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Chapter I ********************************** WHITE AMERICAN PERCEPTIONS Of CALIfORNIA INDIANS This chapter includes a series ofdocuments that offer superb insight into the attitudes of whites toward the Native Americans of California. As Anglos moved rapidly into the Gold Rush, they brought with them racial prejudices regarding North American Indians. Over two hundred years of interaction between whites and Native Americans shaped and influenced these views. By the time of the Gold Rush, most whites despised Indians. They considered the indigenous inhabitants ofNorth America to be godless, barbaric, and savage. To a majority of whites, Native Americans had no redeeming value and stood as barriers to American "civilization" and progress. In California, whites referred to Indians as Diggers, a pejorative term closely related to "nigger:' Anglos wanted Indians pushed out of the way or exterminated. Only enlightened whites favored reservations where Indians could be civilized. Many ofthe following newspaper articles echo these negative sentiments about Indians. Some of the reports recount murders. A few journalists assume that Native Americans committed the heinous acts, yet the writers provide no concrete evidence to support their claims. They suppose that only Indians kill people in California. These accounts portraynative peoples ofthe Golden State as bloodthirsty, ruthless barbarians. Other documents incorporate divergent views regarding Native Americans. Some Americans during this period advocated a so-called Christian solution to the supposed "Indian problem:' A few more sympathetic -yet still highly paternalistic-treatments depict Indians as being immoral, depraved heathens who must move to reservations so that they can learn Christianity and become "civilized:' However, a few reports actually attempt to viewAnglo hostilities from the Indians' perspectives. These outline 35 36 "EXTERMINATE THEM" the loss ofindigenous homelands and hunting-gathering-fishing territories and acknowledge the necessity for Native Americans to steal food and supplies in order to survive. Still other reports propose that Indians are primitive people destined to become extinct. White perceptions and preconceived notions of native Californians made it easier for nonwhites to disregard Indian rights, steal Indian lands, and murder innocent people. Daily Alta California. January 18. 1849 SACRAMENTO CITY. Jan. 4th. 1849 "Yesterday we were all agog with a report which came in, that some wagoners , (some eight), were fighting with some Indians at the fork of the road between here and the "dry diggins [sic]:' three or four miles this side of the log cabin at the "Green Spa." Some say a wagon broke down, and that while one of the teamsters went to get help or another wagon, the other stopped to guard the broken one-that some Indians came about and a fight arosethat the other teamster and some other men came up, and a general fight took place-that the Indians ran, and that the whites burnt their rancherias, which it seems were near. Others say that the Indians had stolen an ox, and that the whites wished to punish them. The proof that they stole the ox, is, that his tracks were found leading to the rancheria, but were not found going away from it. To-day when I came in from work, I found the people all astir, in consequence of an express having arrived from Leidsdorff's ranch, saying some Indians had been to a camp near, and driven off eight white men, (Oregonians.) Everybody who could raise a horse turned out to go to their relief-They were just returning. They said the excitement was caused by the following circumstances: Yesterday an old Indian, well known in this neighborhood, and who had a good character came to a camp of Oregonians, and one of them claimed one ofhis horses. The Indian said he had bought the horse from a white man, and did not like to give him up-showed the fresh "vent," &c. The white man persisted that he was his horse, and took him away from him. The Indian was enraged, and rode off, making use ofexpressions which were not agreeable to the Oregonian, and he took up his rifle and shot him. The Indian's horse went home, his saddle covered in blood, but without his rider. Today, some time, armed Indians came to the camp of, or met some eight Oregonians, and the latter knowing the occurrence of yesterday, presumed they had come to take revenge, and gave them battle, and were whipped. One ofthem came in to the Fort and told his story, and the whole garrison turned out to their rescue, but [3.129.39.55] Project MUSE (2024-04-26 08:48...

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