Collection: Directories and Documents > Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection

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Title: Nevada County Historical Society Bulletin (Volume 73, No. 4)(2019) Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection Published: 2019 # of Pages: 6 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2023-12-30 11:49:10 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 04:05:16 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 04:05:16

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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NCHS Bulletin October 2019 Simmon Pefia Storms, courtesy Peter Shearer family collection. Grand Indian Council, October 2, 1854"! After a wagon ride from Nevada City, James Hutchings arrived at noon “at the imposing scene” with his “Daguerran apparatus” to take pictures of the Indians. Many horses and carriages were nestled among the oaks and lofty pines at the Hermitage. “Where is the council ground?” he asked Storms, and was told they hadn’t begun yet. “Well, where are the Indians?” He received his answers shortly after the excellent noon meal. The hundred curious citizens, journalists, politicians, and lawyers in attendance rushed to find seats in the amphitheater. Hutchings remarked in his diary: in the center of the bull ring, “they found the immense number of seven Indians. You can see a greater number at almost any street door, picking up watermelon rinds and eating them closer.” The ‘Digger King’ Weymeh was present along with four or five other ‘captains’ (who looked more like Weymeh’s bodyguards than diplomats), a Yuba River chief named ‘Diable,’ another “with one eye and a badly scarred face [and] another nearly all scars and a crafty lookout for ‘beef an’ beeskit.”” Aaron A. Sargent, editor of the Whig paper, the Nevada Journal, reported on October 6, 1854: “California’s officials “assembled at Storms’s ranch to talk to a large collection of Indians, that did not come, on the subject of removing them (the Indians) to a military reservation...The trifling circumstances of many Indians not being present was overlooked, and about a dozen, for whom was claimed sovereign authority among the tribes were called together.” The Nevada Democrat of Oct. 4, 1854 maintained “nearly all the tribes within fifty miles ...were represented by their leading men.” (Another Democratic newspaper exaggerated, saying 20 chiefs were in attendance.) Storms introduced the Indians; a total of 20-30, including women, were present. Then Superintendent Henley delivered a speech, saying the Nisenan should go to Nome Lackee immediately to put in crops before winter. There they would never be molested and would be fed and clothed until they were self-supporting, he promised. The Indians listened patiently while Storms translated, and then Weymeh and another chief, stated their objections. “They had been lied to for three years by government agents—Wozencraft had lied to them, Beale had lied to them—so had McKee, and so had all the officials, and they did not believe Henley more than the others —They were contented as they were, and did not wish to leave.”'? Henley “endeavored to satisfy them that there would be no deception this time. [my italics].” Weymeh then made a speech, recorded by Hutchings that was admired by many in attendance as intelligent and “sensible”: “American man come—Indian here first—‘Biyune by’ [By and by] Chinaman come? You no send Chinaman away, but you want send Indian away—Indian no go. You send Chinaman first. White man no keep promise—no good—white man no good.” As the Nevada Democrat of October 4, 1854 reported Weymeh’s speech: “The Indians are better than the Chinese.... Remove the Chinese first—then we will go.” Undeterred by Weymeh’s firm rejection, Henley said: “he should obey public sentiment, and requested an expression of it.” William Shipley of the Grass Valley Telegraph read long lists of names, prepared in advance by the Democratic organizers. Scrupulous attention was paid to proper democratic procedures. A motion for removal was put and voted upon. District Judge William T. Barbour" was then appointed to preside over a committee of seven to draft a resolution