1
THE ROUND VALLEY INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA
by Amelia Susman
The Aboriqinal Community
On the Round Valley Indian Reservation* in Mendocino
County were placed, at different times from 1856 to 1873, the
remnants of eight bands of California Indians, from as many
different tribes (linguistic groups) speaking languages be-
longing to six separate language stocks. The Yuki lived in
Round Valley and the mountains around it; the Wailaki
(Athabascan speaking) inhabited the rugged mountains to the
north and west. Nomlaki Wintun (Penutian speaking) were
brought from the Nomlaki reservation to the east, near their
old home, some 40 miles from Round Valley, across the summit
of the range. The Concow Maidu (Penutian) were driven from
the placer mining section of the Sacramento Valley, on the
Feather and American Rivers. Pit River Achomawi (Hokan) were
on the reservation for only a short time, going home in small
groups as soon as they sighted Shasta. The last Indians to
be brought in were the Clear Lake and Little Lake Pomo, who
were driven from their homes in 1873 and taken 30 miles
northeast to the reservation.
The estimated aboriginal population of California is
very high. Kroeber (Handbook, 1917, p. 880) places it at
133,000 in 1770, an average of one person per square mile, as
compared with one person per four square miles for the rest
of the United States. Since there are deserts, marshes, and
the high Sierra with very little population, the relative
density is even higher than the absolute figure. The word
"tribe" can be used of California Indians only in the sense
of a population speaking one language. There was no feeling
of unity among such people, and they often spoke different
dialects and had different customs. The linguistic groups
concerned here varied considerably in size, but the larger
tribes were spread over correspondingly large areas, so that
the Pomo "tribe" of about 8,000 differed little in its basic
organization from the small Athabascan "tribes" which might
have only 1,000 or 2,000 members.
The Round Valley Reservation was originally the Nome Cult
Farm, attached to the Nomlacki (variously spelled) Reservation,
to the northeast across the mountains.
2
Despite the diversity of specific institutions that arose
in a variety of climates and natural environments, all of these
tribes belong to the culture province that Kroeber calls
Central Californian, and at his suggestion I am giving a com-
posite picture of aboriginal conditions, indicating, at some
points, differences which seem to be significant for present
purposes. (Kroeber, 1930:265ff. )
The unit of organization was the band or "tribelet" which
inhabited a small territory definable by drainage, usually
held the land in common for settlements, hunting, and gathering,
and acted as a unit in war, control of trespass, and major
ceremonies and entertainment.  It consisted of one or more
extended families. In the mountains a hundred or more persons
lived under a main chief in a main village, and several smaller,
less permanent villages under family chiefs. Pomo villages
seem to have been much larger, sometimes including as many as
eight hundred persons. The group wandered a short distance
from its permanent village during th~e summer season of economic
activity hunting, fishing, and gathering. They seldom over-
stepped their boundaries, and trespass was punishable by death
on sight, although a death usually led at once to war with the
neighboring group to which the victim belonged. For the area
of the Southern Wintun Kroeber, although he formerly accepted
the explanation that wars were made to avenge witchcraft
deaths, now considers conflict over trespass most important.
"Wars," though hardly more than family feuds and seldom very
bloody, were frequent, and involved groups which were often
related by marriage and between whom trading took place on
friendly occasions, such as large ceremonial gatherings. The
mountain tribes, who lived in rougher country and had a lower
subsistence level than the valley groups, were more hostile.
But even the Pomo, the most peaceful according to all reports,
had feuds caused by violation of territory rights to the
detriment of food and game supplies. (Curtis, 1924s51)
Relations with neighbors speaking an altogether different
language were often closer than with members of the same
linguistic group; temporary alliances could occur against a
group related by blood and speech to one of the participant
bands. Geographical nearness was very important in a culture
in which the activities of a lifetime might be restricted
within a tventy-mile diameter. The smallness of the groups
and the prohibition on marriage with even distant relatives made
it obligatory to marry into neighboring bands. Such marriages
provided a mechanism for acquaintance and communication, but
frequently a married-in person had to flee for his life when
hostilities threatened or when his relatives-in-law were
unable to protect him from their own more .distant kin.
3
Economic and Social Orcanization
Whatever the local differences, the whole region was well
stocked with game and wild food. Even in the mountains of
the Wailaki and Lassik country there were "1lotsa Indians, lotsa
bear, lotsa deer, lotsa elk ... everything, you can see it ...
deer stand around like band of sheep ... long time (ago) lotsa
grub, lotsa see, lotsa roots,"* and the Indians took advantage
of everything. Deer hunting is the most important activity in
their descriptions, but smaller game, squirrel, coon, rabbit,
etc., probably took care of a larger part of the meat diet.
Salmon ran twice a year in the northern streams, trout were
plentiful. A variety of nuts, roots, berries and seeds kept
the women busy gathering, and the supply of acorns gathered in
the fall lasted most tribes through the rainy winter. Even
insects had a place in the diet, larvae of yellowjackets and
caterpillars being the favorites. The Indians burned the grass
after the spring seed gathering so as to decrease the danger
from grizzlies and rattlesnakes.
The style of house varied with climate and available
materials.  It was round or rectangular, of wooden or bark
slabs, sometimes earth-covered and semi-subterranean, and, to
the south, of tules. Clothing was of the simplest, a skin or
bark fiber apron for the women, a skin wrapped around the hips,
or nothing, for men. In the winter both wore skin shawls
around their shoulders.
Bow and arrow and digging-stick were the essential tools.
Grass was used for rope and nets, skins for blankets and slings,
flint for arrowheads, and massive rock for pounding-stones
and slabs. The all-around utensil was the basket, in varying
sizes and shapes, for everything from carrying a baby to
washing one's face.
The Indians adjusted their lives in a yearly cycle. They
opened the spring season with the gathering of fresh clover and
ripening grass seeds. In the summer they roamed the hills,
gathering berries, and stalking, snaring and driving deer; and
when the deer fattened on acorns in the fall, gathered a supply
of dried meat and prepared to winter in permanent villages on
the rivers. Then the rains started the water flowing in the
rivers, black salmon "came up jumping," and a man could fish all
night, getting a big salmon with almost every dip of his net.
Unless a reference is cited, quotation marks enclose the words
of my principal informants Lucy Young, aged about 90, and Fred
Major (Wailaki), Frank Logan (Yuki-Wailaki), Ralph Moore (Yuki),
and Austin McLaine (Concow Maidu and Chilean).
4
Dried, smoked or pounded into "pinole" (this was the common
way of preparing seeds), fish lasted all winter.   Nothing was
thrown away; "eat gills, guts ... nothing but gall and bones
thrown away ... nothing left of a deer but a manure pile."
Most of the regions supplied the necessities within the
narrow range of a single band, but there was conflict over
clover fields and salt deposits. Many bands traded for these
foods, but often there was poaching under cover of darkness.
Trade was rather informal, but articles of value, like shell,
bead and magnesite "money" spread from a center in the Pomo
territory.
The rainy winter was the time for men to chip arrowheads
and women to make baskets, though hunting and fishing went on
when the people got "hungry for fresh meat."
This kind of economic adjustment had the advantage of pro-
tecting them from scarcity, but the variety of resources used
also meant that they "had to go all the time." The Sacramento
tribes were sometimes forced to come down to two meals a day,
according to a Concow Maidu, but "I never heard of starving to
death." The Wailaki, on the other hand, were sometimes re-
duced to eating their own blankets and packing straps, and old
people succumbed in a hard winter. The Nomlaki suffered too,
the poorer people dying or being weakened by famine about
every six or seven years.
The territory of a band was held in common for its members,
although some tribes had individual ownership of pine trees
(the nuts were eaten) and fishing places. As a rule hunting
was done by small informal groups, but before a "big time" a
large group would go out for a good meat supply, and would drive
deer out of the brush with fire or noise, or run them past
expert marksmen, or even run them down in relays. On the whole
the attitude seems to have been one of helpfulness, with
friends or relatives hunting or fishing together, and the
successful man often giving his catch to his companions to
divide up. They would never think of not sharing game.   Gen-
erosity was the most important single virtue. For this reason,
what individual ownership of resources existed could not have
worked hardship on any member of the band.
It is often unclear from the reports how far the family was
co-extensive with the band, and whether economic cooperation
occurred only among relatives. Judging from other bands'
attitudes, it seems likely that friends and neighbors would be
included according to the immediate circumstances. The Concow
Maidu put into a rather formal category the friend with whom a
man habitually went hunting.or fishing.
5
Within the family, cooked food was shared, and work was
divided according to the abilities of the members. The older
men made arrows and rope, the old women pounded acorns while
the young women were out gathering, and the children played
around the camp, where the old people could watch them. For
these services the active adults "fed" the old.
The preparation of acorn soup and bread, a long and rather
complicated process, kept the women busy. The men handled meat
if they were present, but if not, the women might cut up dried
meat, since there was skill, rather than a tabu, involved.
The men, in their movements during hunting, watched the ripening
of the acorns, and when they started to fall helped the women
gather them up, or picked them by hand or shook the oaks. Men
tanned the skins, or worked them with rough rocks without
tanning, and built the houses. They gathered firewood and
helped take care of the children.
