask them to migrate, as it had done with the Eastern Indians, and for the reason that it could not force them, it allotted to them the lands which had constituted their hunting grounds and called them “reservations.” To these reservations it gave crude metes and bounds, and within their limits the respective tribes were to dwell. To those tribes who had thus materially curtailed their hunting grounds by giving up large and valuable areas, the Government offered consideration, sometimes very handsome, and the increment of this consideration, or, so to speak, the interest on it, was to go to the support of the tribe in the shape of annual supplies. In other instances, where the possibility of living by the chase within the reservation had been entirely cut off, the consideration was a set of supplies, equal to a living, to be distributed periodically at regularly established agencies and through authorized Government agents.
The scheme looked plausible. It had a show of fairness about it, from the white man’s stand-point. It was charitable in the respect that the Indian need not necessarily starve under it.It would segregate the tribes and thus diminish the possibility of conspiracies and alliances to carry on extensive wars. It would set free immense tracts of land for the progressive white man. It would encourage the Indian to try agriculture and the peaceful arts on his own hook. Even if he had to be fed outright and in full by the Government, it would be cheaper in the end, than the annual expenditure of millions to maintain an army with which to fight him. Thus segregated, and his territory defined, missionary enterprise would become possible in his midst.
The difficulties in the way have been that only-the weaker and tamer tribes have accepted the policy. The larger and wilder tribes have not proven amenable. Their example has always proven a source of dissatisfaction with those upon the reservations. Again, the Indian, naturally suspicious and discontented, has not found that faith on the part of the Government and his white surroundings, he was given to expect. Granted that he is a malodorous and savage being, still he has rights. It is doubtful whether the number of Indian wars and massacres has been diminished by a single one, by the adoption of the reservation and agency policy. Certainly, all the late Indian outbreaks have involved a complaint on the part of the tribes that the Government had violated its solemn compacts with them. Some of these wars have been fierce and protracted and have cost many precious lives and vast sums of money.
It is our purpose to describe these Indian wars of modern times. In themselves they make a thrilling story and are worthy of reading on that account alone. But they are even more valuable at this time, as showing how the western Indian and western pioneering repeat the older history of adventure, of daring, of cunning, of massacre and how illy prepared our civilization is, even after an acquaintance of two hundred years, to evolve an Indian policy which is at all creditable to our intelligence, humanity and Christianity. It may be that a study of the Indian wars for the last fifty years will show wherein our policy has been weak, and, mayhap, it may show what ought to be done to remove the badge of shame from our management of one of the most vital questions which now confronts us as a nation. Just now, General Miles proposes to transfer the entire control of the Indian question from the civil to the military department of the Government, his theory being that force goes further with an Indian than suasion. If the step would insure a greater degree of fairness in dealing with him, Heaven help the nation to take it.
That this little book may delight all, and at the same time help us to solve one of the knottiest problems of the day, is the sincere wish of its author.
Chapter I. War with the Pueblos
In June, 1846, the advance of the then “ Army of the West,” under Colonel Kearney, marched from Fort Leavenworth into New Mexico. It was met at Fort Bent by two troops of cavalry. In the following autumn a regiment of men under Colonel Price started for the scene,together with a Mormon detachment of five hundred men. Altogether, the gathering at Fort Bent consisted of nearly seventeen hundred men, six companies of which were cavalry, and two batteries of artillery.
The object was to expel the Mexicans and Indians from New Mexico. When the American army crossed the plains and learned that it was to be confronted at Apache Canon—the natural approach to Santa Fe—by 5,000 Mexicans, it naturally concluded that a desperate battle was at hand. But, strange to say, their advance was unimpeded, for the Mexicans, on learning of the approach of the Americans beat a hasty retreat.The conquest of New Mexico thus far, was easy and bloodless. The Mexican army was disbanded at Santa Fe, and the northern invaders entered this oldest city in the United States in peace.
Having accomplished its mission, for the most part, this little army of 1,700 men, divided up for the purpose of conquering further empires. Kearney started with 300 men for California, and Colonel Doniphan marched with 850 men for the conquest of Chihuahua. The result of this last expedition was a battle at Bracito, with an army of 1,200 Mexicans, in which the latter were completely routed.
