An Overview of California Indian History
 
by Jack Norton Jr.               
 
California is a land of immense variety and resources.  Its splendid mountain ranges, long coastlines, rich marshlands, clear streams and beautiful deserts provide the greatest number of plant and animal species in North America .  California has the highest peak ( Mt. Whitney ) in the lower United States , the deepest canyon (Kings) and the largest and oldest trees (redwood and bristlecone pine) in America .  No other area of equal size in the United States has so much diversity of ecological and biological environments.
                For thousands of years native people lived well within their homelands.  The Indians of northwestern California , for example, used large redwood canoes upon the rivers and along the coast where they harvested salmon by the thousands.  The birds filled the sky and huge groups of deer grazed upon the grasslands of central California provided beautiful and creative material for religious expressions.  The desert people of southern California engineered complex water systems that sustained themselves and their food sources.
                California Indian societies were remarkably diverse and creative.  There were at least 100 distinct cultural groups with hundreds of different spoken languages.  Recent studies have suggested a native population of well over a million which was greater than any other area of equal size north of Mexico .
                The Indian people of California developed various forms of governance long before Europeans arrived.  There physical and social needs as well as religious expressions were supported by agreed upon laws.  Membership in the group was defined by recognized boundaries, a common language, established customs and a shared history.  These factors define a nation which is recognized throughout the world.  Thus Indians of California are nation states with inherent sovereignty   to protect themselves from trespass, encroachment, and invasion. 
                Although the Spanish invasion and its colonial intent to christianize the California native people resulted in the death of 70% of the mission population, this was not as devastating as the inhumanity caused by the Euro-Americans. 
                By 1844 the admixture of religious tenets and economic greed crystalized as Manifest Destiny.  This concept supported the belief that America as a Christian nation was the civilizer of the earth.  This justified for many the taking of land and property from others particularly those who were not Christians.  President Polk’s expansionist policies favored the annexation of western lands and by 1846 he had intrigued and bullied Mexico into a war in which California was the prize.  Official California Indian-Governmental relations were established after the Californios, the Mexican descendants living in California , surrendered to the American forces at Cahuenga on January l3, l847.  In March, l847, General Stephen W. Kearny, first administrator in California, appointed John Sutter and Marino Vallejo as subagents of Indian Affairs.  These appointments initiated patterns of exploitation and self-interest that clouded Indian destiny for years. Sutter, for example, used Maidu and Nissen men, women and children for economic and personal gain while Marino Vallejo captured and enslaved hundreds of Wappo and Pomo people to work  his estates north of San Francisco .  
                In general the California native people particularly those north of Sacramento were not affected by the war with Mexico .  However, in central California , due to the manipulation of John Sutter and other large Rancho owners, a few Indians formed a small battalion.  In southern California the war intensified the disruption of Indian societies by forcing many to flee to other groups or restructuring tribal people into autocratic organizations such as Juan Antonio’s Cahuilla people.  His alliance with Jose del Carmen Lugo at Rancho San Bernardino permitted the Cahuillas to live within their ancestral lands in exchange for protecting the Lugo Rancho from trespass.  However, many Indians lived on small productive farms with livestock, gardens and orchards within their aboriginal lands or they were forced to move into towns and took menial jobs.
                In May l847, Colonel Richard Mason, a southerner from Virginia , replaced  Kearny as military governor.  Mason launched a series of Indian restrictions similar to the Black Codes in the South after the Civil War.  California Indians were to show upon demand, certificates of employment; they were to carry passes when moving from one area to another; and they could not gather in groups or crowds without causing suspicion.  In Central California , Indians could not own horses and fire arms were forbidden.  General Persifer Smith, Commander of the Pacific Division, declared any Indian living in a village breaking these rules would endanger the entire community and all would be punished. 
