Amador Indians (Amador County History) (1 pages)

¢ A Ce FRdcope o Wordea) Chee (&p {92 7) / 1 AMADOR COUNTY HISTORY AMADOR INDIANS Anthony Caminetti secured the Indian Reservation for the county in 1895. The John Fullen ranch was purchased and preparations made for earing for the government wards. Louis Evans and wife were the first to live on the ranch. G. B. Crosby was superintendent, and stayed 7 years; then Geo. Grist, who resigned after 18 years’ service, followed by John Shafer, who supervised for 5 years. Meanwhile, the Indians were becoming self-supporting, doing road work, wood cutting and ranch work. There are nine on the reservation now. There are several colonies of them in the county in good homes, with autos, their children attending school regularly. There is a special fund provided, whereby a school educating Indian children receives government money. Several of the young people have reached High School. The first boy to enlist in the county was an Indian from Plym[ee White skin, (Sutter), was building a fort, wen outh. Although most of them have got far away \y _work. from the customs of their forbears, some of the older women still weave excellent baskets, not the tawdry ones, made to sell, but beautiful specimens, used in cooking their acorn bread and squirrel stews. There are several fine Indian collections in private homes. U. S. Gregory has this to say of the Indians around Ione: “Near Buena Vista there remains scarcely a relic of what was once a great Indian village. I have seen hundreds of Diggers from all over Northern California gathered there at their Annual Pow-wows, remaining for several days feasting and dancing in a great underground dance house. Often they fell from sheer exhaustion and were dragged to the surface to be revived. I have seen them depart for their homes with countless dogs and piccininnis trailing behind. Not an uncommon sight was a white squaw man with a mud-head squaw and a band of halfbreeds following them. Nearly all these sights have vanished, and only a few are left who remember them.” Indian Dick met Ben Milliken near Yosemite, as he was making his way into the mountains after being released from Folsom, where he had been for many years for the murder of some Chinamen in Amador County. Milliken became interested in him, and wrote to Will Tam, JackSon merchant, to be good to the old one-legged _fellow. He said old Dick haa one regret. He had killed only seven Chinamen. The eighth got away! (This charming specimen now lives in Jackson. ) i vy” It is probable that trappers visited the country about the Mokelumne in the ’40’s, but not often for the Indians watched every move with sus picious eyes. The Hudson Bay agent at French Camp reported that all attempts to ranch o raise cattle on the east side of the San Joaquin had been failures. The Indians appropriated the cattle and destroyed the ranches. There ‘were 5000 Indians in and around the count where Ione now stands. They disposed of theiy dead by placing them in the tops of trees ang tying them with withes. Robert Ludgate and the brothers of Mrs. Surface confirm this. The former, seeing something strange in a tree one day, climbed up, and nearly fell from his post when confronted with the grim skeleton of an Indian. & These Indians, hearing that a man with to take a look, were corralled, and made to Later, they went voluntarily. There was oluntart trouble with them sometimes, as their land was taken over by the whites, but as a rule, they gave way, retiring higher in the hills. Volcano and Pine Grove were surrounded by them. Clarence Wooster, born in Pine Grove (now of San Francisco and very facile with his pen), tells of seeing hundreds of Indians camped about his grandfather’s, (Abner Clough’s) ranch, There were fine apple orchards there, and the Indians sort of ‘honed’ for the fruit. Mrs. McLaughlin, formerly of Shake Ridge,® tells how startled she would be, as she sat quietly peeling apples for drying, to hear, ‘‘Mahala, mahala, biskit, biskit,’’ and to see the Indians stay ’til they got them. Robert Jameson says there were hundreds in Shenandoah. Some of the white men took Indian wives, to ‘‘uplift’’ the natives. A very intelligent Indian woman, named Lupe, disapproved of the custom. self down; no uplift.” “There are Indian ‘mills’ (a group of mortars, stationary) at Middle Bar, Shenandoah, on the Herbert Ranch (formerly Clough’s), on the Ginocchio ranch at Scottsville, and many near Butte Mt. They tell much of the social habits of the squaws. A group of mortars, close together in the huge rocks prove what the ‘49ers said. The women laughed and chatted as they pounded acorns, pine nuts, seeds, hoppers, and even buckeye meats in these mills, and probably planned their future actions as cleverly as their later sisters, though not according to Robert’s Rules of Order. “White man pull himer