Before Kearney left for the west, he organized a provisional government for the Territory with Charles Bent as Governor. He was the builder and occupant of Bent’s fort on the Arkansas. It was a strong fort, and Bent was a man of great courage and large experience with the rough and ready ways of the frontier. There were, as yet,but few Americans in his jurisdiction. The people were mostly Mexicans, Pueblo Indians and wild Indians. The wild Indians had been friendly to the Americans, because the Mexicans were in control, but now that the Americans were in control, they had, according to Indian nature become hostile. The Mexicans, who remained were of very little account, except as disturbers of the peace, for they were of that class which had done service as peons for the grandees who had fled.
The Pueblo Indians were the most numerous,intelligent and reliable of the three. They embraced a number of tribes, of very ancient origin, akin to each other in speech and habit,far advanced in intelligence, somewhat Christianized by the Catholic church, given to agriculture and art, and resident for the most part in permanent towns—whence their name, Pueblo.
At the time of our conquest of New Mexico,they inhabited some twenty-six towns, some of which were in Arizona, occupied by the Moquis,or “death” portion, and by the Zuni portion, also in Arizona, the remaining portions being in the Rio Grande Valley. In all respects they are a most interesting people, having a history, running back in accurate chapters to the Spanish Conquest, and traditions that connect them with the ancient Aztec races of the Pacific slope. That they had been a high grade people, is shown by the remains of art in their country. Some of the most remarkable ruins of pottery ovens, house architecture and irrigating appliances in the country, one fount in their midst. The outlines of many ancient towns are yet distinct, and it is clear that they possessed the art of both weaving and writing.
Notwithstanding the fact that the Pueblos ranked as an honest, brave, sober, intelligent and industrious people, to whose forefathers we are willing to attribute a high civilization and the origin of the hyeroglyphics, the cave dwellings,the many wonderful ruins of art and architecture found in the valleys and canons from the Rio Grande to the Mohave Desert, they were nevertheless true to their Indian origin in the respect that as soon as the American troops left Santa Fe for other points they began to conspire to take advantage of a weakened situation. They found ample encouragement in the disappointed Mexican leaders who added recklessness to their discomfiture. An uprising was planned for December of the year 1846, and its object was to murder or dispel every American and friendly Indian found in the newly created department.The signals tor the uprising had been agreed upon and were ready, but as fortune would have it, the plot was revealed three days in advance of the time set. Many of the ringleaders were arrested, and there was a general stampede of the rest to Mexico. Governor Bent issued a pacifying proclamation, which tided over the excitement, but insurrection smoldered for only a time.In January 1847, the Pueblos rose in a body and demanded the release of certain of their number retained as prisoners. Their demand was unheeded, whereupon they made an attack and killed the sheriff and his assistants. Their success met with encouragement at the hands of several of the original conspirators, and they invested the home of Governor Bent. His wife warned him of his danger. Seeing the futility of contending with so numerous and blood thirsty host, he called for assistance from the neighbors who were mostly Mexicans. They refused him aid and almost mockingly told him that he might as well make up his mind to die. Meanwhile he had received two wounds from the arrows of the Pueblos. Retreating to his room, his wife brought him his pistols and asked him to avenge himself,even if he must die. He declined to use them saying, “I will kill no one of them, for your sake and for that of my children. My death is all these infatuated and cruel people ask at present.”
The savages had already torn the roof off the house and began pouring into his room. He appealed to their manhood and honor, but in vain. "Every American in New Mexico should die!” they exclaimed, “and you shall go with them.”An arrow followed their bloody resolve, then an-other and another, but the method was not swift enough. A bullet sped through his heart and a she fell, a chief, stepping forward, snatched one of his pistols and shot him in the face. Then they took his scalp, and stretching it on a board with brass nails, carried it through the streets in triumph. After this, the Indians running wild with excitement, carried their massacre into every house whose occupant was an American. All of the leading officials perished or made their escape with difficulty. Whole families were exterminated. The priests, who were partly blamed for inciting the insurrection had to intercede to stay its cruelty.
Word of the insurrection spread among the Indian tribes and the uprising became general.Word also was carried to Sante Fe, and the Americans rallied for resistance. Traveling parties were captured and shot by the Indians,settlements were attacked and broken up; guards were driven away from the cattle ranches and the cattle were stampeded and driven off. At length the hostiles surrounded the strong corral at Turley’s mill. The owner was a conspicuous man in the Territory, and stood well with the Indians.He had a strong band of help about him, who on the approach of the Indians hastened within the corral and prepared for defence. The Indians closed in upon the place and offered to spare Turley’s life, but said they had killed the Governor at Fernandez, and that every American in the Territory must die. Turley defied them.
