Inter Pocala & History of California (Various Pages) (33 pages)

rele YF Heves a eho tedeadeueeees > 492 EXTERMINATION OF THE INDIANS. did these squatters obtain as to speedily convince the government that it would be advisable to relinquish possession of the small section left to the Indians.” 4 In the first spasm of enterprise Henley had planted large areas in grain, particularly at El Tejon, supplied by long irrigation ditches, but the enervating heat prevented his agents from straining their attention beyond 700 acres, and even the crops from this reduced tract, although ever promising well far into the summer, usually fell to little or nothing. In one case a flood was credited with the disappearance, but usually drouths bore the brunt, although, singularly enough, the fields cultivated by Indians for private account yielded we Similar reverses overtook Fresno. Another peculiarity was that the population at the different reservations appeared _ much larger to the overtasked agents than to visitors. Unable to comprehend these vagaries of a strange climate, the government stooped to listen to the insinuations of army officers that the Indian management had fallen into the hands of a ring which manipulated it to their own advantage. One result was the dispatch of G. Bailey as special agent to examine into the matter. Disregar ing the experience of agents accustomed to the country, . t and unconvinced by their demonstrations, supported by long array of figures, he preferred to take the unsupported evidence of his own eyes, and declared the reservations to be mere almshouses, wherein a small proportion of the . natives were scantily fed at great cost. The pay and rations of the employés consumed about $100,000, a sum sufficient to sustain more than all the actual reservation Indians. A still larger sum was annually granted for clothing and provisions, and another allowance aimed to provide the several government farms with live stock, implements, and other in:provements ; ‘yet this large expenditure, which so far exceeded $1,170,000, had served to produce but a scanty crop, valued at less than one-fourth of the salaries alone. Such was the net result of these proposed self-sustaining establishments, for the gain in civilization lay almost wholly in forcing distasteful lessons in agriculture upon a handful, and this was fully counterbalanced by the demoralizing influence of soldiers, servants, and settlers upon bands, which, if left to their own wild haunts, would have long remained purer and nappa he commissioner at Washington came to the conclusion that there were ° too many reservations, partly in unsuitable locations, and too many men to work for the Indians, instead of training them-to work for themselves, besides lack of system, ability, and integrity on the part of the managers. The first step was to appoint a new superintendent, James Y. McDuffie, with an aperopes ce so pitifully reduced as in itself to compel a sweeping dismissal of servants and the consequent neglect of the reservations, upon which the dismissed staff and the surrounding settlers combined in a raid of seizure and spoliation. The. knowledge that further changes were pending in congress did not encourage the new officials to interpose a saving hand. Under an act of June 19, 1860, California was divided into two Indian districts, the northern and southern, each under a supervising agent, assisted at each reservation by a supervisor and four laborers to teach husbandry. Indians re-. quiring supervision were either to be brought to the reservation to earn their living if possible, or situations were to be sought for them among farmers. As a check on the new régime, an agent was sent to ascertain the number and disposition of the tribes to be taken under guardianship. . ‘ The reservations having by this time fallen into utter dilapidation, the new officials found it almost a matter of necessity to enter into the new economic spirit by recommending the abandonment of several, and to concentrate their wards. But while the northern superintendent gained approval of his plan for selling Nome Lacke, Mendocino, and Klamath, as either unsuitable or worthless, he was not content with the spacious fertile and secluded Round valley, but undertook upon his own responsibility to remove some : MISSION INDIANS, 493 2,000 northern Indians to Smith river, in Del Norte, and rent farming land at the exorbitant rate of $5 an acre, while strongly urging the purchase of the entire valley. In the south, Fresno and King river farms were abandoned, and in 1863 El Tejon, under the cumulative disadvantages of droughts and rentals. Tule farm became the headquarters for a small propeesi of the neglected San Joaquin tribes. The fact was that these Indians had become sufficiently quiet and well-behaved to inspire no further fears, and so they were cast adrift to starve. They might have taken a lesson from their brethren of the Klamath region, who, by pursuing the different course of ravaging, burning, and killing among the settlers, were in 1864, under the Trinity war treaty, rewarded with the special Hoopa valley reservation, bought for them ata considerable sum. = The absurdity of keeping two superintendencies for the diminished government farms of the state led in 1863 to their consolidation, and shortly after the commissioner awoke to the expediency of establishing schools for his wards. He resolved, moreover, to try the effects of ‘missionary labor as an economizing factor, and in teaching the Indians the soothing virtues of meekness under the purifying ordeal of land spoliation and neglect to which their Christian fathers at Washington were submitting them. Notwithstanding all efforts to cuttail expenses, the estimates continued to grow, as did the number of pensioners—in the reports—till the