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California Legislature Documents of 1851-1852 - Indian Treaties (5 pages)
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Page: of 5
: ZENDIX, . 603 (
G02 . APPENDIX¢
Bi lng followed hy our government, and which, from our geographical position,
fmot be pursued, must mect with strong opposition, however wise or just
bat system may be ; and when that change is proposed by one no more able
ndictate @ wise policy, or so little able to defend it when proposed, as my@ elf, 1 feel almost dissuaded from the attempt.
bk
‘The habits of the Indian having been the same for hundreds of generafins, they have become constitutional, and it requires generations to eradite or change them; and although he may be instrueted in some new arts,
Re still looks hack and yearns for the occupation and life of his remote ants. We have abundant proof of this within our own State. ‘The great
Hijority, nay, nearly all of the mission Indians, almost as quickly as. the
solute control of the priests was removed from over them, returned to the
fees where they or their ancestors were born, and rebuilt their villages,
dresumed, in a great measure, their ancient habits of life ; and this, while
f missions had abundance wherewith to feed and clothe them 3 and at this
me there are but few Indians who live permanently in the Jocalities of
le missions, or upon the ranchos, except those whose ancestors, more or
8 remote, occupicd the same localities; while we have in the mounins, bordering the older inhabited part of the State, almost innumerable
le villages of Indians, composed in a greater or less degree of Indians
ho had formerly been brought in and controlled by the missions ; but
ty have retumed to eat their favorite food, the acorn, the pine nut, the
Anzornita, the mesquite bean, and the various grass seeds and roots of
tir native Jands, and the fish and fowl of the lakes and rivers. And
im these villages, the farmer, grazier, and owners of vineyards, draw
fir laborers during the summer months, who, on the approach of winter,
tum to their villages, where during the summer, the aged, the women,
Md the young, have cultivated some litte corn, beans, and other vegebles, which, added to the spontaneous productions of forest and field
at they have collected, enables them to finish the old and commence
enew year.
MINORIPY REPORT
Mr. President :—
The majority of your Comimittce, to whom was referred sundry rn
lutions respecting the ‘Treaties made with the Indians in this State,
the U. S. Indian Commissioners, have reported a set of resolutions, Ot
denmatory of the acts of those commissioners, and instructing our §é
tors in Congress to use their influence to prevent the approval of
treaties : and, however, unwillingly T may be, solely and alone in
committee to dissent from the undivided opinion of the niajority, compa
of men as conversant with the subject and equally well able to dict
the poliey proper to be pursued by this State, under the ie .
well as the true poliey which should be recomnended to the (ener G
ernment for its adoption, still when so grave and important a subject a8 th
of the future peace and prosperity, not only in some manner of this Stat
but of thousands of human bemes, is to be affected hy that policy, I ¥
remain a silent spectator, or satisfy my conscience by a silent negative ¥ )
but feel compelled, not only to dissent from the resolutions introduced by t
majority, but to lay before you a report, differing in some respects from th
of the miajority, and recommending a different policy.
The policy recommended hy the majority of your committee, 18, thas si
treaties be set aside, and all the Indians, execpt the Neophytes of the m :
sions, be remoyed out of the State. This, as Lf understana the report,
that they recommend to be done. They also recommend that the G
Government should not remove, or interfere with the Neophyte India
and give as a reason for this negative action, that those Lidians are ne
for the labor of the country.
We might stop here, and recommend our government to permit the
dians to remain in their present habits and locations, were it not
that spirit of oceupation and appropriation so irresistible m our race.
nt the public Jand must be surveyed, must be cut into sections and
arter sections, and if not donated to the State, or settlers, they must be
ft free for occupancy, by pre-emption right, or sale; and, if not sooner
en comes the difficulty. 'Mhe settler selects the site of an Indian
lo remove the Indians from this State, [ consider as impracticable : u
is no place within the territory of the United States m which to locate 7
We camnot suppose that the General Government will remove them V ‘ a midis ie tail aelanlndi@einne Mie ek a
gon, to Utah, New Mexico, or to the Indian territory east of the Re ee : so0rt, " nut s the Jo which t rey occupy— re cuts down the
Mountains. And where clse will you locate them ¢” On. the desert which for years has produced in’ part his daily bread, or the pine
sterile regions east of the Sierra Nevada, that they may dic of starvatior ‘t ae a eo mae ; ae ps Coa streams and cuts oll his
or if, perchance, a few survive, that they may become the Arabs of Ame ee u fe AY me ul mili a on re A al as the
2 Better, far better, drive them at once into the ocean, or bury them pressor, Td slumuuliier Py passion; goaded on by suilering and hunRea Fe ae , i H; he retaliates. War with all its horrors succeeds, and the few who
Mic Thad of sini Dinslt ae cape death, are removed a few miles into the interior, there to reproke themselves to suffer in’ sueceeding yes a repetition of the same If, then, it is not practicable to remove the Indians from this State, 18° Rice
not our duty to devise some measure, dictated by a policy, which, whl
may not be onerows on ow citizens, may lean to the side of justice Ing
of the Indian? 1 am sensible that a system in direct opposition to one
.
he policy to which, to me, appears more worthy of a nation whose