Collection: Directories and Documents > Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection

About This Item:

Title: The Indian Question [California] Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection # of Pages: 17 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-09-03 14:17:53 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 05:53:15 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 05:53:15

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

Page: of 17  

€ 78 University of California Publications in History [Vou. 16 than to brave the opposition of California. And thus, in spite of some protest against the failure of the government to assert its rights to the mines, the federal treasury derived no revenue from the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold extracted during this period from tHe Pacifie Coast mines by people from ~ all parts of the globe.** It was the exhaustion of the placer mines and the heavy cost of the Civil War that finally brought the government to adopt a policy that enabled it to derive some revenue from the mines. The passage of the several mining acts marked the end of the policy of reserving the gold and silver mines to the government. Thus came to a close another chapter in the history of the relations of California with the national government. The controversy about the control and disposition of the gold and silver mines on the Pacific Coast demonstrates the influence and effect of public opinion, in a state or particular section of the country, upon the policies of the federal government. 65 In his report of 1866, Browne estimated the totai production of gold in California up to 1865 at about $900,000,000. The gold exportation from San Francisco during these years was as follows: 1849, $4,921,250; 1850, $27,676,346; 1861, $42,582,695; 1852, $46,588,434; 1853, $57,330,034; 1854, $51,328,658; 1855, $45,182,631; 1856, $48,880,543; 1857, $48,976,697; 1858, $47,548,025; 1859, $47,649,462; 1860, $42,203,345; 1861, $40,639,080; 1862, $42,561,761; 1863, $46,071,920; 1864, $55,707,201; 1865, $44,984,546, Total, $740,832,623. To this he added $200,000,000, the amount carried away during this sixteen years unmanifested. Report upon the Resources of the States and Territories West of the Rocky Mountains (H. Ea. Doc. 29, 39 Cong., 2 Seas., 50 [1289]). CHAPTER V THE INDIAN QUESTION California, like many other frontier communities in the United States, had her Indian’ question which proved exceedingly troublesome to the state and to the national government. In many respects the problem was more acute in California than elsewhere. Unlike most frontier communities, where the advance of the white man was gradual and in a more or less straight line, in California the adventurous white settlers and miners in a short time penetrated the whole territory and partly destroyed the Indian’s means of subsistence, which had never been too plentiful. The Indian, though he had but a vague idea of his right to the soil, resented this intrusion. ‘‘This is our country,”’ said an Indian chief to Sub-agent Johnston, ‘‘why do the Americans come here? They are good and brave, but they come upon the land of my people. What do they intend to do?’ Actuated by the fear of starvation and frequently provoked by reckless whites, the Indians often resorted to stealing and to robbing the frontier settlements. 1The California Indians stood low in the scale of civilization. The valley Indians were mild, but those living north from the headwaters of the Sacramento to the Oregon border, and around the Gila and Colorado region were warlike and thievishly inclined. The number of Indians in California-in the fifties of the nineteenth century is variously estimated from 75,000 to 500,000. Probably a hundred thousand would be nearer the mark. Even this number, according to Kroeber, was an eighth of the whole of the Indian population in America north of Mexico. See Kroeber’s article on the Indians of California, in Eldredge, History of California, V, 125; Sen. Ex. Doo. 4, 88 Cong., Special Seéss., 62, 68, 242, 261 (688). 2 Sen. Ex. Doc. 4, 33 Cong., Special Sess., 65 (688).