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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
sating them with dried meat; fresh beef, wheat, corn and melons. Cordua lived in
peace with all the neighboring tribes in the Sacramento valley and Sierra Nevada
foothills. He traveled among them alone, without fear of being annoyed. He did not
48
participate in Sutter's military raids on Indian villages and regretted these attacks.
Cordua discussed the causes and consequences of Sutter's military raids.
Sutter considered Indians who did not want to work for him as
his enemies to be attacked. They were usually attacked before
daybreak. Neither old nor young was spared and often the
Sacramento River was colored red by the blood of innocent
Indians. Seldom an Indian escaped such an attack and those
who were not murdered were sold as commercial objects of trade
to white creditors who accepted them as payment for food
prices. 49
Most Indian laborers at Sutter's Fort were Nisenan. A visitor characterized
their relationship with Sutter.
Sutter was kind and fair to these Indian servants and because
Indians understood his authority, courage and sense of justice
they accepted him as their master and friend and voluntarily
chose to serve and obey him. 29
Other observers at Sutter's Fort offered a different view of Sutter-Nisenan relations.
They charged that Sutter used "kidnapping, food privation and slavery techniques" to
maintain a flow of undependable and transient valley Nisenan labor to his ‘fort. °2
Neighboring chiefs were accused of furnishing up to two hundred laborers for two week
periods according to the size of their respective tribes. Sutter called these chiefs
“corporals" or "capitanos" to flatter their vanity. 27
The chiefs received better pay than the poor wretches who
worked as common laborers, and had to slave two weeks for a
plain muslin shirt or the material for a pair of cotton
trousers. 53
Neophytes on horseback also were seen herding valley Nisenan to Sutter's Fort. Many
of these Indians escaped during the daytime. However, at night they were penned up
A se 34
in corrals or locked in rooms. An employee at the fort recalled the quality of
life’ inside one of these rooms.
The room had neither beds nor straw, the inmates were forced
to sleep on the bare floor. When I opened the door for them in
the morning, the odor that greeted me was overwhelming, for no
sanitary arrangements had been provided. What these rooms were
like after 10 days or two weeks can be only imagined. °°
10