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2: The Sierra Gold Made
- University of Nevada Press
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A Sierra Shaped by Native People 37 starvation. Damage to streams, groves, and meadows imposed long-term hardships on native economies. Native burning was significantly reduced as Indian land tenure ended.86 The decline of Sierran native populations during the gold rush was catastrophic . Precontact population figures for Sierra Nevada natives are inexact, but estimates range from as low as , to a more likely figure of , before contact with Europeans. Many official or unofficial accounts by contemporary Anglo-Americans note the immediate collapse of native population resulting from the ferocity of the conquest. Death from disease, including various venereal types contracted from coerced prostitution, was greater than from violence. The ten most active years of the gold rush and the development that followed reduced Sierra Nevada Indian populations by twothirds . Forced removal of natives from mining and foothill areas adjacent to the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys completed this ghastly picture.87 Indian groups living in the north and central western-slope foothills and montane areas were hardest hit, although all were to suffer. It was in that region that most mining and most Anglo-American settlement concentrated . Nisenan and Miwok territories, the river systems of the American, Yuba, Stanislaus, Mokelumne, Merced, and Tuolumne, were inundated first. Mining soon developed in Maidu and Konkow homelands in the upper drainages of the American and the Feather Rivers. The spread of mining and ranching into the areas from the Stanislaus to the San Joaquin drainages caused conflict as well. The Yokuts, Mono, Tubatulabl, and Kawaiisu at the extreme southern part of the range in the San Joaquin drainage did not face the same large numbers of armed miners that their northern counterparts did, but the conquest of the southern Sierrans would be just as complete and as devastating.88 By , over percent of the population was dead. Of the survivors, many had been relocated, although some few escaped and returned to old areas where they adjusted as best they could, joining with others to form new settlements where possible. Their material culture, their diet, and much of their old way of life were radically changed. They found ways to work with whites and in some cases tried to supplement meager food supplies in the old ways, by hunting, fishing, and gathering on the reduced land base open to them.89 The Washoe, Northern Paiute, and Owens Valley Paiute of the eastern Sierra lost their territory, as did all Sierran Indians. But the pattern was different than in the western Sierra. The variations had to do with differences in native traditions and with divergent pressures and demands from the Anglo-American intruders. Mining was less of a direct factor in this region, 38 Crow’s Range although it had significant indirect influences in areas to the east in the Comstock region and other parts of western Nevada.90 If we consider the case of the Washoe, the immensity of the change can be understood. The Washoe population was always small, and physical resistance to challengers from the outside was not an option for them. They often hid or limited contact with explorers and encroaching wagon trains in the s and s. After the gold rush they gave up their extended journeys over the Sierra Nevada that had brought trade goods such as seashells and acorns. It had become too hazardous. The Washoe generally abandoned their territories as land was fenced, pinyon trees cut, and stock occupied their old grasslands. Their beloved Lake Tahoe was relinquished because of pressure from whites. They did continue fishing for trade with settlers until commercial fishermen drove them from this activity by the s. Whites also usurped hunting territories. The Washoe in numerous ways adapted to survival at the lower economic level of the occupying white society’s economy. Some even remained at Tahoe as laborers at the growing number of resorts.91 The Northern Paiute had always been highly mobile. Those utilizing the Sierra Nevada did not occupy permanent village sites. European contact with Northern Paiute in the vicinity of western Nevada and the Truckee River began with trappers such as Joseph R. Walker and explorers such as John C. Frémont in the s and s. Although Walker attacked the Paiute, contact was generally transitory and limited. In the s and s, wagon trains and gold seekers created devastating environmental effects on native subsistence economies as animal and plant resources were consumed. Acquisition of horses in the s gave Northern...