Economic activity was organized within the extended family,
with so little formal division of labor between man and wife
that either would be well-provided for during widowhood, and
free at any time to rejoin his or her parents and relatives
without economic handicap. The complete economic independence
women could achieve when necessary is indicated by the fact
that when a certain Lassik (Athabascan) band was attacked by
Whites and all the men killed, the women got along on vegetable
food and fish they drugged.
Specialization was informal except, perhaps, among the
Pomo, where there were inherited professions.  Workers in
shell spent most of their time at it. The important professions
of fisherman, hunter, and doctor are defined by Loeb (1926s 180ff;
319ff) as specialized activities to which a man devoted a con-
siderable part of his time, and to which he was initiated by
an elder relative who gave him' the magical outfit and charms
necessary for success, but "almost all of the men in the village
hunted." All women made baskets, though some were conceded to
be better craftsmen, and the men who made the best arrowheads
gave them to younger relatives or sold them to other bands. No
one lived on the proceeds of a specialty, even the doctors doing
some hunting. The chiefs, though some of them did little or
no work, lost no prestige if they did, and often spent their
time in the village making things, as did other middle-aged men.
The band under a chief comprised the social and political
unit of California Indian society. Within it, as has been in-
dicated, were several groups of related individuals. A couple
was usually free to decide with whose parents they would live,
the choice depending on the circumstances and personalities
concerned. Often a couple would spend a year or so with the
6
girl's parents, the man helping them with contributions of
food, before they settled down near his family but within
visiting distance of hers. Among the Lassik "mostly they let
a girl go with her husband," but if, for instance, the man had
no parents, he would probably go to his wife's family, but, as
in most matters, "That's depend."
The son- or daughter-in-law was accepted as his or her
personality warranted, the usual criteria being industry,
generosity, and good nature. The birth of a child strengthened
the affinal tie, especially since grandparents were always so
fond of children that they took their part against less in-
dulgent parents. If a woman were deserted, her husband's
parents might prevail on her to stay with them for the sake of
the children.
Marriage was brittle--which does not mean that there were
no cases of devotion. Again, it was up to the individual to
react to the situation as his inclinations led him. Marriage
was prohibited among blood relations on both sides, and since
strong ties were felt with all the relatives who lived in one
group, this amounted to local exogamy. Close relatives-in-law
seem to have been included in this group of respected persons
whom one could not marry, except that in one's own generation
a mild form of levirate and sororate operated.  The Pomo
family has indications of being weighted toward matriliny, with
clan names and a marriage tabu.
As a rule the members of a family were bound by warm ties
of affection and by the obligation of supporting relatives in
feuds. However, should a man become a nuisance and by constant
mischief endanger their safety, the family might pay to have
him murdered rather than fight it out with those he injured,
and, among the Wailaki at least, distant relatives might kill
a "black sheep." Loeb writes that dependence on his kin was
sufficient to make a Pomo man circumspect.
The degree to which political organization was developed
may have varied among the tribes. The Wintun, Yuki, and Wailaki
had a loose organization in which several settlements under
separate village chiefs felt themselves to be under the chief
of a larger village, and identified themselves with him and it.
The fact that the name of such a chief or village is often given
by informants in reference to both the main village and to the
group of settlements obscures the organization in some cases.
It is reported that the Pomo had no named groups larger than
villages, but since their villages were much larger than those
of other tribes, a single Pomo village with chief and family
headmen probably corresponded to the more spread-out band of
the others.
7
The band or tribelet gave "feeds," carried on such ceremonies
as the girls' puberty "sing," and trained the young people in
the "school."  Its relations with other bands might be alter-
nately war and friendship, since no peace was permanent, even
when murder had been compounded and a peace celebration held.
Old grudges might motivate fresh murders, and poaching was
always dangerous.
Several bands might meet for summer festivities, the host
group sending invitations to others, and at the gathering have
games, trade and courting.  The difficulty of dealing with
potential or actual enemies was bridged on some occasions by
having a neighbor on good terms with both sides act as inter-
mediary in trade and peacemaker in war. The Wailaki called
such a man "middle-walker," and they explain that he was
probably related to people on both sides and was safe from
attack as long as he did not lie. That this was only slightly
formalized is indicated by the fact that the Pitch Indians, a
Wailaki band who had a reputation for being ill-tempered and
dangerous even to people who spoke their own dialect, accorded
no immunity to messengers. The more peaceful valley Wailaki
tribes used the same mechanism, but so backward was their
social organization in comparison with highly developed
ritualism among the Maidu, that they lacked even mediation to
prevent war   (Curtis, v.14, pp.21ff.),
Good nature, generosity, and fluency were the qualities
that a chief must have. Although there was a tendency to keep
the position within a lineage (patrilineal among the Yuki,
matrilineal among the Pomo) personality was most important,
since the chief had only his personal authority to back up any
decision he might make in regard to war and peace, ceremonies,
or settlement of disputes. He had no power to punish anyone
for any offense. Among the Maidu, the secret society of which
he was a member had greater political power than he. The
shamans chose and might depose him, if the spirits so decreed.
"He would listen to them talk, and say 'Well, that ought to
be good.'  He can't say, 'No.'  If he did, they'd get him down.
Got to be always on the safe side."   In all the tribes the
chief was usually a middle-aged man who was likely to stay at
the village "making things" while his younger relatives
brought him food and articles of value so that he could trade,
compound murders and help his people if they needed it. The
Yuki chief had more real authority than the headman of neigh-
boring groups, leading his people in daily affairs, sending
out hunters for food before ceremonials, and training his suc-
cessor during his lifetime. None of the reports is clear on
the relations between the chief and the lesser chiefs or head-
men, nor do they define their functions exactly, but it appears
that both leaders gave fairly prescribed speeches on all
8
occasions, expressing the needs and will of the group and
giving specific direction to the necessary and expected ar-
rangements.  The chief was a "good talker."
The shamans, who had explicit political power only among
the Maidu, were powerful in all the tribes. The Pomo were
the only group which is said to have distinguished between
priests and medicine men. In all the others, although the
basic function was curing, shamans conducted all the ceremonies
and trained the young people. The Athabascans had little
ritual, and initiation was for good health and growth of
children and for the training of potential shamans.   The Yuki,
although their religious beliefs were close to those of the
Wailaki, had a rather complicated ceremonial development and a
tribal initiation (apart from that of shamans) which was
directed by the chief and his assistants.
In his curing function, the "doctor"* was paid, and well
paid, for his services. The feeling was that he was entitled
to what he got, since essentially it was the spirit who set
the fee and the fee was returned if the patient was not com-
pletely cured. The doctor protected his group from hostile
spirits and hostile Indians who might try to "poison"* them.
For this reason he had to understand poisoning or black magic
himself, which made him a potential danger, a man to be
placated or avoided. Some tribes, like the Lassik, separated
doctors from prisoners. The former got their power by in-
spiration, the latter through training.
In most matters the independence of the individual was
complete, the only social control arising from the informal
sanction of economic reciprocity and the necessity of keeping
the good will of other equally unhampered individuals. The
chief tried to keep peace, but since his authority had no
force behind it, a "mean man" could go on as long as no one
went him one better and "put him out of the way." An in-
teresting mechanism is reported for the Maidu (Dixon, 1905),
that of initiating an incorrigible man into the secret society
and giving him responsibilities. A similar practice is
described for the Eastern Pomo after White intrusion, when a
man who was so contaminated by contact with the Whites as to
become a nuisance was given honors--even, if he was eligible,
the chieftainship. The only group actions recorded are cases
Hereafter the words "doctor" and "poison" will be used without
quotation marks, in the native sense.
in which the men of a group banded together against women.
The Maidu, according to a Round Valley informant, punished a
girl who was too promiscuous with rape by the entire male
population. The Pomo used their secret society chiefly to
keep their wives chaste and submissive.
On the whole, the feeling was that no one should or could
be forced into doing anything, but that he might be persuadeds
"Just keep talking to him," and about him.
The sanctions exercised by the supernatural powers were
stronger, theoretically, so that the breaking of a tabu auto-
matically brought ill health, and disbelief in the power of
spirits resulted in the immediate death of the skeptic.
Supernaturalism
The concept of a high God ("One who sits above," "Our
Father," or "The One who Created Us") existed in Northern
California, but creation was usually Coyote's work. There was
no clear idea of where souls went after death, certainly no
notion of punishment in afterlife. The nearest any tribe came
to such an idea was to conceive of wicked persons becoming
grizzlies or rattlesnakes after death. Supernatural power re-
sided in natural objects, and places which were to be avoided,
and in animal spirits from whom doctoring ability came. The
recipient got power in an unsought trance and vision, and it
might cause his death if he were not properly doctored and the
power brought under control. Promising young people were
trained to doctor, especially in regard to removing "pains,"
but real shamanistic ability waited on this supernatural ex-
perience, which followed a general pattern but varied with the
individual.
The basic ceremonies of the region were the doctors' curing
rites, the "sing" over a girl at her first menstruation, and
the "acorn sing." The Maidu had elaborated a winter cycle of
dances, an annual burning of property in honor of the dead of
the year, and several first-fruit ceremonies    (Loeb, 1933,
pp. 227-231).