government, in despair over the general dishonesty and inefficiency among its agents, in 1869 made a sweeping change, and intrusted the management of the northern and central Indians of the United States to the ad of Friends, and the rest to army officers. Gen. McIntosh accordingly took control in California. But congress objecting to such employment for army men, and as the Friends had proved a success, the president in the following year invited other religious denominations to assume the charge. The methodists were allowed to recommend agents for the three reservations now left in the state, Hoopa and Round valleys and Tule river, and they in due time reported direct to Washington, the superintendent being dispensed with. . The religious domination was not entirely a success, yet since then the administration has been more satisfactory, although only a small proportion of the natives enjoy the benefits of the reservations. In San Joaquin valley the Tule farm was abandoned for a sterile expanse of wooded mountain country on the south fork of the Tule, with not over 250 arable aéres, selected in 1873, upon which less than one fourth of the agency population could manage to hold out. The rest, in this and other parts of California, had to me sayy themselves elsewhere as best they were ahi with occasional aid from the headquarters, or with mere advice from special agents, who undertook to procure them work and fair treatment among the settlers. The most panne of the general injustice and neglect fell te the lot of the mission Indians, those who had once occupied the missions, and assisted with their labor to transform the southern region from a wilderness into a flourishing colony, with fields and orchards and stately temples. The secularization of the missions in the thirties was a premature act which opened the door for despoiling these, the real owners, of their interest in the mission lands and improvements; and heedless of their rights, the Mexican officials transferred all in vast grants to strangers, including the very ground on which they had reared their humble cabins. The United States courts confirmed the titles, at least without a thought for the natives. For a long time the federal government regarded them vaguely as citizens, and many were such under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, yet the advantages of citizenship were withheld, notably at the land and registration offices. It required the fear of a bread riot in 1857 to gain attention for them. Soon after they were in a measure recognized as wards by the appointment of agents to assist them with seed, implements, and a weak solution of advice, and in 1870 were assigned to them the valleys of Pala and . San Pascual as a reservation. This tardy act of partial justice roused the hatred of the surrounding settlers. A rush was made for these hitherto neglected tracts; the natives were threatened with dire calamities if they ry

rele YF Heves a eho tedeadeueeees > 492 EXTERMINATION OF THE INDIANS. did these squatters obtain as to speedily convince the government that it would be advisable to relinquish possession of the small section left to the Indians.” 4 In the first spasm of enterprise Henley had planted large areas in grain, particularly at El Tejon, supplied by long irrigation ditches, but the enervating heat prevented his agents from straining their attention beyond 700 acres, and even the crops from this reduced tract, although ever promising well far into the summer, usually fell to little or nothing. In one case a flood was credited with the disappearance, but usually drouths bore the brunt, although, singularly enough, the fields cultivated by Indians for private account yielded we Similar reverses overtook Fresno. Another peculiarity was that the population at the different reservations appeared _ much larger to the overtasked agents than to visitors. Unable to comprehend these vagaries of a strange climate, the government stooped to listen to the insinuations of army officers that the Indian management had fallen into the hands of a ring which manipulated it to their own advantage. One result was the dispatch of G. Bailey as special agent to examine into the matter. Disregar ing the experience of agents accustomed to the country, . t and unconvinced by their demonstrations, supported by long array of figures, he preferred to take the unsupported evidence of his own eyes, and declared the reservations to be mere almshouses, wherein a small proportion of the . natives were scantily fed at great cost. The pay and rations of the employés consumed about $100,000, a sum sufficient to sustain more than all the actual reservation Indians. A still larger sum was annually granted for clothing and provisions, and another allowance aimed to provide the several government farms with live stock, implements, and other in:provements ; ‘yet this large expenditure, which so far exceeded $1,170,000, had served to produce but a scanty crop, valued at less than one-fourth of the salaries alone. Such was the net result of these proposed self-sustaining establishments, for the gain in civilization lay almost wholly in forcing distasteful lessons in agriculture upon a handful, and this was fully counterbalanced by the demoralizing influence of soldiers, servants, and settlers upon bands, which, if left to their own wild haunts, would have long remained purer and nappa he commissioner at Washington came to the conclusion that there were ° too many reservations, partly in unsuitable locations, and too many men to work for the Indians, instead of training them-to work for themselves, besides lack of system, ability, and integrity on the part of the managers. The first step was to appoint a new superintendent, James Y. McDuffie, with an aperopes ce so pitifully reduced as in itself