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

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Title: Indians of California by Edward Chever Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection # of Pages: 12 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-09-03 14:15:23 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 03:21:14 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 03:21:14

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

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128 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY would see his trees cut down and game destroyed, and the clear rivers turned into muddy streams, without regret. That they refrained from seeking satisfaction for what they regarded as intentional wrong is more surprising. A white woman told me one day of her spirit in driving an Indian from her tent, by getting out her husband’s pistol and ordering him to “vamoose.” The Indian’s story was heard in this particular case, and never having seen a white woman before he was astonished at her hostile intentions, and indignant at having been threatened when he intended no wrong. He added that he knew now “why so few of the white men in California were married.” The Indians are philosophical by nature and accept either death or suffering, when regarded as inevitable, with composure. On one occasion, when talking with a chief, and slapping mosquitoes with considerable energy, killing them when I could, the Indian remained cool and serene, quietly brushing the little torments from his limbs, and observing my impatience, said, “what good comes of killing a few, the air is full of them.” When the first steamboat passed the Indian villages I watched the Indians to see what effect it would produce, but to my disappointment it did not excite them or elicit any expression of wonder. Even the steam whistle failed to move them; they did not understand it and would not exhibit surprise. Two years later a brig sailed up the river and the Indians were full of excitement. The size of the sails and the strength of the ropes came within their comprehension, filling them with wonder. The task of gathering fiber enough to weave so much cloth, and such ropes, made the white man a wonderful worker in their estimation. It has been customary to attribute certain general qualities to whole tribes of Indians, and this has been done to those of whom I have written. I can only say that no two Indians of my acquaintance were alike, and their mode of life would naturally develop individuality of character. The charges of lying and stealing, as urged against them, have some foundation in fact, although the Indian might make some such defense as our soldiers made to the accusation of theft of honey and chickens while marching through the South during our late war. They did not steal, they took what they wanted and expected to live on the enemy. No Indian can steal from his tribe, however, without losing his character, and their desire to have position in the tribe makes both men and women as careful of their reputations as those in civilized life. Indians and white men cannot live side by side happily, nor without fighting till the white man is acknowledged master. The Indian is catlike, attached to localities, and kills only such game as he needs for food; he is stealthy by nature, and patiently waits his opportunity to strike. The white man is migratory and carries his attachments to strange lands, making his home where his ambition or nature attracts him, and is destructive alike to game or forests. The Indian, if he becomes an obstacle, is classed with wild animals, and is hunted to the death; this antagonism becomes mutual and is perhaps as natural as the antipathies of cats and dogs. The early settlement of New England was attended by the horrors of Indian warfare, and this struggle is the same today as then, but farther west on the plains of Colorado and Arizona. The Indians of California are now fed on government rations, and instead of elk and antelope the land is grazed by herds and flocks of domestic animals owned by the white men, and enumerated and taxed as one of the largest items of wealth in a rich state. The present policy of the government of removing Indians from disputed lands, and settling them upon reservations, is perhaps the best thing that can be done, but much of the management of Indians in the past has been a shameful record of fraud, by the agents of our government who represented the public money-bag, and of outrages committed on emigrants by the Indians. Many of the Indian agents, in their greed for gain, supplied hostile tribes with rifles, ammunition and whiskey in exchange for furs and even property captured from the white settlers. Whisky that may.only make a fool of the white man converts an Indian into a fiend, and when drunk he may kill friend or foe. The individual settler, exposed to attack, regards the Indians as brutal and dangerous, and loses faith in his government if it rewards with presents the wretch who has murdered his companions, and may at any time attack him by surprise and butcher his wife and children. Our government is now powerful enough to warrant the exercise of authority and mercy. It is folly to purchase peace of such a people by paying them tribute, as the Indians themselves seek to propitiate