The Indians then began the attack under cover of the rocks and bushes. The defenders made a loop hole of every window in the mill and laid many an Indian low with their bullets. All day the siege was maintained, and at nightfall firing ceased, but the hostiles crept closer under cover of darkness. They originally numbered 500, and now their strength was being increased by new accessions. In the morning hostilities began again, and with increased determination on the part of the Indians. They got a foothold within the corral, where scores of them, including one of their most popular chiefs, fell victims to the bullets of the defenders. Baffled o’er and o’er again by the bravery of the besieged, the Indians renewed every attack more desperately, only to find their numbers reduced by the unerring aim of the defenders. Finally the Indians got close enough to fire the mill. The flames were extinguished only to break out again. Ammunition was running low. The defenders gave up hope, but resolved to hold on until night, and then try to escape, each one striking out for himself. This they did, but in the effort to pierce the cordon about them all fell victims except two, who man-aged to reach Santa Fe as bearers of the horrid news.
On their arrival Col. Price started immediately with his command of 350 infantry and four howitzers for the scene. His force was augmented by a company of volunteers, who com-prised the indignant citizens of Sante Fe. They hastened to Taos, where they met the hostile sunder the lead of a Mexican officer, and battle was at once joined. It was but a brief fight for the enemy was quickly dislodged from its stronghold by the howitzers, and then thrown into confused retreat by a splendid charge on the part of the Americans. They left 32 dead on the field together with the usual compliment of wounded.
Col. Price now received reinforcements, and with an army of 500 pushed on to the canon of Embudo, where the enemy were posted in force.They were in a strong position, but were charged upon and driven out with considerable loss.Thence they retreated up the valley to a strong pueblo, and there was nothing to do for the American army but to follow. The pursuit involved great hardship, for a deep snow had fallen and many officers and soldiers perished by being frozen, or through colds contracted by sleeping without tents or blankets. At the pueblo they found the enemy strongly fortified. The village was surrounded by thick adobe walls, at whose corners rose high bulwarks capable of sheltering 800 men. Every point of the wall was pierced for rifles, and every point without was flanked by projecting angles.
It would not do to rush indiscriminately upon such a stronghold. The army was carefully deployed, and positions were chosen for the artillery. For two hours the batteries played on a corner of the fortification, but without effect.Then there was a wait over night for further am-munition. During this time a plan of attack was matured. The village was surrounded on three sides; on the east and west by troops, on the north by the artillery. The artillery was to play till it made a breach in the walls, but it proved in effective for this purpose. The troops on the other sides were then commanded to close and charge. They scaled the walls by means of ladders, fired the roofs of the buildings, cut holes through walls, threw in lighted shells and fought desperately for the vantage. Meanwhile, the artillery was busy landing shot and shell into the in closure and distracting the attention of the enemy. Venturesome as was the attack of the Americans, they found no such resistance as they anticipated, for the enemy was never given a moment to concentrate its fire. It was driven by slow degrees into the church building in a corner of the pueblo, where it made its last desperate stand. A breach had been made in the outer walls through which a cannon was run.This was turned on the church and in ten rounds the walls began to crumble. Pioneers were formed who rushed into the church with axes and began to batter down the doors. The Indians broke and fled to other portions of the pueblo. Those who tried to escape to the mountains were shot down by the troops stationed without, those who gained cover within the pueblo were searched out and given no quarter. Chiefs fell who wore the clothing of white men killed at Turley’s mill.One was slain who was dressed in the coat of Governor Bent. Altogether 150 of the insurgents were slain and twice that many wounded out of a total of 650. On the morning after the.battle a delegation of men and women came to Colonel Price bearing crucifixes and images, and begged mercy on their knees. It was granted on condition that the ringleaders should be surrendered for trial under the law.
The conditions were accepted, and the culprits were taken into custody by the army. Many of them were Mexican desperadoes, who had incited the Indians to rebellion. Scores of them were tried and convicted. Fourteen of them were executed and the rest were pardoned on condition of future good behavior. The victory of our army was complete. On no occasion since have the Pueblos turned against the United States Government. Their chastisement was sufficient for all time. Since then they have departed from the Mexican traditions and remitted much of their savagery. Most of them have drifted into citizenship, and have yielded to missionary enterprise. In 1874 the Government had its last difficulty with them, which was largely a religious affair, and was peaceably adjusted.
