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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
IV
THE SETTLEMENT PERIOD:
FORTY-NINER INUNDATION
The balance of manpower shifted during the Forty-niner Gold Rush period.
Foothill and mountain Nisenan tribes who had largely escaped the smallpox epidemic
of 1833 and the rancho-peonage experience were deluged by thousands of immigrant
miners who were insensitive to Indian property and civil rights. The impact of
the gold rush was hardest on these tribes because they were located squarely in
the middle of the gold district > They could not compete with immigrants in a
free labor market, those who resisted the miners were exterminated.
Betsy, a member of the Oustemahs Nisenan tribe, near Nevada City, recalled
the California Gold Rush.
A life of ease and peace was interrupted when I was a little
girl by the arrival of the white men. Each day the population
increased and the Indians feared the invaders and great consternation prevailed....as gold excitement advanced, we were
moved again and again, each time in haste. Indian children
....when taken to town would blacken their faces with dirt so
the newcomers would not steal them....when appeal was made for
help (in caring for sick and indigent Indians) it was met with
ridicule.
( Puluele, a Spanish-speaking member of a foothill Nisenan village on the
Yuba River, told incoming miners that their avaricious desire for the "shining rocks"
was foolish.’’ It did not serve the immediate needs of his people for food, clothing
and shelter. Puluele's tribe was preparing to go over the "big mountain (Sierra Nevada)
to get away from the sight of the white man" /8
Foothill Nisenan who remained on their homeland were exploited and abused
by ubiquitous miners. Traditional sources of Indian food, clothing and shelter were
depleted and many Nisenan were forced to partially adapt to the immigrants' economy
in order to sustain their lives. Adjusted scales and a schedule of high prices were
adopted by immigrant merchants to cheat Indians out of their gold: calico cloth
14