The Kuksu or Big-Head cult flourished in all the tribes
now in Round Valley except the Wailaki. The Yuki form of the
cult was simpler than that of the Maidu or Wintun. In all
cases it consisted of a secret society which only men could
enter, through an elaborate ceremonial initiation. The society
impersonated spirits, mystifying the uninitiated and even some
members. The costume included a long masking net of feathers
and the radiating headdress of feathered sticks from which the
10
organization is named.  Clowning was characteristic. A
striped center post, special dance houses, and the use of the
foot-drum were some of the material elements. A ghost religion,
emphasizing the return of the dead, initiation of novices, and
the use of the bull-roarer, was carried on by the Pomo, but
the other tribes "ran the two religions in one"    (Loeb, 1926,
pp. 338-397).
In all these simple cultures there was much overlapping of
secret societies and shamanism.   (Kroeber, 1917, pp. 170-192)
The Yuki obsidian initiation, similar to the Kuksu initiation
of other tribes, was done for the health of the initiates and
to discover and strengthen potential shamans. On the other
hand, one element of Pomo curing is the impersonation by the
doctor of the monster, the sight of which caused the patient to
fall ill.
A distinction was made between singing or dreaming doctors
and sucking doctors, but both powers might reside in one man,
or specialists in each could cooperate on a case. The former
diagnosed the illness and, if it was the result of soul-loss
(Wailaki, Lassik), recovered the soul. If, however, the cause
of illness was a "pain," the sucking doctor drew it out with
his hands or mouth and destroyed it.  A "pain".was a small
object, often in the form of an insect, which had been projected
into the body of the victim.  Only the Pomo had an "outfit
doctor" who needed no supernatural help; all the others had
direct personal experience of the spiritual source of their
strength. Usually an animal or natural object did something
miraculous.  For instance, a dead fawn would get up and walk
away before the eyes of the astonished hunter, who would
thereupon fall over in a trance, bleeding from nose and mouth.
Later he would be found, or would stagger home, to be treated
strenuously by experienced shamans in an effort to save his
life and make him a practitioner. It was possible, however, to
reject the power.
Sucking doctors received most of their training by in-
struction. Poisoners caused illness, but to what extent the
doctors' curing function was turned in this direction is un-
clear. It is not even certain that black magic was actually
practised widely. Open use of it was directed against
neighboring bands, but it was constantly feared within the band
by most tribes. Sometimes shamans had contests, throwing
"pains" at each other.
The function of religious beliefs in keeping activities
going along traditional lines is most evident in the fact that
"keeping the rules" was vital for good health and for luck in
food getting.
11
Mores
The Indians of Central California made little point of
property, either in regard to ownership of economic goods or
the manipulation of wealth for social purposes. Outside of
clothing and implements, there was a minimum of private owner-
ship. Hospitality and food sharing were taken for granted and
only in times of scarcity was there trade for food, and that
between bands. Shell and magnesite "money" was worn on festive
occasions, and passed from hand to hand in the gift-giving
that marked a marriage or peace parley, or in informal trade.
These valuables and bearhides were buried with a corpse, not
because the spirit would need them but because friends wished
to honor the dead and gain the goodwill of the survivors, and
because close relatives were anxious to get rid of anything
that had been associated with the deceased: "they sadness, they
don't think of nothing."
Relatives made things for each other, and friends gave
gifts to one another with the expectation of long term re-
ciprocity. At the Maidu "burning" which was carried on by a
whole band, visitors attended and traded for the goods they
wanted just before the actual destruction occurred.
The value of any object seems to have been set in a general
way by the amount of labor consumed in making it, and measured
in terms of strings of shell beads. The Pomo had rather more
formal evaluations than some of the other tribes, and the rules
of trade varied, but in all cases reciprocity and the desire
to avoid bad blood prevented shrewd bargains.
Personal relations are even more difficult to determine
than other aspects of California Indian life because here
especially the choice of behavior was left to the individual.
Informants will not even give theoretical generalizations.
For instance, "If a woman left her husband, he could follow her
and kill the other man ... but some men say 'There are lots of
women' and let her go." Little compulsion was placed on men
or women to be continent before marriage or faithful after.
The Wailaki however guarded their girls carefully, and punished
the birth of an illegitimate child by ostracism so severe that
the girl would neither want nor be able to marry afterwards.
It was easy to break marriages (provided the deserted husband
did not murder the other man) and set up a new household.
Maidu girls had considerable freedom, but if one were too
promiscuous, she was "cooled off" by being held down while
"young and old used her up." Pomo unmarried women were free too,
and after marriage the men seem to have had great difficulty in
keeping their wives chaste and obedient. It is frequently said
that if a woman accepted a man after having refused him
12
for a long time, that marriage would last long   (See also
Curtis, V. XIV, p. 30),
Although there was no economic handicap to compel a women
to accept or stay with a man she did not like, women seldom or
never took the initiative in sexual affairs. An old Maidu
woman said, "Don't go to a man's bed; let him come to yours."
All the tribes had male transvestites who might or might
not be homosexual. The fact always brought out was that they
did women's work, that they were "too lazy" to do men's work,
and took this way of avoiding responsibility. A Pit River
tribe symbolized the situation by publicly offering a bow
and a digging-stick to a man who showed signs of developing
in this direction, and holding him to his choice.
It is not easy to decide just what the position of women
wast broadly it depended on personality. A man could have
more than one wife, if he could keep order in' the house.
Sisters were supposed to make the best co-wives. The Lassik
excluded their women from games; Pomo and Maidu kept them from
ceremonials. A Wailaki man had the power to beat his wife or
even to kill her, but her relatives would be on him immediately.
In general, then, marriage was brittle and sex life fairly
free, since the lack of economic considerations in marriage
gave personal choice the decisive role.
In other relationships with people, there was similar
freedom. Within the family respect attitudes were formalized
to greater or less extent, from the strict mother-in-law tabu
of the Maidu to the slight constraint which the Wailaki felt,
and which the Pitch division, notable for lack of respect
toward human beings, dispensed with altogether. Ordinarily
they "think a whole lot of relatives." Marriage with relatives
was strictly interdicted. Relatives of opposite sex were cir-
cumspect toward each other, spoke seriously and never joked,
especially not about sexual matters.  Respect for one's
parents took a similar form, but there was little or no
emphasis on respect for age per1 se. A Maidu married couple
showed "respect" for each other by not eating together until
after the birth of their first child.
As for a brother-in-law, a woman might "play with him,
touch him, but not too far. If I have respect for myself, I
don't joke with him at all." This statement from a Maidu fits
the custom of mild levirate-sororate in the region. A man
might marry two or more sisters, the second during, or after,
the lifetime of the first, provided he was a good husband and
his relatives-in-law approved of him. Relatives-in-law out of
13
one's own generation were regarded as blood relatives and one
behaved accordingly. Sometimes a man would live with his
wife's parents, or visit them frequently, and a woman often
found her mother-in-law "like another mother." It was these
people who protected or warned the younger people when trouble
arose in the band.
The uniqueness of personalities and the feeling that they
are to be constrained as little as possible are expressed in
various ways:s "Respect a human being"; "Mind your own business";
"She'll do it if she wants to ."  Fear of poisoning may be sig-
nificant here, but it is impossible to tell from the material.
And the extent to which this factor of freedom is recognized
appears in the qualifying "but if......" which follows every
statement of how people acted under certain conditions.
Foci of Interests
Within the range of rather simple specializations anyone
could direct his energy at will, and in a society which dictated
so little how one must behave, and had no formal penalties for
misbehaving, every situation had several possibilities for
action. Some men were "mean" and went around killing people,
others refused even to take part in long standing feuds.
"Some of it just natur' talk lots; some don't say nothing
much." "There might be two or three bad ones in a family,
just like White people." Much of the above is based on con-
versations with Wailaki and Lassik informants, but Maidu too
made statements like, "Old days, never interfere with nobody's
business," and "You're going to be what you're going to be,"
so it can safely be assumed that such attitudes were general
among the tribes concerned.
Craftsmen naturally took an interest in their work and
spent long hours at it. However, an important interest for
all, and one which is well-repembered when many other aspects
of native life have been forgotten, was the feud. It is dif-
ficult to analyse the social and personal motives for feuds.
It has been said that the social motive was usually to prevent
trespass, and the personal experience seems to have been angry
fear of strangers on one's own territory and blind rage when
one sought revenge for the death of a relative. The narrow
range of movement of California Indians must have readily given
rise to suspicion but the tribes differed in the amount of
hostility they showed to their neighbors.  Correlates in
personal experience are lacking in most reports.
On the whole (Powers 1872-74, V.8, p. 325; 1877) the
California Indians, though shy and secretive where White men
14
are concerned, were sociable among themselves, fond of dancing
and gambling. Games were for sport, not for conquest; players
were absorbed in the process, indifferent to the result.  An
old Round Valley Maidu used to say, "White man every day
gettin' ready to live; Indian live every day."
