Читать книгу Lost Worlds of 1863 - W. Dirk Raat - Страница 23

Concerning Anglo-American activity, the Owens Valley story begins (like most narratives of the mid-nineteenth century West), with the discovery of gold in northern California in 1848 and the migration of argonauts to the gold fields that next year. After California obtained statehood and territories created for Utah and New Mexico in 1850, the West was divided into five military departments with fewer than 13,000 troops to garrison a frontier of more than a million square miles. Militia and local volunteers were necessary to support the national military effort. After Fort Sumter fell in 1861, most of the public believed that federal troops should protect the Pacific coast and that the Indian conflicts of the western interior should be a secondary priority. Just as the pre-Civil War period saw gold seekers moving from California to the mining fields of the West and Southwest, so too did a California Indian policy move eastward from the Pacific coast to the interior mountains and deserts of the Greater Southwest.

During the second season of gold mining, the summer of 1849, prospectors started spreading throughout the Sierra Nevada Range. Those that went south from the Sacramento and American Rivers usually stopped off at Stockton for supplies and equipment. Before long Stockton had become an important trading center. Argonauts from Stockton might travel 110 miles to the diggings on the Stanislaus River, or travel another 50 miles to the Merced River. Another 20 miles would take them to the Mariposa stream. If the adventurer went up the Merced he could look for gold in Yosemite. After all, no less a person than John C. Fremont had found gold at his Mariposa ranch, and if placer mining could be successful at Mariposa, the “mother vein” might be in the mountains of Yosemite.

The more daring of souls could hike 366 miles all the way up the San Joaquin River to what is known today as the John Meir Wilderness Area south of Yosemite. In one year, 1849, the San Joaquin Valley increased by more than 80,000 individuals. The old 1820 El Camino Viejo road, that connected the Los Angeles Basin with San Francisco along the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, would be used by prospectors, merchants, and settlers alike. All of this was not good news for the indigenous population.

Generally speaking, where prospectors go ranchers and farmers will follow, along with merchants and bankers. The only real problem was that Indians always seemed to be using the best lands. Ergo, white Americans had to resolve the problem by removing the Indian, either through the actions of miners’ militias, vigilante groups, citizen posses, or federal troops. Enter the protagonist of the Mariposa Indian War, 1851–1853, a wild white fellow with at least five Indian wives known, ironically enough for an Indian fighter, as James D. Savage.³³

Although at first Savage was doing the tedious work of panning for gold on the Merced River, by 1850 he quickly abandoned that activity by setting up a trading post outside of Mariposa followed by another on the Fresno River. When an Indian raid destroyed his Fresno operation, the governor quickly authorized Savage “Major” of the “Mariposa Battalion,” comprised of three companies of volunteers. A few “Yosemites” (Awanis or Ahwahnees) were killed, some were taken hostage, and Teneiya (or Tenaya), headman of the Awanis, was captured. Overall, the Mariposa Battalion had mostly succeeded in being the most likely first group of white men to camp in Yosemite.³⁴

The final episode came in 1853 after two miners were killed by Indians in Yosemite. The volunteers forced Teneiya and his followers to flee Yosemite to the safety of the Mono Indians at the northern end of Owens Valley. That expedition failed too, but in pursuing the old chief the volunteers had opened up a new route to Owens Valley via Tuolumne Meadows and Mono Pass. And, more importantly, Yosemite was safe for mining.³⁵

That next year, at the urging of Edward Fitzgerald Beale, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in California, the US established an outpost at Fort Tejon in California. It was located in the southwestern corner of the San Joaquin Valley in the Tejon Canyon (known as Grapevine Canyon; La Cañada de las Uvas) between the Tehachapi Mountains and the Los Angeles Basin to the south and the Mojave Desert to the southeast. A year earlier, in September 1853, Beale had established the Sebastian Indian Reservation 25 miles away from the Fort Tejon site, and by the time of the founding of the Fort over 2,500 Indians, mostly Chumash (the original inhabitants of Tejon Canyon), were living there. Fort Tejon itself was launched to protect travelers along El Camino Real Viejo as well as settlers from attack by discontented Californios and angry Paiutes and Mojaves. The army was also to protect reservation Indians from their white attackers.³⁶

One of the first contacts between the Owens Valley and Fort Tejon came in August 1858 when a delegation of Paiutes visited the Sebastian Indian Reservation. As the Indian Agent J. R. Vineyard reported, “The people of that region [Owens Lake], so far as I can learn, number about 1500. The delegation asked assistance to put in crops next season, also someone to instruct them in agriculture, etc … . I gave them presents of clothing and useful implements, and sent them back to their people, with the promise of transmitting their request to the great chief [President Buchanan?].”³⁷ The promise evidently was not enough to preserve the peace as violence continued the next year, perhaps augmented in part by the participation of fugitive Indians from the Tule River who supposedly joined their Paiute cousins in the Owens Valley.