                The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was confirmed by Congress in May l848, ending the Mexican War.  As an international treaty, the civil rights of Mexican citizens, including Indians were considered  superior to any state laws.   In addition, Article XI declared that California Indians should not be placed in jeopardy or be removed to other areas.  Congress was consumed with the debate over Black Slavery extending into the newly acquired territories.  Furthermore, Presidents Zachary Taylor,  l848-l852, and Millard Fillmore, l852-l854. abrogated their constitutional leadership.  In this vacumn, harsh military codes continued in California until November, l849, when Peter Burnett and John McDougal, elected the first Governor and Lt Governor.  During their administration, they called for the extermination of California Indians.
                When gold was discovered in January, l848, over 100,000 men inundated the state.  By the fall of the following year, the ratio of males to females was 12 to 1 and in the first years many men took Indian women as concubines and disrupted Indian lives with terror, disease and murder.  For example, Indian scalps were sold in Marysville, Yreka, and Shasta City from $5 to $15 a piece.  Indians were shot indiscriminately while hunting or fishing or villages were directly attacked.  In Shasta City , for instance, miners burned down the Wintu Council House and massacred 300 innocent people.  Reports of these atrocities reached the newly formed Bureau of Indian Affairs within the Department of the Interior, and in April, 1849, Adam Johnston was appointed Indian Agent of California.
                On April 22, 18 50, the California Legislature passed the Act for the Governance and Protection of Indians.  This law superceded federal responsibilities and the laws of the Supreme Court by allowing rampant victimization of California native people. The act, often referred to as an “California Indian Slave Law”  bonded Indian persons of all ages to varying periods of servitude.  The law stipulated that in “no case shall a white man be convicted of any offense upon the testimony of any Indian.”  In addition, California Indian people could be arrested for loitering, drunkenness, or leading a profligate life.  To make bail, Indian labor from a week to several months was required.  Bail was normally paid by local farmers, particularly in the Los Angeles area.  California Indians were generally paid small wages, or with discarded clothing, and in many cases with hard liquor.
                In 1860, this “California Indian Slave Law” was amended to liberalize the apprenticeship of children.  Over 4,000 Indian children were indentured in the northern counties alone.  When the gold fields became less productive some individuals turned to kidnaping and selling children, particularly young girls, to miners and farmers.  For example, in 1855, Pierce Asbill sold 35 Yuki girls 16 years old or younger to miners in Yuba City and Marysville. Those who fought back were harried and in many cases murdered by federal troops and local volunteer units, who were paid by the State of California over 1million dollars for their services (Chapter 12 Statutes).  In addition, these volunteer groups were encouraged to file for property within the aboriginal homelands of California Indian people. 
                Reports of genocidal activities from Johnston and others provided the background for the negotiation of
eighteen treaties from 1851 to January of 1852.  The total acreage promised to California Indian Nations was less than three percent of the aboriginal lands.  Yet the citizenry and the California legislature demanded non-ratification claiming too much “valuable land was left to savages.”  On July 8th 1852, the U.S. Senate rejected the treaties in closed session and ordered them filed in the Senate without access to the public.  California Indian Nations as equal signatories were not notified.  In the meantime, San Diego County arbitrarily imposed a $600 a year tax on the Cupeno people.  Antonio Garra declared that the U. S. Government was making treaties with California Indian Nations and the state and county had no force and affect.  Garra tried to organize Indians throughout southern California against this illegal encroachment but was captured, shot and killed, January, 10, 1852. 