Chapter II. The Shoshone Uprising
The great Shoshone stock of Indians origin-ally embraced the most powerful tribes of the extreme Northwest, grouped into families according to the topography of the country. The Modocs, Bannocks, Snakes, Utes,Kiowas and Comanches are of Shoshone origin. Akin to them also were the three families of tribes which extend from the Blue Mountains of Oregon to the Canadian border. The northern-most of these families is the Selish, to which belong the Elatheads and Coeur D’Alenes. South of them is the Saptin family, embracing the Nez Perces, Walla-Wallas, Klickitats, Yaki-mas and Pelouse. Below the Columbia River are the Wailatpu, Cayuses and Moleles. The Spokanes are found on the Spokane branch of Clark’s Fork.
In early days, the emigrant road through the Grand Ronde, over the Blue Mountains and down the Walla-Walla to the Columbia, opened up what was regarded as a fine field for missionary enterprise, and a large and prosperous mission station was started at Wailatpu, for the purpose of civilizing and christianizing the Wailatpus and Cayuses. Another mission of similar proportions sprang up on the Lapwai, at its junction with the Clear Water, which was a centre of evangelical influence with the Nez Perces. Still another came into being near the Spokane River, far to the north. Down the Columbia, at the Dalles, and again in the Williamette, were other missions, mostly under Methodist auspices.
The climate and soil were inviting. Missionary work went bravely on among tribes, which seemed kindly disposed and amenable. The missions became quite independent little settlements, with mills, shops, schools, churches, farms and a sufficient number of people to constitute a society. But there was one misfortune attending settlement and missionary enterprise in this region. The old arid powerful Hudson Bay Company had a fortified trading post at Wallula,the mouth of the Walla-Walla. The headquarters of said company was further down, at Fort Vancouver. The officers of this company had favored missionary enterprise from the States, and the presence of its strong and well fortified trading ports was regarded as a means of safety for the remote missionary stations.
This Company, however, came to represent England in her designs upon our Northern frontier. Those designs were to push the Canadian borders down so as to embrace a control of the Columbia River. The company officials made overtures to the missionaries and settlers, which had to be rejected on both moral and patriotic grounds. These officials then began to antagonize settlement and to corrupt the natives. They sold the Indians rum, guns and ammunition, on the plea that it made their hunting more successful. They opposed agriculture, lest it diminish the Company’s food supply. When it became manifest that the Americans were up to their game, and were forcing a settlement of the country, the Company fought every step of north-ward progress. It opposed cattle company and saw mill, with rivals, and at last went so far as to warn intruders from lands it claimed by virtue of no title at all. Emigrant trains were blockaded at Fort Hall, and several trains were forced to deflect southward into California. Probably the worst feature of the Company’s opposition was that it acted as convoy to the Jesuit Priests who were bitter against the Protestant missionaries from the south.
The jealousy and bitterness which sprang up between the Catholic and Protestant missions passed to the Indians in intensified form. They became restless and turbulent, fit subjects for crime, should a pretext offer. The Jesuits had decidedly the most influence over the Indians.Their missions were encouraged and protected by the powerful Company at their back. They could use its employees as heralds and interpreters. They were in stronger force than the Protestants. In 1847, a newly appointed Jesuit Bishop of Oregon came to Walla-Walla and held a conference with Ta-wai-tu, a Catholic Cay use chief. It was given out that the object of the conference was to devise means for dispossessing the Protestants and occupying the sites of their missions. At any rate, the Bishop took up permanent quarters at Minatilla, in a house offered by Ta-wai-tu, twenty-five miles south of Wailatpu, and in the rear of the flourishing mission there. This was on November 27, 1847. On November 29, while the mill at Wailatpu was running, the school in session, all the artisans at their trades, and the missionaries moving about in their errands of mercy, several Indians appeared upon the scene, headed by Tamsaky, who suddenly drew a tomahawk from beneath his blanket and brained the venerable Dr. Whitman, the head of the mission.