¢ A Ce FRdcope o Wordea) Chee (&p {92 7) / 1 AMADOR COUNTY HISTORY AMADOR INDIANS Anthony Caminetti secured the Indian Reservation for the county in 1895. The John Fullen ranch was purchased and preparations made for earing for the government wards. Louis Evans and wife were the first to live on the ranch. G. B. Crosby was superintendent, and stayed 7 years; then Geo. Grist, who resigned after 18 years’ service, followed by John Shafer, who supervised for 5 years. Meanwhile, the Indians were becoming self-supporting, doing road work, wood cutting and ranch work. There are nine on the reservation now. There are several colonies of them in the county in good homes, with autos, their children attending school regularly. There is a special fund provided, whereby a school educating Indian children receives government money. Several of the young people have reached High School. The first boy to enlist in the county was an Indian from Plym[ee White skin, (Sutter), was building a fort, wen outh. Although most of them have got far away \y _work. from the customs of their forbears, some of the older women still weave excellent baskets, not the tawdry ones, made to sell, but beautiful specimens, used in cooking their acorn bread and squirrel stews. There are several fine Indian collections in private homes. U. S. Gregory has this to say of the Indians around Ione: “Near Buena Vista there remains scarcely a relic of what was once a great Indian village. I have seen hundreds of Diggers from all over Northern California gathered there at their Annual Pow-wows, remaining for several days feasting and dancing in a great underground dance house. Often they fell from sheer exhaustion and were dragged to the surface to be revived. I have seen them depart for their homes with countless dogs and piccininnis trailing behind. Not an uncommon sight was a white squaw man with a mud-head squaw and a band of halfbreeds following them. Nearly all these sights have vanished, and only a few are left who remember them.” Indian Dick met Ben Milliken near Yosemite, as he was making his way into the mountains after being released from Folsom, where he had been for many years for the murder of some Chinamen in Amador County. Milliken became interested in him, and wrote to Will Tam, JackSon merchant, to be good to the old one-legged _fellow. He said old Dick haa one regret. He had killed only seven Chinamen. The eighth got away! (This charming specimen now lives in Jackson. )

i vy” It is probable that trappers visited the country about the Mokelumne in the ’40’s, but not often for the Indians watched every move with sus picious eyes. The Hudson Bay agent at French Camp reported that all attempts to ranch o raise cattle on the east side of the San Joaquin had been failures. The Indians appropriated the cattle and destroyed the ranches. There ‘were 5000 Indians in and around the count where Ione now stands. They disposed of theiy dead by placing them in the tops of trees ang tying them with withes. Robert Ludgate and the brothers of Mrs. Surface confirm this. The former, seeing something strange in a tree one day, climbed up, and nearly fell from his post when confronted with the grim skeleton of an Indian. & These Indians, hearing that a man with to take a look, were corralled, and made to Later, they went voluntarily. There was oluntart trouble with them sometimes, as their land was taken over by the whites, but as a rule, they gave way, retiring higher in the hills. Volcano and Pine Grove were surrounded by them. Clarence Wooster, born in Pine Grove (now of San Francisco and very facile with his pen), tells of seeing hundreds of Indians camped about his grandfather’s, (Abner Clough’s) ranch, There were fine apple orchards there, and the Indians sort of ‘honed’ for the fruit. Mrs. McLaughlin, formerly of Shake Ridge,® tells how startled she would be, as she sat quietly peeling apples for drying, to hear, ‘‘Mahala, mahala, biskit, biskit,’’ and to see the Indians stay ’til they got them. Robert Jameson says there were hundreds in Shenandoah. Some of the white men took Indian wives, to ‘‘uplift’’ the natives. A very intelligent Indian woman, named Lupe, disapproved of the custom. self down; no uplift.” “There are Indian ‘mills’ (a group of mortars, stationary) at Middle Bar, Shenandoah, on the Herbert Ranch (formerly Clough’s), on the Ginocchio ranch at Scottsville, and many near Butte Mt. They tell much of the social habits of the squaws. A group of mortars, close together in the huge rocks prove what the ‘49ers said. The women laughed and chatted as they pounded acorns, pine nuts, seeds, hoppers, and even buckeye meats in these mills, and probably planned their future actions as cleverly as their later sisters, though not according to Robert’s Rules of Order. “White man pull himer