                By September 1852, Congress superceded presidential treaty authority and appointed Lt. Edward Beale, a former naval officer in the Mexican War, Superintendent of Indian Affairs to California .  Beale proposed five military reservations be established and supported by Indian labor.  By fall, 1853, Beale confirmed Fort Tejon and the Tejon Reservation in southern California upon an already existent and highly productive Indian community known as the Sebastian Reserve.  These five military reservations along with adjoining Indian farms created from 1853 to 1864 were manipulated in size and number by the dictates of California citizens.  In the meantime, Congress passed the California Land Claims Commission Act in March of 1851, which primarily reviewed claims of ownership by former Californios.  However, it also charged the commission to consider and protect Indian ownership of land.  All California counties were required to send Indian records to the three member commission at San Francisco .  Most counties refused to do so and the U. S. Government failed to enforce compliance.  Consequently, California Indian were defrauded of their aboriginal lands and their sovereignty was greatly impaired.  By the end of 1852 there were
223,856 Anglo Americans living in California
                In 1859, various county supervisors began rejecting Indian claims for goods and services within county jurisdiction and  the California legislature upheld these actions.  In Mendocino County , for example, the Pomo people of Northern California , were directed to report to the Mendocino or Round Valley Reservation.  However, many Indians refused because of the dismal and often life-threatening conditions that existed on the reservations.  Additionally, several reservations lacked an adequate water supply, and on the Mendocino Reservation, irresponsible logging practices had destroyed the yearly salmon runs.  Widespread corruption and fraud existed within California Indian Affairs.  For example, in 1858, Superintendent Henly, was charged and dismissed for fraud and malfesance for diverting Indian supplies to private accounts.  Congress responded to this venality by reducing the annual budget for California Indian services by two-thirds and turned their interest to the coming Civil War.
                California Indians were directly affected by the Civil War because the professional federal troops were replaced by the California State Militia.  These volunteer groups were usually composed of men interested in divesting Indian Nations of their lands.  Soon several massacres such as the Indian Island Massacre, the Wailaki, Usal and Needle Rock Massacres, and the Mattole Valley Massacre occurred.  Additionally, the forced removal of the Paiute, Maidu, Konkow, and Pit River peoples to distant reservations in northern and central California took place.  Devastation to the California Indian population  also took place in southern California as smallpox raged throughout the area.  For instance, the Cahuilla people led by Juan Antonio fled to San Timoteo Canyon and the nearby settlers moved in and took all their land and property.  When the Luiseno people from the Village of Pejamo near present day Temecula left to harvest food, their white neighbors stole their homes and livestock.  During the late 1860s, increasing numbers of white settlers stole the best watered Indian farms, orchards and gardens.  The Indian Agents were ineffective in protecting Indian rights.  
                By 1869 President Grant, embarrassed by the national scandal of corruption and incompetency within the Bureau of Indian Affairs, turned to religious denominations to administer Indian policies.  Congress, busy with Reconstruction programs, readily confirmed these religious nominees, thereby enacting Grant’s “Quaker Policy.”  In California , the Catholic Church had converted, often by force, thousands of Indian people.  However, the Episcopalian order was assigned to western reservations.  In some areas of California , divisive and bitter
debate over religious doctrine severed Indian groups and families.  In addition, the religious administrators generally attempted to suppress Indian rituals and ceremonies causing further isolation and disorientation.   In the meantime, President Grant used his executive power to establish the San Pasqual and the Pala reservations for southern California Indians by January, 1870.  However, Charles Taggart, through the San Diego Union led a vicious attack against the establishment of the two reservations.  Interestingly, several Indian leaders such as Olgairo Calac warned the Indian people that the U. S. Government could betray their word and that if anyone moved to the reservations they would loose their aboriginals homes and still be unprotected.  One year later, President Grant revoked his executive order and white settlers flooded the San Pasqual Valley and took the Luiseno people’s  home and property.
                In September, 1875, the sheriff of San Diego County enforced an eviction order against the remaining Luiseno villages in the Temecula Valley .  The Luiseno’s forced removal was paid by the confiscation of their livestock.  Then, in 1882 President Arthur established the Pechanga Reservation named after the Luiseno term for the spring located in a nearby canyon.  From 1875 to 1877 thirteen executive order reservations were established in southern California .  However, this did little to lessen the numerous acts of violence and theft committed by white settlers.  Special Agent D. A. Dryden, for example, reported that “Indian gardens were invaded, pastures were consumed by livestock, and water was turned away from their ditches.”  Indians had no redress.
