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

About This Item:

Title: Jarboe's War [Round Valley] Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection # of Pages: 7 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-09-03 13:14:12 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 03:21:41 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 03:21:41

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

Page: of 7  

NOV/DEC. 19°88 POA“G E19 A rare scene on the Round Valley Indian reservation showing Indians at work, circa 1890. Some of the settlers had benign relations with the Valley’s Indians; others exploited them quite brutally. stolen or killed by the Indians had actually met that fate. On the contrary, much of the stock reported stolen had since been found or had died of natural causes. Major Johnson further noted that it was untrue that white men were attacked “on sight” by the Indians: “] have repeatedly sent single expressmen through the country who have encamped in the Indian country without molestation.” He then recounted the series of bloody massacres in which the settlers had wiped out large groups of Indians. “The Indians, and not the whites, need protection,” Major Johnson concluded. Emphatically dismissing the atrocity reports, he enclosed a counter petition from other Round Valley settlers denying the stories of Indian troubles. Not content with Major Johnson's report, Governor Weller asked Captain FF. Flint of the 6th U.S. Infantry to proceed to the scene of the trouble. Flint reported that there was indeed an Indian problem in the area, and recommended formation of a volunteer group. As strong political figures and big tax-payers, Henley and Hastings were probably making their power felt with both Flint and the Governor. Still, Weller did not authorize the volunteers: Hastings and Henley had to take responsibility for the volunteers’ provisions. Jarboe then set out to whip his rangers into shape. Jarboe had already been instructed to feed his men with Hastings’s cattle, for which the judge would bill the state later. One witness later reported observing JarTHECALIFORNIANS = ons . ~~ ATMs boe and one of his men, Bill Robertson, butchering a steer. There were no scales; the men had to guess the weight of the beef. When one steer was estimated to weigh 400 pounds, Jarboe told Robertson to put down 700 because the state had to pay the bill, not them. Jarboe also proposed to a rancher named Scott that he supply the company with “liquors, cigars, oysters, sardines, crackers, white shirts, and cards” for a good price, after which Scott, Jarboe and Robertson would divide the profits. Jarboe also offered to cut Scott in on the beef-weighing scheme. On July 11 Jarboe called his men together and drew up an official roster of the Eel River Rangers. Among the 17 members were H.L. Hall, WJ. Hildreth, Charles Bourne, William Robertson and others who had been active in campaigning against the Indians. The rangers met in Eden Valley and began scouting the country. Be mid-August, Jarboe had attacked several Indian rancherias and killed roughly 50 Indian men, women and children. Still hoping to involve the military and lend authority to his own actions, Jarboe wrote Major Johnson on August 13, stating that he had proof of the cattle-stealing activities of a group of Indians. Jarboe wanted to have the situation “taken in hand” by the army. Still located in the dusty archives is Jarboe’s letter, with Major Johnson's terse reply added at the bottom. “] received,” recalled Jarboe, “a verble reply from the major by my messenger, James P. Machers, who lives in Ukiah City, stating I was not worthy of notice and he [Major Johnson] wished the Indians would kill me.” Major Johnson complained to the Governor, noting that in their last attack on a rancheria Jarboe’s rangers had killed six men, four women and four children. Johnson also noted that Colonel Henley, by then dismissed as Califomia’s superintendent of Indian affairs, had recently led an attack on a village and killed 11 Indians (Actually, it was Henley’s son who had led the raid). Governor Weller, disturbed, wrote Jarboe that “women and children must under all circumstances be spared” but nonetheless gave Jarboe his official authorization for the rangers. He sanctioned a 20man force, admonished Jarboe to cooperate with the military, buy provisions at the lowest possible price and report to the govemor “from time totime.” —Jarboe immediately replied that he had “mustered into the service of the state of California, 20 men mounted on horseback and armed with rifles and pistols, accustomed to warfare and frontier life.” Noting that he had so far killed 62 Indians and taken around 48 prisoners, Jarboe suggested that with 40 men in the field he could do the job much faster. On September 25, during a fight near the ’