Integration and Contemporary Rate of Culture Change
California culture has been described ad having great
stability and great variety, compared to larger American tribes
of more uniform culture and extensive tribal areas. However,
the closeness of inter-band relations, the fact that on the
borders of linguistic groups there were bands of mixed blood
and bilingual speech, and that everywhere marriages and feasts
alternated with feud murders meant that traits could spread
rapidly. Differences in material culture can be attributed to
some extent to environmental differences The only clear
examples of the dissemination of culture traits are the spread
of the religious cults, which was going on when the Whites ar-
rived in California, and the learning of magical techniques by
the Lassik, who had apparently come in from the north with
other Athabascans.
The most serious disruptive force in California society
was the feud, which accounted for many deaths, not only of
fighting men, but of women and children left unprotected a
short distance from the village. Poisoning and the fear of it
may have been significant in this connection, but there is no
clear picture in reports of how it functioned, except that
there were covert grudges. On the other hand, fear of
poisoning might have been a force for good social relations
insofar as it kept people on their best behavior.
Internal integration of the society, in the sense of
strong drives around which many activities and motivations
centered, was non-existent. Dr. DuBois' conclusions on Wintu
society may, from all available facts, be applied to all the
California tribes with which we are concerned heres If any
selection of dominating patterns could be made ... they would
consist of the salmon, deer, and acorn complexes in their
economy and their material life. In the socio-religious
fabric, shamanism was paramount. But more characteristic of
Wintu culture was its amorphous construction, the absence of
pressure upon the individual, the lack of integrating drives.
It was a society in which the individual's personality was
important for social success, but only because society had so
few formalized hurdles or barriers   (DuBois, 1935).
15
The Contact Continuum--
Summary of Non-Cultural Results of Contact
The estimated Indian population of California was 133,000
in 1770. At present the population of Indians and mixed-blood
descendants of California Indians is about 20,000. Before 1850
there were epidemics of smallpox, and the Spanish occupation of
Southern California accounted for many deaths during the reign
of the missions and more after the secularization of the mis-
sions by the Mexican government. However, direct attacks by
goldminers and American settlers and the effects of whiskey
and diseases they brought, probably did the most damage. After
that, poverty and hopelessness completed the decimation.
It would be difficult, nor would it be useful for present
purposes, to estimate the population of the bands from which
the present Round Valley Indians stem. Remnants of bands were
brought here, and even where we know the number brought, we
cannot check for those who ran away. It is equally difficult
to determine the range of any particular band in aboriginal
times, and the density of population within it. The statistics
of the Indian Office, as given in the annual reports to the
Secretary of the Interior, are necessarily inadequate and
practically useless. The only set of figures which has some
applicability is that of Merriam    (Kroeber, 1917, p. 880).
It covers the total membership of the tribes represented in
Round Valley, estimated for 1770 and determined by the census
for 1910.
1770      1910
Nongatl, Sinkyone, Lassik        2000        100
Wailaki                           1000       200
Yuki                             2000       1000
Huchnom                           500       --
Coast Yuki                        500       --
Pomo                             8000      1200
Maidu                            9000       1100
23,000      3600
At present (1937) over 800 Indians are on the rolls of the
Indian Office as living in Round Valley. There is, however,
no value in estimating the density of population, because very
few, if any, Indians derive their sole support from the valley,
and about half of them are away for at least four or six
months of each year working in the vineyards, orchards and
hopfields to the south.
16
Though on the average California had about one Indian
per square mile, local differences were great. Round Valley
had a very high aboriginal population estimated at perhaps
more than a thousand (according to Powers, about three times
the average population of California).  Powers' estimates of
population were high (he gave 5,000 as a minimum for Yuki),
but he was probably not entirely wrong when he insisted that
this valley, some 35 square miles in area, and similar mountain
valleys would support fewer White people than they did Indians,
because the Indians had usufructuary rights to ten times its
area in nut-bearing forests, and to salmon-swarming streams.
For Round Valley and the immediate vicinity there are now
perhaps 2,000 Indians and Whites in the territory which once
supported about the same number of Yuki. To the north the
originally Wailaki lands now have few inhabitants; most of
their range became the estate of a rich cattleman.
The difference among tribes in regard to the extent of
immigration of Whites into the several districts and the
aboriginal margin of subsistence will be discussed further in
connection with the conditions of contact   (See below. ).
The change of physical environment from aboriginal to
present conditions was not very great. Most of the tribes had
lived in hilly country, near rivers, under a climate not very
different from that of Round Valley, and with the same type
of resources. However, as soon as they reached the reservation
they were given government food and rations. The land, trees
and rivers are much as they were a hundred years ago, but the
valley is cultivated by White owners, the mountain range is
fenced in, and the deer, though still plentiful, can be hunted
only in season and under a license.
Personal mobility increased greatly in a short time.
Indians who in 1850 never went more than twenty miles from
their birthplace traveled hundreds of miles to go to a
ceremony at Clear Lake in 1870. After military guards were
removed from the reservation, the Round Valley Indians started
to take wage labor and their mobility became unlimited. At
present most of them work in California, but some go to Oregon
and Washington in the summer. Some individuals leave the
valley altogether and many have been all over the country.
Most of them, however, are bound by necessity to seek as close
to home as possible the agricultural and pastoral work that
provides their main source of income.
Before the gold rush and the coming of the Americans,
California tribes had come in contact with several groups of
foreigners in a variety of ways. In 1579 Sir Francis Drake
touched on the coast of California, at or above San Francisco
17
Bay, finding there a tribe which, from the description of
their baskets, were probably Pomo, and who received the
Englishmen as gods   (Barrett, 1908, pp. 28-39).
Spanish Jesuit missions, started in Lower California in
1797, were later taken over by the Franciscans, but no White
settlements were made in California north of San Francisco
until a branch of the Russian-American Fur Company was sent
down from Alaska and established Fort Ross in 1811, remaining,
despite Spanish protest, until 1840, when they voluntarily
withdrew. The Russians at Fort Ross (Thompson, 1896, pp. 29ff. )
treated the Indians fairly well, paying them for work and
letting them leave the fort at night. In return the Indians
gave their daughters as wives to the Russians and Aleuts, and
allowed them to go safely into the interior.
The last mission that lasted any length of time was at
Sonoma, a short distance north of San Francisco, founded in
1823, lasting until 1840.  Santa Rosa, further north, had a
mission for a short time in 1827, but probably few conversions
occurred. Spanish explorers passed through the Sacramento
Valley before 1825, but the important settlements near Round
Valley were by Mexicans who came after the secularization of
the missions in 1834 to fill the fertile valleys as far north
as Ukiah, and those just south of Round Valley. They held
grants under the Mexican government. There are traces of
Spanish or Mexican influences among the Pomo, many of whom
are Catholics, use Spanish words, and bake tortillas. The
Spaniards and Mexicans raided Indian villages for work hands
and domestic servants, killing those who resisted and picking
out the ones they wanted   (Addendum 2). The Americans, when
they came, extended this activity north of the San Francisco
region and made a business of kidnapping and selling Indian
children.
Contact with Americans
The immigration of the Americans in 1849 put the Indians
suddenly in the position of aliens in their own land, subject
to death for stealing, for gathering food, or just for being
in the way. Their food supply was cut down drastically, they
were forced to starve or steal. On the whole, the preservation
of Indians was in reverse ratio to the density of White popu-
lation, except that the hill tribes with rude culture and a
small margin between them and minimum subsistence (Yuki, Wailaki) /
succumbed to the maladjustment caused by even a light im-
migration, while their valley neighbors (Pomo, Maidu), richer
and with more elaborate customs, survived. However, the Yuki
were affected less than some others, because they were allowed
18
to remain on their own territory. Kroeber points out that
although the reservation did not prevent the decrease of Yuki,
it did protect some Wailaki, Wintun and Maidu from the more
drastic destruction they would have suffered if they had had
to shift for themselves   (Kroeber, 1917),
The Maidu suffered especially, because their land was in
the heart of the Sacramento placer mining region. "They were,
one might say, blown into the air by the suddenness and fierce-
ness of the explosion. Never before in history has a people
been swept away with such terrible swiftness or so appalled
into utter and unwhispering silence forever and forever as
were the California Indians by those 100,000 of the best blood
of the nation.  They were struck dumb; they fled from all the
streams and camped in the inaccessible hills where the miners
would have no temptation to follow them; they crouched in
terror under the walls of the garrisoned forts, or gathered
around the old pioneers who had lived among them and now
shielded them from the miners as well as they could.  If
they remained in their villages, and a party of miners came
up they prostrated themselves on the ground and allowed them
to trample on their bodies to show how absolute was their sub-
mission. And well they might. If they complained audibly
that the miners muddied the streams so that they could not see
to spear salmon, or stole a pack mule, in less than twenty
days, there might not be a soul of the tribe living"
(Powers, 1872-74, V. 12, pp. 21ff. ). Similar retribution fol-
lowed the few attempts made by the Indians to avenge murder or
rape by burning the houses of White men.
The Pomo were also unresisting. The Stone and Kelsey
"massacre" gives the general circumstances of their first
contact with Americans. In 1847 Stone and Kelsey took over a
Mexican land grant. With the land went a group of Indians,
some of whom had straggled back from a prospecting expedition
to the north where they had been dragged as slaves by prospec-
tors. Stone and Kelsey kept them in a corral, trained a few
men as vaqueros and workhands, took girls as they wanted them,
and punished opposition with murder or by hanging offenders by
the hands. Two vaqueros were persuaded by the Indians to kill
a beef for them. The plans miscarried, and knowing they would
die in any case anyway, five Indian men decided to kill the
two White men. They succeeded and fled with the whole group.
