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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
An observer commented on Indian-rancher relations in Nisenan territory during this
early mining period.
Indians....are in the most abject servitude. They are considered as
stock and sold with it (rancho) as cattle, and the purchaser has the
right to work them on his rancho or take them into the mines.
Immigrant violations of Indian rights and Indian depredations against immigrant property increased in the summer of 1847. Military forces were inadequate and
new measures were instigated to curb Indian outrages. A general order was issued by
Governor Mason of California authorizing immigrants to shoot Indians caught stealing
horses. All employers were directed to give their Indian laborers a certificate of
good behavior. /7 The Chief of the Wapumney Nisenan tribe, one of Sutter's "corporals"
in charge of about two hundred of his people, showed Stephen Powers his certificate.
The bearer of this, Tucollie, chief of the Wapumney tribe, has
requested me to give him a certificate of his good behavior.
I comply....for I have known him as a good and honest Indian,
I can recommend him to the benevolence and kindness of my
fellow citizens in his native country ./3
Signed John A. Sutter
Indians without certificates were arrested as horse thieves and "wild Indians" or
Indians not employed by immigrants who wished to trade in towns were required to secure
passes from the Indian sub-agent in their respective districts./4
After 1848, the rancho-peonage labor system, a by-product of SpanishMexican relations with California Indians, gave way to an extermination policy more
typically Anglo-American in character. The demand for Nisenan labor, with the exception of domestic servants, and Sutter's profitable "slave trade'' operation also
disappeared. The forty-niner gold rush had begun.
13