In an instant all was confusion within the mission grounds. The striking down of Dr.Whitman was the signal for a general attack by the Indians, who now appeared in all parts of the grounds—at the mill, the shops, the chapel and the schools. The Indians were well armed with knives, tomahawks, pistols and Hudson Bay Company muskets. The miller fell at his post, bravely fighting. The tailor and carpenter went down at their benches. The teacher made a brave stand at the schoolroom, but was soon numbered among the victims. The frightened children fled to the loft for hiding, but were soon brought down and driven into a huddled mass by a cor-don of savages who held them trembling prisoners by threats of shooting. The women who had fled for safety to the central mansion and had taken refuge in the upper stories, were ordered down in order that the house might be fired. The fate of most of them was more horrible than if they had submitted to being burned. Mrs. Whitman and others were foully murdered. Many were taken prisoners and carried away into bondage. A few managed to escape slaughter and captivity for the time being and remained in hiding in the houses.
Night came on and the Indians withdrew to their lodges, after finishing their plundering. It was a night of terror for the few survivors at the mission. Under cover of the darkness, one man escaped and made his way to Lapwai. The Osborne family escaped and reached Walla-Walla. Several fugitives were caught the next day and murdered. The young girls, daughters of teachers and mechanics, were distributed among the braves who had been instrumental in the murder of their parents. The destruction of the mission was complete. The murder of its numerous occupants had been brought about in the most effective way, showing clearly the existence of a well matured plot on the part of the Indians and their advisers.
When word of the uprising and massacre reached Oregon City, the Governor ordered a levy of troops and in twenty-four hours a company of forty-two men were on their way to the Dalles,where fugitives from all the missions above were coming. Here the troops remained for the purpose of guarding the passage of fugitives and re-stored captives to safe places below, while awaiting reinforcements, till February 1848.Being reinforced, Captain Lee sent a scouting party against the Des Chutes, the nearest of the hostiles, which defeated them in a battle on February 28. The main body of 160 troops moved toward Wailatpu, near which they met a strong body of Indians. A desperate battle was fought in which the Indians lost 20 warriors and 40 horses, together with all their goods.
As the troops proceeded, the French Canadian leader, Finlay, who managed the massacre at Wailatpu, attempted to entrap them by a pretence of peace. He had about 500 Indians at his disposal, and the Americans could only advance by keeping close in line. They literally fought their way to Wailatpu, where they established ajovt and called on the adjoining tribes to come in fora talk. The Nez Perces and most of the Cayuses came and were prompt to disavow participation in the massacre. Chief Joseph, of the Nez Perces,promised to deliver up all the murderers found in his tribe. Those who remained hostile in the neighboring tribes were pursued by the troops and defeated in repeated battles. They were finally driven into the neighboring mountains and back into the Nez Perces country, with the loss of many of their warriors and most of their cattle. The troops remained at the various forts they had established during the year 1848, and the tribes of the murderers were forced to pursue a wandering life in the mountain gorges, not dare to return to their homes. This state of affairs continued during 1849 and 1850. In the latter year they purchased peace by surrendering five of the murderous chiefs, who were tried and hung.
All the mission houses at Wailatpu were burnedby the Indians, and to-day mounds of earth mark their site. On the hillside is the common grave of the victims. The position of the garden is marked by a few fruit trees and clusters of the flowers planted by those who passed away, are civilization could give them its guarantees of peace and safety.
Chapter III. Wars with the California Tribes
While the Oregon volunteers were still at the Dalles in defence of their homes,gold was discovered in paying quantities at Mormon Island and in Sutter’s mill race in California. In a trice all California was mad, and the gold craze spread all over the United States. A flood of emigration by laud and sea poured into the gold coasts of the Pacific. The year 1849 became historic and the forty-niner a character in the tragedy and comedy of the times.
The flood of emigration, the crush of enterprise, the selfishness of greed, the cruelty of acquisition, under the circumstances, proved to be greater evils for the Indians than even the discovery of Columbus and the Spanish occupation. Gold miners had no patience with Indians.They would ransack the mountains in search of claims. They would kill all who interfered with their supposed rights. The Indian knew this, and as a rule “vacated the ranche” on a single warning. If he stood for his rights, the policy of the Government was to get rid of him as quickly as possible by buying him out, so as to avoid bloodshed.