A year later a punitive expedition, probably of United States
regulars, wiped out the bands, and "was conducted with a
savagery of which Benson's own account gives only an inadequate
notion. Nothing except sadistic lust on the part of white
soldiers can explain it, since the generally pacific character
of the Califdrnia Indians was well known, and Vallejo's agents,
under whose control these particular Indians had been for years
19
before 1849, lived on terms of the utmost friendliness with
them " (Radin, 1932, pp. 266-272).
The California volunteers were bands of citizens who went
out to punish depredations and kill any Indians unlucky enough
to be caught. They operated widely from Round Valley against
Yuki and Wailaki who, after their first friendly advances
brought them no protection, killed isolated individuals when
they could and made raids on the herds. However, in many
cases it was dead cattle which they ate, knowing that the
punishment for theft was death. But guilty or innocent,
Indians suffered equally. The technique of the "volunteers"
was to surround a rancheria during the night, open fire as
soon as it was light enough to shoot, wipe out the band, and
then find cattle bones as "evidence" of theft   (California
Legislature, Special Committee, 1860). These "wars" continued
after the reservation was established, theoretically to bring
the Indians into the valley. In fact, many Indians were
killed in and near Round Valley; one band of Wailaki was wiped
out on the reservation where they had come for protection
(Addendum 4; Browne, 1864, p. 21).
Some explanation for this disregard of Indian life lies
in the type of men California attracted in those days, and in
the mores of the time. "First there was a large number of
mountain men, i.e., trappers and restless spirits who had
adopted wild life from choice. Many of them lived with
Indians, imbibed Indian superstitions and adopted Indian
customs. With them, the killing of a hostile Indian, or one
who from his tribal connection ought to be hostile, was an
honor. ... Second, there was a still larger percentage of
desperadoes--villainous wretches whose sole redeeming feature
was their bravery, and some lacking even that--to whom robbery
was a business and murder a virtue. ... White men they op-
pressed as far as they dared, and Indians they treated as
they found convenient. The very best of them committed crimes
which were legally punishable with death, perpetrated indignities
on persons they disliked, terrorized whole communities, and
obtained a halo of romantic glory simply because people dared
not talk about them. The third class, and it included a
majority of the people, were men of decent character and
sentiment, but they had little sympathy for the Indians in
general. ... The sentiment against the Red man was still
strong in the Mississippi Valley. Many had seen instances of
the frightful cruelty of the Indians, and many had been at-
tacked on their overland journey when they had given no cause
for it. Besides, they had absolutely no time to consider
abstract questions of right and wrong.  Men of the first and
second class wronged the Indians; the Indians retaliated,
usually on the innocent because they were more convenient and
20
less dangerous; the entire community was involved, and fre-
quently innocent Indians suffered. ... There was less of this
in California than in other mining localities. The reason was
that a part of the Indians submitted to the indignities put
upon them and the rest got out of the way"   (Dunn, 1886, pp.
118ff. ).
The danger from the Indians was greatly exaggerated "by
men who were charged with scheming to bring on a war," (Dunn,
ibid. ) and the governor of California, John McDougal, asked
President Fillmore for aid. Arms were sent. At the last
moment the government changed its plans, and sent commissioners
to treat with the Indians (Senate Documents, 1850, p. 151;
BIA, 1852), most of whom agreed to go on reservations (Senate
Documents, 1851, p. 140).  Immediately a hue and cry went up
in the state.  The commissioners were accused of every crime,
and "acting like the abolition gentry who persuaded slaves to
run away." Much of the early California population was Southern
in derivation and sympathies; in Round Valley, according to
a teacher who was a long-time resident, they were largely from
Missouri, Kentucky, and Virginia. An article in the San
Francisco Alta of February 9, 1852, points out that "almost in
the same breath (as the treaties are opposed) another suggestion
is made, asking Congress to assume and pay the entire Indian
war debt of the state, which, but for the labors of these
Commissioners and the provisions of these identical treaties,
would by this time have been eight or ten instead of two
millions of dollars." Though most of the newspaper articles
at the time were full of inflammatory material about Indian
depredations, and demands that they be removed, this author
points out that the land on the reservations was not worth more
than a dime an acre to any business man or company in California,
and felt that the opposition to the treaties was for the pur-
pose "of making political capital out of what little they know
of this subject ... and was to have been expected from men who
act upon the maxim that 'all's fair in politics'." When one
of the commissioners wrote to him describing a massacre of
Indians on the north fork of the Eel River just above Round
Valley, Governor Bigler answered that such statements were
"an imputation on the character of American citizens." In
1855 a special message to the Legislature said, "A decided ex-
pression should be transmitted to the States, and a rejection
of the treaties by which these reservations are secured
earnestly urged."
Not only did the United States Senate not ratify the
treaties, but it put them under cover of secrecy, where they
remained until 1905. Several reservations were established,
the two largest and most permanent being in Round Valley and
Hupa Valley, two places where the Indians had put up resistance
21
(See Addendum 1. ). The Indians who never came under the re-
servation system became squatters, with no rights at all.
Some individuals were evicted as many as half a dozen times.
One needed only to cultivate the ground and build a little
house, to have a White man come and kick him off. It is said
that if the most barren piece of mountain land was reserved
for Indians, that was enough to make White men want it.
On the reservations the Indians decreased less rapidly
than they would have otherwise, and they did have a place to
stay, but very little else can be said for the system. Much,
however, was said against it   (Addendum 5). An article by J.
Ross Browne clears up several obscure points in the history
of the California Indians after White contact   (Browne, 1861,
pp. 21-22).
"The cost of these establishments was such as to justify
the most sanguine anticipations of their success. ... In order
that the appropriations might be devoted to their legitimate
purpose, and the greatest possible amount of instruction
furnished at the least expense, the executive department adopted
the policy of selecting officers experienced in the art of
public speaking, and thoroughly acquainted with the prevailing
systems of primary elections. ... In one respect, I think the
policy of the Government was unfortunate ... that is, in the
disfavor with which persons of intemperate and disreputable
habits were regarded.  [Browne knows that they were so regarded
because there were regulations posted at all reservations pro-
hibiting persons in the service from getting drunk and ap-
propriating the Indians' wives.J  Men of this kind - and they
are not difficult to find in California, could do a great deal
toward ameliorating the moral condition of the Indians by
drinking up all the whiskey that might be smuggled on the re-
servations, and behaving so disreputably in general that no
Indian, however degraded hispropensities, could fail to become
ashamed of such low vices. the Indians got pantaloons and
shirts which were transparent and blankets which made good
windowpanes.   Old drug stores were cleared of their rubbish,
and vast quantities of croton oil, saltpetre, alum, scent-
bottles, mustard, vinegar, and other valuable laxatives,
diphoretics, and condiments were supplied for their uses ...
The Indians were taught the advantages to be derived from the
cultivation of the earth. Large supplies of potatoes were
purchased in San Francisco, at about double what they were
worth in the vicinity of the reservations. There were only
twenty-five thousand acres of public land available at each
place for the growth of potatoes or other esculent for which
the hungry might have preference; but it was easier to purchase
potatoes than to make farmers out of the White men employed to
teach them how to cultivate the earth. Sixteen or seventeen
22
men on each reservation had about as much as they could do to
attent to their own private claims, and keep the natives from
eating their private crops. .. Not that they were all ab-
solutely worthless. On the contrary, some spent their time in
hunting, others in riding about the country, and a considerable
number in laying out and supervising private claims, aided by
the Indian labor and government provisions.
"The official reports transmitted to Congress from time
to time give flattering accounts of the progress of the system.
The extent and variety of the crops were fabulously grand.
Immense numbers of Indians were fed and clothed - on paper. ...
The favorite prediction of the officers in charge was that in
a very short time these institutions would be self-sustaining -
that is to say, that neither they nor the Indians would want
any more money after a while. ... But the most extraordinary
feature ... was the interpretation of the Independent Treasury
Act of 1846 [in regard to misuse of public funds, which) was
so amended in the construction of the Department as to mean
'except in such cases where such officer has rendered peculiar
services to the party, and possesses strong influences in
Congress.' It was perfectly well understood that five hundred
or a thousand head of cattle did not necessarily mean real
cattle with horns, legs, and tails, actually born in the usual
course of nature, purchased for money and delivered on the
reservations. ... for all the good the Indians got out of them,
it might as well be five hundred or a thousand head of voters,
for they no more fed upon beef, as a general rule, than they
did upon human flesh. ... In short, the original purpose of
language was so perverted in the official correspondence, that
it had no more to do with the expression of facts than many
of the employees had to do with the Indians. *... It invariably
happened that when a visitor appeared on the reservations the
Indians were 'out in the mountains gathering nuts and berries.'
This was the case in the spring, summer, autumn and winter.
They certainly possessed a remarkable predilection for staying
out a long time. Very few of them indeed, have yet come back.
... The only difference between the existing state of things
and that which existed prior to the inauguration of the system,
is that there were then some thousands of Indians living within
the limits of the districts set apart for reservation purposes,
whereas there are now only some hundreds. In the brief period
of six years, they have been nearly destroyed by the generosity
of the government. What neglect, disease and starvation have
not done, has been achieved by the cooperation of the White
settlers in the great work of extermination.