Apparently, the loss of stock in the Santa Clara and San Fernando Valleys was large enough that, for unknown reasons, it was believed that the Paiutes and California refugees at Owens Lake were responsible. In any case, the horse thieving in southern California was significant enough that Captain John “Blackjack” Davidson wrote to his commanding officer on May 1, 1859, that “… I have ascertained conclusively that these marauding Indians are from Owen’s [sic] Lake, about 200 miles above here, on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, and I most respectfully recommend an expedition against them into their homes.” The Post Adjutant at Fort Tejon agreed with him and Davidson soon after led a punitive expedition which was sent out from Fort Tejon to Owens Valley on July 21 of that year.³⁸

Davidson’s troops left Fort Tejon and traveled along the south fork of the Kern River through Walker Pass to Owens Lake. From there he journeyed north along the Owens River as far as Owens Gorge. From there he backtracked to Fort Tejon. The entire trip was more than 600 miles (see Figure 2.4). Davidson did not find any pilfered horses, so his venture was a failure in terms of recovering stolen property. Instead, he spent his time studying the land and its people. His glowing report described a peaceful people (“an inoffensive, gentle race”)³⁹ living in a Valley characterized by mild climate, fertile soil, and abundant water. He even proposed that the government set aside a major portion of the Valley as an Indian reservation. His favorable report probably facilitated the overrunning of the Valley by miners and settlers within a few years, which, in turn, led to clashes with the native population, and then, the establishment of Camp Independence in 1862.⁴⁰

Figure 2.4 Route of Davidson Expedition (1859) Likely Followed by Owen’s Valley Paiutes in the Relocation of 1863. Reconfigured by Geraldine Raat from information found in Philip J. Wilkie and Harry W. Lawton, eds., The Expedition of Capt. J. W. Davidson from Fort Tejon to the Owens Valley in 1859, published in 1926 (Socorro, N.M.: Ballena Press).

In the same month that Davidson left for Owens Valley a Dogtown prospector discovered large quantities of gold in Mono Gulch, the same site where Jedediah Smith had found gold 30 years before. Within a few months the first township on the eastern side of the Sierra was established. By 1860 the town of Monoville, California (immediately north of Mono Lake), was the largest settlement between Salt Lake and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, peaking at about 700 residents and 22 liquor shops in that year.⁴¹ Soon after the town of Aurora in far western Nevada was founded, with a population of 1,400 in April 1861, which would grow to over 6,000 people by 1864. With a majority of males as its base population, the most popular forms of entertainment were Chinese brothels, female prostitutes, gambling houses, badger fights, and violence.⁴²

Owens Valley became the thoroughfare for travel to Aurora and other camps. As the Los Angeles Star noted: “Within 60 or 80 miles of Owens Lake there is an immigration of about 50 huge wagons going to Aurora, loaded with valuable goods and machinery, which can reach their destination by no other route than Owens Valley; besides which there are on the road a great many thousand head of cattle, sheep and hogs for above destination.” Eventually, a new road was built that connected Aurora to San Francisco through Carson City, allowing Aurora to receive supplies from San Francisco that added to its growth. When the area was mined out the town was deserted after 1870.⁴³

The winter of 1861–1862 was the spark that ignited the Owens Valley Indian War of 1862–1863. The weather was cold and wet. Sacramento reported a rainfall of over 15 inches for the month of January. Owens Valley residents said that the mountains were filled with snow, while the hills were soaked, and most of the streams became impassable. The whites could only subsist on their beef, while the extreme weather had driven off most of the game the Paiutes needed for survival. Collecting and foraging of plants became impossible.⁴⁴

So it was that the herds of the white settlers became the only means of preventing starvation. As the native population gathered food from the ranges and ranches of the whites, violence against the Indian started. In retaliation cabins were burned and lone prospectors were killed by the Paiutes. In the spring of 1862 the settlers raided an Indian camp north of Owens Lake, resulting in 11 poorly armed Indians being killed and their dried meat destroyed. Before the war was over at least 60 whites and 250 Indians were dead. While most of the Owens Valley Paiutes sought peace in early 1861, Joaquin Jim, the leader of the southern Mono Paiutes, went on the warpath. He kept up his attacks on ranchers, miners, and the cavalry until 1864 and was never captured.⁴⁵

Because the violence ebbed and flowed throughout 1862 and the spring of 1863, volunteer troops were sent from California to the Valley. Colonel James Henry Carleton, commander of the District of Southern California, in March 1862 ordered a calvary unit of volunteers under the command of Lt. Colonel George S. Evans to the “Owen’s Lake Valley,” acknowledging that the recent violence may be due to the action of the settlers and that “It is very possible … that the whites are to blame.”⁴⁶ A month later Carleton was promoted to Brigadier General of volunteers during a march to Arizona to face Confederates and Indians (see Chapter 4).

The conflict did not end until the arrival of Captain Moses McLaughlin at Camp Independence who came from Fort Tejon in April 1863. Following the trail of the Davidson expedition of 1859, the not-so-biblical Moses stopped first at an Indian camp upon the Kern River about 10 miles from Keysville.