Generally speaking the Indians of California were not fighters. The Yrekas in the north were brave and gave much trouble, but the tribes to the south lacked union and spirit. The entire Indian population did not exceed 30,000, of whom not over half were classed as wild Indians. The first clash with the California Indians came at Mormon Island, and it was instigated by miners,who perhaps sought an occasion to teach their hostile neighbors what they might expect if they did not clear the way for exploration and occupancy. It was a cruel “set-to” which resulted fatally to a number on both sides, but which resulted in impressing the Indians with the conviction that the vicinity of a gold mining camp,was the least desirable place in the world for their own camps.
As miners pushed their way into the mountains and mining camps became thick in the gulches and valleys, the difficulties with the Indians increased. Skirmishes became frequent,but as a rule the Indians were marauders and cattle thieves, rather than open, organized warriors. They were “pestiferous,” as the mining phrase went, and in this respect were more objects of malice than if they had been regularly on the warpath. The Government hearkened to the calls for aid to put them down. It could not send troops so far, but it sent 100,000 arms.The miners quickly formed a local militia and would, no doubt, have made a war of extermination upon the Indians of the Territory, had not the Government in a spirit of humanity, hit on the plan of treating with them and giving them a place on reservations. Most of the tribes took their places gladly on reservations, but some of the mountain tribes either feared to come in or preferred the freedom of their mountain fastnesses.
These were treated as hostiles, and the improvised militia of California quickly made war upon them. The California wars of 1851-52 were chiefly those brought about by efforts to catch these hostiles and corral them on reservations.The hostiles of the San Joaquin Valley were hunted down and brought to terms by the celebrated Mariposa Battalion. Jose Rey, chief of the Chowchillas, was defeated in several engagements and finally lost his life in a battle which determined the fate of his tribe. The Yosemites, or “Grizzly Bears,” who lived in the wonderful canon valley which perpetuates their name,were brave warriors by repute, but when confronted by the militia they offered little resistance. The wars in and around Sacramento Valley amounted to but little more than a succession of skirmishes. By 1853 the California tribes were pretty generally subdued and driven on to the five reservations set apart for them.These reservations were badly managed by the Government agents, who drew plentiful supplies from the Government but gave the Indians none.The consequence was the reservations fell into dis-repute and were practically abandoned. White settlers took mean advantage of the absence of the Indians, the latter having been forced into a nomadic life and having become more thievish and cowardly than ever before. Every Indian theft, every attempt on their part to scout and live, or to come back on their reservations to assert their rights, became a cause for war upon them, and it is quite probable that more perished in the difficulties which thus arose, than in all the prior efforts to conquer them. Over 150 Indians were massacred by the white settlers at Nome Cult in 1858, the only excuse being that they had driven off the cattle of the settlers from the reservation, because they were consuming the acorns on which the Indians depended for food. At King’s River the Indians were shot down by scores, and driven away because the Government would not support them and they had be come a nuisance. In these humanitarian efforts to exterminate the natives, the settlers had the support of the State militia and there was no sentiment against this kind of murder. At Mattole Station and Humboldt Bay, similar massacres took place and there was no mercy shown to a refractory Indian. The next morning after the massacre at Humboldt Bay, sixty corpses of Indian men, women, boys and girls, showed how impious had been their refusal to go off to the then secluded region of Mendocino.
The character of the California settlers, gathered from all the ends of the earth, inspired by greed, with a golden stake in hand, was such as to make the Indian wars of California frequent, short and decisive. They were wars which involved excessive cruelty, wars of extermination.The miners were a society by themselves, and a unit in their own protection. There was, of course, a powerful necessity for protection, as was shown not only in their wars with Indians, but in those stern measures which became the code of justice of their “Vigilance Committees.” They were really at war with themselves, and peace and the reign of law came only after the rope had taught many of their own number, the same lessons their shotguns had impressed on the Indians.
Chapter IV. A Yuma Massacre
The Indian tribes of Arizona and the line of the Colorado River, have ever been an interesting study. Two large nations, of which the Yuma is one, were agricultural and peaceful. They came early under the influence of the Spanish, and proved useful as a bulwark against the fierce and powerful Apaches.But there were blendings of these tribes with the bolder and wilder Apaches, with the result that many degraded tribes arose, which possessed the virtues of neither, but for whose actions one or the other of the leading tribes had to be responsible. Thus a dangerous and free booting tribe, called Tontos, was allied by birth to both the Yumas and Apaches, and if they committed an outrage, it was either a Yuma or Apache outrage,according to the interest either had in it, or the apology offered for it.