"No pretext has been wanted, no opportunity lost, whenever
it has been deemed necessary to get them out of the way. At
Nome Cult (Round Valley), during the winter of 1858-9, more
23
than a hundred and fifty peaceable Indians, including women
and children, were cruelly slaughtered by the Whites who had
settled there under official authority, and most of whom de-
rived their support either from actual or indirect connections
with the reservation. Many of them had been in public employ,
and now enjoyed the rewards of their meritorious services. ...
True, a notice was posted up on the trees that the valley was
public land reserved for Indian purposes, and not open to
settlement, but nobody, either in or out of the service, paid
any attention to that, as a matter of course. *.. It was al-
leged that they (the Indians) had driven off and eaten private
cattle. ... Upon an investigation of this charge made by the
officers of the army, it was found to be entirely destitute
of truth. A few cattle had been lost, or probably killed by
White men, and this was the whole basis of the massacre.
Armed parties went into the rancherias in open day, when no
evil was apprehended, and shot the Indians down - weak, harm-
less, defenceless as they were - without distinction of age or
sex ... shot down women with sucking infants at their breasts,
killed or crippled the naked children that were running about;
and after they had achieved this brave exploit, appealed to
the state government for aid. ... They did it, and they did
more.  For days, weeks, and months they ranged the hills of
Nome Cult, killing every Indian that was too weak to escape;
and, what is worse, they did it under a state commission,
which, in all charity, I must believe was issued on false re-
presentations. A more cruel series of outrages than those
perpetrated upon the poor Indians of Nome Cult never disgraced
a community of White men....
"I will do the White people who were engaged in these
massacres the justice to say that they were not so much to blame
as was the general government. They had at least given due
warning of their intention. For years they had burdened the
mails with complaints of the inefficiency of the agents....
It was repeatedly represented that unless something was done,
the Indians would soon all be killed. They could no longer
make a subsistence in their old haunts. The progress of set-
tlement had driven them from place to place until there was no
longer a spot on earth which they could call their own. Their
next move could only be into the Pacific Ocean. ... A more
harmless and inoffensive race of beings does not exist on the
face of the earth; but, wherever they attempted to procure a
subsistence, they were hunted down; driven from the reservations
by the instinct of self-preservation; shot down by settlers
upon the most frivolous pretexts; and abandoned to their fate
by the only power which could have afforded them protection
(See Addendum 4B. ).
Round Valley had been a farm connected with the Nomlaki
reservation since 1856, and in 1858 it was decided to make it
24
a reservation because it was very fertile and quite isolated,
so that, presumably, no White man would be likely to be in-
terested in it   (See Addendum 3.). Thomas J. Henley, Super-
intendent of Indian Affairs in California, in a report to Mix,
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, states: "It is isolated ...
and incapable of white settlement "  (BIA, 1858). In fact,
White settlers, in addition to those connected with the Indian
Service, were encouraged to stay by Henley, who was for some
years thereafter, until succeeded in this role by Barclay
Henley, the "leader of the copperhead settlers" in the valley
(BIA, 1864, p. 129). In the report of the Special Commissioner,
Robert J. Stevens, to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs
(BIA, 1867) the holdings of twenty-six settlers in Round Valley
are listed   (Addendum 7). Third largest holding is that of
the four Henley brothers, presumably the sons of Henley whom
he mentioned in a letter to Senator Latham dated January 10,
1862   (Addendum 3). Covelo, the present (White) town, lies
in the middle of the valley, south of the present, reduced,
reservation, in the heart of the coast range. The summers are
hot and dry but the annual rainfall is over thirty inches and
when the winter storms start, the Eel River, which flows
around the valley beyond the first mountains, and the tributary
that drains it are swollen considerably; there is a heavy
snowfall in the mountains which isolated the valley from the
rest of the world for about four months of the year at the
time the reservation was set up. It is said that the valley
was once the bottom of a lake; the soil is rich and black.
Before it was drained, there were some ponds in it, and the
stream had a wide shallow bed. The foothills are dotted with
oaks, manzanita' bushes, etc.; hunting was, and still is, ex-
cellent. The higher slopes have many varieties of pine and
spruce. The valley was expected to support thousands of
Indians. It was ideal.
The Indian population of Round Valley varied, bands being
brought in at different times and different places, leaving
when they could escape and/or when the settlers threatened
them. In addition to this, relations among the bands were
none too good. Some had been traditional enemies, if not of
the particular bands they were thrown in with, then of others
of the same linguistic groups. In any case, they were strangers
to each other and therefore hostile. The settlers used this
animosity when they could, and in some cases it served them
well without having to be invoked. A Yuki band once asked the
Pomo of the Upper Eel River to join with them against the
Whites, and were promptly betrayed and slaughtered by the
Whites at the now famous Bloody Rock   (Powers, 1872, p. 309;
Addendum 4D), In the battle of Horse Canyon, another spot near
Round Valley, named from the circumstances of a massacre, the
settlers took Concows with them in pursuit of Wailaki raiders
25
and let the Indians do most of the shooting. The Concow were
always "good Indians," who welcomed the protection of soldiers
against Yuki and Wailaki   (Tassin, 1884, p. 7).
The United States Army was represented in Round Valley
from 1859 to 1869.  The first small group, seventeen men,
were under Lieutenant Dillon, a young man who "in his conscien-
tious efforts to obey the dictates of humanity toward the
Indians, unfortunately incurred the enmity of many of the
Whites; . .. conflicting interests, or' rather prerogatives of
the civil, military, and Indian authorities, added to the
White and Indian complications, were difficult to harmonize
or conciliate, and his endeavors to compel a certain class of
White men to discontinue their outrages on the Indians were
openly, and in one or two instances successfully, resisted"
(Tassin, 1884, p. 2). He refused to cooperate with Jarboe's
company of volunteers unless they brought proof of Indians'
guilt, and Indians came to him in numbers for protection from
the "bad white men." The same year, 1859, settlers sent a
memorial, before the state took responsibility for volunteers,
to Major Johnson at Fort Weller, who, in reporting on his
refusal, wrote, "The memorialists wish a company of volunteers
called into the service for the purpose of exterminating the
Indians. This work has been going on since the first settle-
ment of the country, but not fast enough to suit the views of
certain unscrupulous speculators and stockowners." At the
same time, be it said for the reputation of Round Valley, other
citizens sent two counter-memorials   (Tassin, 1887, p. 27;
Addendum 4). Johnson goes on to mention that twenty Indians
were shot on suspicion of having killed stock:s "Precautions
had been taken in the last massacre to disarm the Indians and
burn their bows and arrows....an armed party in the mountains
looking for lost stock attacked every village of Indians they
came upon, and massacred some 200 or more, men, women and
children"   (Tassin, 1887, pp. 27-28). Johnson concludes that
about 600 Indians had been killed in the past year.
The company under Dillon went east for the Civil War, and
was replaced by Captain Douglas and the Second California
Volunteer Infantry Company. Investigating the charges of the
Indian Office against the settlers, he decided that the agents
were largely responsible for conditions on the reservation,
although after the report by J. Ross Browne the administration
had been changed.  On the reservation, we read, "the interests
of the Government and of the Indians have been grossly and
shamefully neglected" (Tassin, 1887, p. 170). Douglas at
first found the settlers quiet and made only two political
arrests, but after he arrested a man who had stolen Indian
children, kidnapped a woman, and sold liquor to Indians and
Whites, and kept him in the guardhouse for two days, Douglas
26
found himself involved in a suit for false arrest at a time
when he could not leave his post to testify in his own behalf,
and when every lawyer in the country had been retained against
him. Two other United States infantry companies came to the
valley within the next few years. All the soldiers were on
friendly terms with the Indians; several Indian agents re-
garded the soldiers as the main transmitters of venereal dis-
ease to the Indians. One of the Chinese who cooked for the
military has descendants on the reservation today.
In 1873 the agent on the reservation was the Rev. Burchard,
a Methodist Episcopal missionary, who evidently approached the
Indians kindly and was rewarded by the sudden and complete
acceptance of Christianity. However, Stephen Powers described
the reservations at that time in the following ways "I have
seen them, and they are so raw, so bald, so primitive in their
uses, and so crude in their outcome that they were scarce worth
the visiting, except for the opportunity they afforded for
noting the workings of the natural and unregenerate Indian
mind.  As for giving any glimpse of the benefits bestowed by
the White Man upon the savage, why, bless you, the scope and
significance of those benefits are pretty much measured by
bushels of wheat and gallipots of mollifying ointment. Not
but that the agents are sincere and Christian men, and the
majority of their subalterns likewise, in seeming; but the
chasm between them and the wretched, unhappy Indians is world-
wide; and into that chasm little is hurled to bridge it over
save bright bayonets, granaries of wheat and corn, and utterly
maladroit Christian endeavor, quite useless because quite too
spiritual minded to compel the Indian, by the whole military
power of the United States, if necessary, to construct for
himself a chimney, and change his linen. ... They lay the
cornerstone among the stars; and meantime the untutored savage
is weeping his eyes out in the accursed, bitter, eternal
smudge of his cabin"   (Powers, 1872, V. 8, pp. 325ff. ).