to compel a sweeping dismissal of servants and the consequent neglect of the reservations, upon which the dismissed staff and the surrounding settlers combined in a raid of seizure and spoliation. The. knowledge that further changes were pending in congress did not encourage the new officials to interpose a saving hand. Under an act of June 19, 1860, California was divided into two Indian districts, the northern and southern, each under a supervising agent, assisted at each reservation by a supervisor and four laborers to teach husbandry. Indians re-. quiring supervision were either to be brought to the reservation to earn their living if possible, or situations were to be sought for them among farmers. As a check on the new régime, an agent was sent to ascertain the number and disposition of the tribes to be taken under guardianship. . ‘ The reservations having by this time fallen into utter dilapidation, the new officials found it almost a matter of necessity to enter into the new economic spirit by recommending the abandonment of several, and to concentrate their wards. But while the northern superintendent gained approval of his plan for selling Nome Lacke, Mendocino, and Klamath, as either unsuitable or worthless, he was not content with the spacious fertile and secluded

Round valley, but undertook upon his own responsibility to remove some : MISSION INDIANS, 493 2,000 northern Indians to Smith river, in Del Norte, and rent farming land at the exorbitant rate of $5 an acre, while strongly urging the purchase of the entire valley. In the south, Fresno and King river farms were abandoned, and in 1863 El Tejon, under the cumulative disadvantages of droughts and rentals. Tule farm became the headquarters for a small propeesi of the neglected San Joaquin tribes. The fact was that these Indians had become sufficiently quiet and well-behaved to inspire no further fears, and so they were cast adrift to starve. They might have taken a lesson from their brethren of the Klamath region, who, by pursuing the different course of ravaging, burning, and killing among the settlers, were in 1864, under the Trinity war treaty, rewarded with the special Hoopa valley reservation, bought for them ata considerable sum. = The absurdity of keeping two superintendencies for the diminished government farms of the state led in 1863 to their consolidation, and shortly after the commissioner awoke to the expediency of establishing schools for his wards. He resolved, moreover, to try the effects of ‘missionary labor as an economizing factor, and in teaching the Indians the soothing virtues of meekness under the purifying ordeal of land spoliation and neglect to which their Christian fathers at Washington were submitting them. Notwithstanding all efforts to cuttail expenses, the estimates continued to grow, as did the number of pensioners—in the reports—till the government, in despair over the general dishonesty and inefficiency among its agents, in 1869 made a sweeping change, and intrusted the management of the northern and central Indians of the United States to the ad of Friends, and the rest to army officers. Gen. McIntosh accordingly took control in California. But congress objecting to such employment for army men, and as the Friends had proved a success, the president in the following year invited other religious denominations to assume the charge. The methodists were allowed to recommend agents for the three reservations now left in the state, Hoopa and Round valleys and Tule river, and they in due time reported direct to Washington, the superintendent being dispensed with. . The religious domination was not entirely a success, yet since then the administration has been more satisfactory, although only a small proportion of the natives enjoy the benefits of the reservations. In San Joaquin valley the Tule farm was abandoned for a sterile expanse of wooded mountain country on the south fork of the Tule, with not over 250 arable aéres, selected in 1873, upon which less than one fourth of the agency population could manage to hold out. The rest, in this and other parts of California, had to me sayy themselves elsewhere as best they were ahi with occasional aid from the headquarters, or with mere advice from special agents, who undertook to procure them work and fair treatment among the settlers. The most panne of the general injustice and neglect fell te the lot of the mission Indians, those who had once occupied the missions, and assisted with their labor to transform the southern region from a wilderness into a flourishing colony, with fields and orchards and stately temples. The secularization of the missions in the thirties was a premature act which opened the door for despoiling these, the real owners, of their interest in the mission lands and improvements; and heedless of their rights, the Mexican officials transferred all in vast grants to strangers, including the very ground on which they had reared their humble cabins. The United States courts confirmed the titles, at least without a thought for the natives. For a long time the federal government regarded them vaguely as citizens, and many were such under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, yet the advantages of citizenship were withheld, notably at the land and registration offices. It required the fear of a bread riot in 1857 to gain attention for them. Soon after they were in a measure recognized as wards by the appointment of agents to assist them with seed, implements, and a weak solution of advice, and in 1870 were assigned to them the valleys of Pala and . San Pascual as a reservation. This tardy act of partial justice roused the hatred of the surrounding settlers. A rush was made for these hitherto neglected tracts; the natives were threatened with dire calamities if they ry