There he lined up 35 male Indians and had them either shot or sabered. While ordinarily this kind of wholesale slaughter would not have been approved by the officers of the Department of the Army of the Pacific, as one writer has noted, “no doubt, they were tired of the continual petitions from settlers and the constant rumors of Indian outbreaks and depredations. The problems of the war between the North and the South weighed too heavily upon them to worry about the cold-blooded murder of 35 Indians.”⁴⁷ With the Indian wars of the West siphoning off too many soldiers who were needed by the Union Army, perhaps the commanders believed the harsh measures were necessary.

Upon arriving at Camp Independence McLaughlin inaugurated a new policy of shooting on sight and showing no mercy. This was an innovation as the army before then had tried to protect the rights and interests of both whites and Paiutes. He also changed tactics. Instead of chasing the enemy up canyons only to be ambushed, he sent his troops up the mountains at night and at daylight would drive the Indians toward the valley where another detachment awaited. Scouts were also sent after smaller bands, searching out the tule swamps along the river and destroying everything in their way—including people. Using a scorched earth policy, which included rape and murder, the army adopted the tactic of destroying cached food supplies of the Numu. During the month of May 1863 the volunteers destroyed 300 bushels of seeds near Bishop Creek, and kept no record of the number of Indians killed or wounded. With very little food available, and their women and children starving, the Indian men soon surrendered. By June 1863, after at least 331 Indians had been killed in the previous months, over 400 of Captain George’s Paiutes laid down their arms and came into Camp Independence. Throughout early July of 1863 the dejected bands of Captain Dick and Tinemaha also surrendered.⁴⁸

With the arrival of nearly 1,000 Paiutes at Camp Independence a new set of logistical problems presented themselves. The army did not have enough rations to feed that many Indians as well as themselves. If they turned them loose the conflict between whites and Indians would be repeated. And, as for the whites of Owens Valley, they did not want the Numu in “their” valley and would certainly not leave them alone. It was obvious something had to be done as the volunteers had not planned or prepared for such a large aggregate of Indians. Finding a location outside of the Valley would not be easy as white adventurers and settlers were moving into all the good western lands. A reservation on infertile and rocky land that the whites did not want would be the usual and only solution. Fort Tejon, with its adjacent San Sebastian Reservation, would have to be reoccupied and become the target of the Owens Valley Paiute removal policy.⁴⁹

On July 10 Captain McLaughlin had the Paiutes gather on the parade grounds of Camp Independence. With the assistance of his translator, José Chico (the same man who was personally involved in aiding the volunteers in the Keysville Massacre), McLaughlin counted the Numu and found them to number 998. Then, with the unarmed Paiutes surrounded by a volunteer force that formed a “wall of firearms,” and again with Chico’s assistance, the Numu were informed of the plans for their removal from the Valley. Escape was not an option as the chiefs and sub-chiefs would be the first to be shot.⁵⁰

On the mid-morning of the next day they started their trek. The elderly, pregnant women, and children had the privilege of riding in wagons while the others, weak and dispirited, would be driven like cattle by the 70 or more cavalry soldiers plus 22 men of the Fourth California Infantry. Captain George, the headman and nominal leader of the Camp Independence Numu, rode his horse as dignified as circumstances permitted. Suffering would be great for all of them, especially the very old and very young. Many died from lack of food and water, and the trail between Owens Lake and Walker’s Pass was particularly difficult. After a trip of nearly two weeks and about 225 miles, the prisoners arrived at Sebastian Reservation outside of Fort Tejon on July 22. Of the 998 captives who started the voyage, only 850 arrived—148 Paiutes had either died or escaped from the Moses of the Wilderness (see map, Figure 2.4).⁵¹

Again, getting the Indians to Fort Tejon and San Sebastian was more important than what should be done with them after they arrived. The army now considered them to be the problem of the Department of Indian Affairs, while the Indian Service did not have the resources to care for their charges. Starvation and hunger took many of them, while measles and other diseases took others, especially the infants. Perhaps as many as 370 Paiutes managed to escape back to Owens Valley. Captain John Schmidt reported on January 26, 1864, that a remnant of 380 Indians (two-thirds of whom were women and children) “are under no one’s charge, no one to care for them, they must look out for themselves.”⁵² Some were transferred to the Tule River Farms when Fort Tejon was abandoned.⁵³ Most went into oblivion. Those that returned found the northern Owens Valley in a constant state of chaos due to the actions of Joaquin Jim’s warriors.

Yet, the writing was on the wall, and the returning Paiutes soon learned that their era was over as miners and settlers arrived by the thousands with no intention of honoring the rights of Indians. Camp Independence was closed in 1863 followed by Fort Tejon in September 1864.⁵⁴

A second “Owens Valley War” lasted from November to January 1865, and began a new wave of genocidal killing that resulted in the deaths of between 64 and 184 Owens Valley Indians.⁵⁵ Just as the Paiutes lost their lands to the incoming hordes, so too did the people of Los Angeles Basin eventually steal the water of all of the citizens of Owens Valley—Indian and non-Indian. When the 240-mile Los Angeles Aqueduct was built in 1913, it followed part of the trail taken by the marchers of 1863.⁵⁶ Later many contemporary Owens Valley Paiutes followed the aqueduct to Los Angeles. Today the remaining Numu live on three isolated reservations in the Owens Valley.