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A Case Study of a Northern California Indian Tribe - Cultural Change to 1860 (1977) (109 pages)
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Page: of 109
plan called for the relocation of Indians by "simple agreement" to these reservations
which would be continually relocated whenever immigrant population pressure made it
necessary. Beale referred to the achievements in farming and ranching of the valley
Nisenan tribes who labored at Sutter's Fort during the rancho-peonage period as evidence that California Indians could be made a source of profit for immigrants 154
Congress agreed to Beale's new plan and appropriated $250,000.00 for the
creation of five Indian military reservations in California.-°° However, Beale channeled the entire congressional appropriation into the development of only one reservation at Fort Tejon, in southern California. The Grass Valley tribe was the only
Nisenan people to be affected directly by the reservation system under Beale's superintendency. The tribe sent representatives to Fort Tejon to survey the reservation
program and make recommendations on relocation. If the tribal representatives favored
reservation life, federal and state officials expected many foothill Nisenan tribes
in the Grass Valley area would relocate to Fort Tejon in the spring of ies4°°
During the fall of 1853, while their tribal representatives were still at
Fort Tejon, many foothill Nisenan in the Grass Valley area were starving because their
rations of pinenuts, manazanita berries, and grasshoppers had been cut off. An Indian
called Wad-lu-pe, who was not native to this area, took the survivors to the general
store at the town of Grass Valley. Wad-lu-pe spoke to the owner.
I have come with some of my adopted people to secure food on
my word of honor without money. At present we have no gold,
but when the rains of spring have washed the hillsides we will
have gold to pay. Our women, mothers, sisters and daughters are
starving. Our papooses cry and whimper in vain. Will the white
merchant, who has an abundance in store help the poor Indians to
live through the winter?15
Wad-lu-pe's speech was not a whining plea for charity but a business proposition, based
on honor and tuteerions The merchant agreed to provide goods for the Grass Valley
Nisenan village. In the spring, Wad-lu-pe returned to the general store with about
three hundred Indians in the Grass Valley area. They paid their bill and bought other :
store goods with the remaining gold. Wad-lu-pe was seen at intervals around Grass
Valley for the next three years and was generally considered Chief of the Grass Valley
35