Meanwhile in and outside of Round Valley the Indians had
been living in close contact with White men for over twenty
years. The first White men in Round Valley are described as
"floaters," unattached hunters and herders who, "having no
interest at stake, were not overscrupulous in conduct to
Indians"   (Tassin, 1887, p. 26). The gold rush immigrants are
said by the accepted historian of the county to have behaved
"like a generation of bachelors. The family was beyond the
mountains; the restraints of society had not yet arrived"
(Palmer, 1880, p. 54ff.)* Round Valley attracted outlaws, too,
and men are still pointed out as scions of wealthy Eastern
families who cannot claim their inheritances because they
changed their names and have no proof of their identity.
There were outlaws from all over California, too, which,
27
considering the general state of affairs in the early days,
is saying a great deal. Many of these men stayed long enough
to "raise a raft of kids with a squaw" and left when things
had quieted down where they came from.
However, the Indians had close relations with more re-
spectable citizens as well. The "Indian fighters" were, in
their dealings with other White men and in their families,
often the kindest and best of men. Nordhoff says, in ex-
planation, not defense of their deeds, that an old Indian
fighter "sits down after dinner over a pipe, and relates to
you with quite horrifying coolness every detail of the death
which his rifle and sure eye dealt to an Indian; the tragedy
had not even the dignity of an event in his life ... he shot
Indians as he ate his dinner, plainly as a matter of course;
nor was he a brute, but a kindly, honest, good fellow, not in
the least blood-thirsty"   (Nordhoff, 1877, p. 185),# And "many
of the most respectable settlers in Mendocino County have
testified ... that they kill Indians found in what they con-
sider hostile districts, whenever they lose cattle or horses,
nor do they attempt to conceal or deny this fact"   (California
Legislature, Appendix to the Journal, Document 4, 1860), The
Majority Report found the Mendocino "war" unnecessary and
avoidable, although the representations to the governor were
"of such a character and from such sources, that it would have
been an apparent neglect of duty had he failed to authorize
the organization of a company." The minority wrote that the
war was necessary and justified, and offered the following
solution for the Indian problem. "The general government
should first cede to the State of California the entire juris-
diction over Indians and Indian affairs within our borders,
and make such donations of land and other property and ap-
propriations as would be adequate to make proper provision
for the necessities of a proper management. The State should
then adopt a general system of peonage or apprenticeship, for
the proper disposition and distribution of Indians by families
among responsible citizens. General laws should be passed
regulating the relations between the master and servant, and
providing for the punishment of any meddlesome interference on
the part of other parties. In this manner the Whites might
be provided with profitable and convenient servants, and the
Indians with the best of protection and all the necessaries of
life in permanent and comfortable homes. This will be de-
nounced by those who affect to believe in the doctrine of
universal equality, but a long acquaintance with the nature,
character, and habits of the California tribes, suggest to me
that this policy toward the Indians would be the most
ameliorate..." (California Legislature, 1860).
28
This recommendation was unnecessary. Slavery, in one form
or another, had been going on from the beginning. Indian
children were kidnapped, often during the raids in which adults
were killed   (Addendum 2). Indians went to work for Whites,
practically as peons, on the farms and ranges. A state law
requiring that Indians wear clothes made them still more de-
pendent on the Whites, who considered them private property
and in many cases followed them to the reservation. In 1861 a
state law was passed legalizing a system of indenture which,
according to the report of the Indian Commissioner, was
equivalent to outright slavery, since it had no guarantees of
good treatment and no penalties for White masters who abused
the privilege   (BIA Report, 1861). It may be repeated that
many of the Americans had come from the Southern states, and,
especially in the northern counties of California there were
numerous secessionists. Six years after the Emancipation
Proclamation the military commander of the company in Round
Valley reported that Whites were still stealing Indians for
peons, (Addendum 2) and in 1872 "apprenticed" Indians had
passes to go to the Ghost Dance celebration at Clear Lake
(Powers, 1874).
The failure of slavery, which White residents say "never
worked," is attributed to the character of the Indians, who are
contrasted with the "docile" Negroes in the East. Whether
Negroes were docile is beside the point, Indians had the ad-
vantage of being on familiar ground. Often even young children
ran away. One was my informant, a Wailaki woman, now 89.
"Pet" Indians occasionally killed their masters, usually in
self-defense, and the Yuki "uprising" suspects (1863) were
Indians employed on farms in Round Valley (Addendum 4B).
Many Indian women were wives, usually without ceremony, of
early settlers and many more the mothers of half-White children
In 1880 the historian of the county discussed this: "Too
good to associate with the people of their mothers, and no
whit better than their mothers' people in the estimation of
the whites. ... The fathers of these children are universally
men of means." He goes on to suggest an association of fathers
to establish a home for their children, "and let each man pay
his pro-rata in proportion to the number of children he puts
into the home." The majority of the men who, in an early day,
consorted with Indian women, as soon as practicable married
white women. The consequence of this is "sometimes that those
white women whose husbands never consorted with Indian women
are a little inclined to consider themselves free from the
taint, as it were"   (Palmer, 1880, p. 42). This factor may be
important in creating the intense race prejudice which still
exists, since one hears today that the most rabid "Indian-haters"
are women whose husbands have had affairs with Indian girls.
29
The story of the land ring which dominated Round Valley
from its first settlement was given in a newspaper article
called "The Stolen Valley." (San Francisco Daily Examiner,
February 5, 1888, pp. 9-10) The writer blamed Henley, Super-
intendent of Indian Affairs, for most of the trouble, since he
invited settlers to come to the valley and, after his dismissal,
seized the largest slice   (Addendum 3; BIA 1862; BIA 1867).
A long struggle went on, with agents writing to Washington
regularly, protesting against the trespassing and getting no
help, until after a series of maneuvers on the part of the
settlers, under the guidance of Barclay Henley, the reservation
was reduced in 1873 to only five thousand acres in the northern
part of the valley   (Addendum 3). The bill was passed by
legislative sleight of hand in the closing days of the rushed
session. "The Round Valley stockmen never did a better day's
work for themselves than when they rushed the Act of March 3,
1873, through Congress, and the credit which the Henleys always
claimed for that performance has never been grudged them by
their neighbors." The same bill, however, increased the moun-
tain holdings of the reservation to 100,000 acres, invaluable
grazing land for trespassers who could use it tax-free.  "From
that day to this, the history of Round Valley is a record of
encroachment on one side and inactivity on the other;  ..
tenders of appraised value have not been followed by removal.
The places of those who accepted payment and removed have been
taken by others who 15 years ago had no claim upon the re-
servation at all."
The article goes on to describe evasion of land laws,
perjury, even suggests that murder was resorted to by the big
cattlement to control the land.  Homicide in the area was
common and seldom punished; larceny often brought a longer
prison term   (Palmer, 1880, p. 224). It quotes a citizen of
the county s "Everybody up there, from the highest to the lowest,
thinks he has a perfect right to make all he can out of the
government, and if the land laws have to suffer, so much the
worse for the laws." By 1888 the land of one "cattle king"
had increased from 160 to 100,000 acres, which, with stock,
was estimated to be worth easily $2,000,000.
After initial inaction on the part of the government, the
article continues, some of the agents were controlled by the
stockmen, and others continued to send their pitiful reports to
Washington, which, as the stockmen said, was a long way off.
Finally United States troops, which had failed to remove the
settlers, were ejected and retired to the Presidio; the writer
characterized this as "the crowning act in a record which will
make the story of Round Valley almost without parallel in the
annals of audacity"   (Above quotes all from San Francisco Daily
Examiner, February 5, 1888)
30
This analysis was supported by a letter to the Indian
Office (BIA, 1887) from one of the early settlers who had ac-
cepted payment for his land.  He described the successful work
of the land speculators and went on to predict that they would
have another "act passed by Congress similar to the act of
1873, curtailing the reservation to a few hundred acres, re-
storing the balance to the public grazing lands at a nominal
sum, and, as before, secure title to all of their vast pos-
sessions by fraudulent entries through the dummies in their
employ." And in 1890 just such a law was passed, "to reduce
the Round Valley Indian Reservation," and a commission ap-
pointed to appraise the land held under state law (land which,
though excellent, had been claimed under California law as
"swamp and overflowed land"), to choose land for allotment in
common or in severalty to Indians and appraise the improvements
on it. In 1893 they reported that 63,841.57 acres were to be
restored to the public domain and sold publicly, the Indians
to receive credit for the proceeds. Trespassers who refused to
accept the value of the land were removed by a detachment of
troops, holders of California patents finally gave deeds to
their land, and the allotments were made in 1894-5.
The first allotments were of ten acres of valley land, but
Indians came in in such numbers that the allotments of married
women who had husbands entitled to land were reduced to five
acres, and mountain land was allotted. The Indians had been
looking forward to this since before the passage of the bill in
1890, but one may assume that White settlers had something to
do with the anxiety of the Indians for individual land holding,
since the first leases were negotiated soon afterwards.
About this time the agency as such was abolished. A
lieutenant of the United States Infantry was put in charge
until 1896, when the superintendent of the school took over.