                The dispossession of California Indian lives and property came to the attention of several Indian reformers during the 1880s, such as Helen Hunt Jackson who advocated for the just treatment of Indian peoples. However, by applying ideals of Jeffersonian yeomanry that emphasized land ownership, Victorian domesticity and Christian values, many reform efforts further assaulted the integrity of traditional Indian communities and life ways.
For instance, by 1887 the General Allotment Act whereby all reservations were to be divided into small individual parcels increased the forces of assimilation and acculturation.   In the meantime, Congress continued to encroach upon Indian sovereignty by passing the Seven Major Crimes Act in 1885, which assumed jurisdiction of capital crimes committed on reservations.  However, Indian victims of murder, rape and burglary committed by white citizens had no standing to bring charges in local or state courts.  As non-citizens or wards of the government, California Indian people could select land under the Indian Homestead Act of 1875 thereby receiving citizenship entitlement, hence legal protection, or fend for themselves and retain Indian Tribal membership
                In southern California , Helen Hunt Jackson exposed the venality of white encroachment but failed to induce Congress to act upon the behalf of the California Indians.  Finally, in an effort to “touch America ’s heart” she wrote the novel Ramona (1885) but it was co-opted into a romanticized version of southern California mission history.           After he death in 1886, however, several reform movements carried out her demands for California Indian justice.  In 1891, Congress passed the Act for the Relief of Mission Indians.  By year’s end there were 33 reservations total in southern California .  However, nearly 80% of the land was unusable; it was often barren, rocky or water-less.
                Maintaining cultural identity was particularly difficult for many California Indians.  By 1900, for instance, only 5,000 Indians were identified as living on the reservations; the remaining 11,000 were scattered throughout the general population or lived in small family groups in isolated areas.  Further, the Bureau of Indian Affairs had codified a list of Indian offenses, which forbade religious, medicinal and marriage customs along with prohibiting Indian languages.
                From 1900 to the 1920s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, through internal mandates, often denied medical and welfare services to Indian people.  By 1906, for example, congressional investigations revealed overwhelming poor health conditions of California Indians due to near starvation, poverty and disease such as tuberculosis and trachoma. Congress appropriated $100,000 for purchase of land to provide for homeless California Indians.  These reform efforts rectified some blatant governmental injustices.  By 1910, an additional twenty-five reservations or Rancherias were established across California .  This federal policy was amplified until 1950, creating 117 reservations which totaled less than 700,000 acres of the original 91 million acres of aboriginal territory. 
                 In 1927 the State of California authorized the Attorney General to sue the federal government for remuneration.  The following year, Congress passed the Jurisdictional Act and the suit was filled before the U.S. Court of Claims as Indians of California vs. United States .  In a complex and protracted litigation, the United States Government determined that all goods and services provided California Indians since 1852, including: the cost of needles; shovels; harnesses; old World War I uniforms, would be deducted from any award.  By December, 1944, the court awarded approximately 17 million dollars at $1.25 an acre.  An offset of 12 million was deducted and the remaining 5 million was distributed to 36,000 California Indians in the early 1950s.
                While the California Indian claims case sought government redress, many California Indians were outraged by the unjust compensation received.  When Congress created the Indian Claims Commission in 1946 , which allowed only monetary compensation and not the return of land fraudulently acquired, California Indian people sued for the remaining 91,764,600 acres of the state.  By 1951, twenty-three separate appeals were filed before the commission.  After a long and arduous fight, Congress finally authorized payment of 29 million dollars in 1964.  However, the Claims Commission reduced the litigated acreage to 64,425,000, and adjudicated forty-seven cents per acre as an equitable judgment.  This amount was surprising in light of the U. S. Government’s designation of $1.25 per acre for un-surveyed land.  In addition, no adjudication, apology or compensation for the genocide committed or for any moral wrongs or breach of fair or honest practices was forthcoming.  Thus, today, many California Indian Nations are wary of federal, state and local governments.  Regardless, California Indian people survived and continue to be the spiritual caretakers of this land.