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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
VIII
THE RESERVATION PERIOD:
HENLEY'S SUPERINTENDENCY
Superintendent Henley expanded the military reservation system during
his administration to serve central and northern California Indians. Between
1854 and 1856, Henley relocated some members of the Yuba, Grass Valley and Bear
River Nisenan Tribes to Nome Lackee and Nome Cult Reservations. A few immigrants
opposed Nisenan removal for economic self-interest. However, most immigrants
thought Indian removal was the only means of reducing racial conflict. In response
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to reports by Superintendent Henley and his staff on the apparent success of the
Indian acculturation program at the reserves, the Federal Government supported the
reservation system in California through the middle and late 1850's. However, in
1859, E. G. Bailey, a federal investigator, would expose the reservation system as
a "total failure", 161
In June, 1854, Thomas Henley was appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs
in California © At this time, the Indian population in Yuba, Sierra, El Dorado,
Nevada’'and Placer Counties (Nisenan territory) was estimated at 3,860, 163 (See A
Comparative Census of Some Nisenan Tribes in 1849 and 1854, p. 66.) Superintendent
Henley referred to Sutter's profitable use of Nisenan laborers in the rancho-peonage
period ‘as evidence of their potential to work on the reserves.
Indians in the Central Sacramento Valley were willing to labor
and the best way to help them was to issue the necessary articles
of food and clothing, but distribution of beef, blankets or clothing
to them at their indigenous locations would result in more injury
than benefit by causing them to become indolent and permanently depended on white support. Therefore, there is no alternative but to
provide them with the necessary tools and instruction to enable them
to become self-supporting on reservation land.164
Senators John B. Wilson and Wm. M. Gwin of California urged Superintendent
Henley to expedite removal of the Indians (including Nisenan) from the gold district
37