At first, reports to Washington were that the Indians were
making good use of the land, and some continued to do so, but
in 1897 the stockmen were still grazing their cattle on the
reservation, and "if a witness against them could be neither
coaxed nor terrified into silence, he got a bullet, and the
local magistrate made a perfunctory investigation. Much of
the machinery issued to the Indians was allowed to rust. The
report adds, "In addition, there is no unity among the Indians,
due to petty tribal jealousies incident to the remnents of so
many different tribes living together. It is not remarkable
that progress is nil. They were suddenly released from re-
straints, discouraged by constant losses from the stock
raiders, drugged with adulterated whiskey they are so easily
led to swallow, debauched by idleness and dissipation, and
defrauded on every hand, they naturally tend to sink into the
vice and sloth of their ancient savage state"    (BIA Annual
Report, 1897, p. 121),
31
The first leases were negotiated in 1900, after the agent
reported that the fertile allotments were covered with shrubs
and needed draining, which the Indians had neither physical
nor financial means of doing, and suggested that lease money
could be applied to improving the land. He also pointed out
that the issuance of machinery, clothing, and subsistence only
kept the Indians in idleness. The land brought from $1.00 to
$2.00 per acre per year.
The end of these reservation land problems came in 1906,
when the agent reported that for the relinquished portion of
the reservation, for which the government virtually agreed in
1890 the Indians were to receive $50,000, the Indians had re-
ceived nothing, representing a loss, including interest and
principal to date, of $100,000. The superintendent said that
"the original bill would have defrauded the Indians of all re-
muneration for the land, and the bill as passed is a rank in-
justice to them"   (BIA, 1906, p. 210).
From here on the official reports from Round Valley are
almost entirely routine, the only transactions being in regard
to land leasing, heirship tangles, etc. In 1920 the trust
period ended for many of the allotments, and the land "melted
like snow off the mountain." Some was bought by Whites; more
was lost through non-payment of taxes or debts, through fraud
and "straight business deals." Once they had ready cash,
the Indians were singled out by high-pressure salesmen.
At about this time several of important recent developments
started--the Pentecostal Church and the action to bring to the
Court of Claims a suit for the value of the land and goods
promised to the California Indians in the "Lost Treaties."
In 1923 the Sacramento Indian Office took over control of what
was left of the Round Valley reservation, and only a doctor and
the school administration remained as residents. In recent
years the work of the agent and clerk has become a tremendous
correspondence with the Indians on all sorts of matters. A
land officer and school officer make trips to Round Valley and
the rancherias at intervals. The agent's report for 1936-7
includes the following recommendations
"I say with measured words that when the Federal Govern-
ment has equipped all of its wards with good houses located
either on excellent farming land or near a labor market as the
individual may desire the sooner the Federal Government gets
out of Indian affairs in California the better"    (BIA, 1936).
The results, then, of the contact of Americans with Indians
have been in the first place to wreck the economic and social
life of the Indians. The remnants of bands were placed on the
32
reservation under armed guard, given rations, and used as
laborers by the government employees and settlers. So rapid
was cultural breakdown, that by 1870 English was spoken to a
large extent, the Ghost Dance was spreading from the northeast,
and Powers was writing: "It is frequently hard work to scrape
away the debris created by the White Man during twenty years
and get down to the bedrock of tribal organization. The
California tribes crumble under the touch of the Paleface"
(Powers, 1877), Government officials had more subtle ways of
profiting from their positions, while settlers used more obvious
methods, but, according to a White woman who has lived in
Round Valley for many years, "Just because they were Indians,
White men, respectable men, cheated them and exploited them in
every way they could."
What was left of Indian attitudes and social customs
toward the end of the century came under the influence of the
semi-official Methodist Church and an inept school system, in
the form of non-physical attack on religious and sexual at-
titudes   (Addendum 5, Land of Sunshine, 1900),
Acculturation Process
Most of the damage to Indian culture was done before 1870,
and what remains exists only for a few old Indians who were
children in the 1850s and for even fewer in the next generation.
Some survivals, like the feasts to celebrate recovery from
illness and the wailing at funerals, are carried on mostly by
the old women, and even these are disappearing with the last
of the old-timers.
For survivals which are less obviously Indian than these,
difficulties of interpretation arise. It is often impossible
to decide whether a given trait is Indian in origin and happened
to last because it was in line with White culture or because
no White group had strong reasons to oppose it, or whether the
trait came from White culture in or near Round Valley.   For
generalizations even to approach. validity one should know the
White culture and history as well. Lacking that, I checked my
observations over long periods of time in official and un-
official capacities. It seems clear that whatever overt
manifestation of Indian life which remained after the first
crushing blows and was inconvenient for White settlers, was
rooted out.  Grass games went on in secret for a time, partly
because, although the church opposed them, White men attended
and bet on them.  Religious activities probably continued in
attenuated forms until, in recent years, they were again allowed
and sponsored by Whites. It was almost impossible for Indians
to carry on secret activities since there were always
33
Indians who, for various personal reasons, would carry tales
to the Whites.
Acceptance of New Culture Elements
The economy of the Whites, as it existed in early Cali-
fornia, had to be accepted by the Indians, whose experience
of it was as government dependents living on rations in exchange
for forced labor, or as peons. To what extent they accepted
White economic values is another question. Their education
was not calculated to encourage it. The special agent, Bailey,
wrote in 1858:s "Some few of them, it is true, are taught to
plough, to sow, to reap, to handle an axe and the like; but
they are not taught the use of this knowledge.  They learn the
thing, but not the reason for it, and therefore it makes no
permanent impression and leads to nothing. The Indian performs
his task because he is told to do it; he does it mechanically
and is no more improved by it than the ox he drives. They
are both educated by the same method, to about the same degree,
and with very nearly the same results; and even this education
is confined to a small number"   (BIA, 1858),
It was soon discovered that the Indians made excellent
shepherds, sheep-shearers, and fruit- and hop-pickers, and they
were employed as such. By association with Whites, and by
work on the ranches, they learned the techniques of agriculture,
but few have been able to apply their knowledge, and still
fewer successfully. Indian economic techniques have been used
to a very slight extent, and then only to supplement with game
and acorns the food allowance. It is not strange that what-
ever desire to provide for the future the old culture
stimulated has been lost without being replaced by the strong
urge for accumulation that the people of Covelo have.  The
Indians, recognizing this trait, consider White people selfish.
They observe how White people live, many of the women
having worked at house-cleaning, washing and cooking for White
families, and they imitate it as far as their poverty permits.
Various shades of Christian doctrine are represented on
the reservation. Catholic influence stems from the Spanish
and Mexican occupation of the country south of Round Valley,
and a visiting priest still comes to minister to the members.
The Methodist Church gained its adherents by virtue of being
the government religion in 1873, and having a church building,
and through several misconceptions. The first conversions
were in great numbers and the agent-preacher rejoiced that
"all pagan practices and habits have been abandoned"   (BIA,
1873), But observers saw little material basis for the
34
regeneration, and four years later, the Indians, failing to
get the land promised them, "are fast losing confidence in
promises and, as a fearful result, a reaction has taken place.
Scores are lost to the church- lost all their interest therein-
and I fear will be lost forever"   (BIA, 1877). The next agent
found that the "Babes in Christ had been 'fed' (starved) on
unsuitable food. As one of our Indians described it, 'Indians
all good Christians long as sugar-barrel not empty; but
bimeby sugar all gone, mos' all slide back"'   (BIA, 1878).
Church attendance was bolstered by old people who went for the
sake of a kindly pat on the back and a chance to talk to other
people. "They didn't know A from B, and they slept through
the sermons, but they went regularly and took their two bits
wrapped in a handkerchief," said one of my informants.
Marriage, a constant preoccupation of the missionaries,
if not of the Indians, was taken with as little understanding.
Several couples were "tied twice" in different denominations,
but marriage continued to follow the easy rules of Indian
custom. In 1895 old couples who had been living together for
years had legal marriages performed at the suggestion of the
officials to insure inheritance by their children.
Elimination of Old Culture Elements
In a general way, and tentatively, the old elements can
be arranged in order of their disappearance.
Independent economic life stopped short, but the gathering
of acorns still goes on. Venison and fish still supplement
the diet, but no more than in the diet of White people, and
probably less, since the Indians lack the price of a license
and take chances when they hunt and fish. Only one man still
uses a fishing spear.
Open tribal feuds were stopped by the soldiers in early
reservation days, but a few murders occurred. One, over a
suspected "poisoning," went unpunished. Several others ended
in prison terms. "Poisoning," or black magic, was prohibited
under threat of hanging, and the fear of betrayal must have put
a stop to it at once. Indians tried to use it against Whites,
but it did not work:  "They were too light."
Indian languages were among the first traits to be lost.
Very early, English was used for communication with other tribes,
and under compulsion by the Whites. In school Indian languages
were effectively discouraged. Now, many middle-aged people can
understand, but not speak, the aboriginal languages; very few,
if any, of the younger generation, can even understand them.
35
Boarding schools took most of them away from home during the
years when they might have learned something of old customs,
and even recently, within the last fifteen or twenty years,
children were forcibly prevented from using Indian expressions
or playing Indian games in the day school.
Chieftainship lasted by virtue of its informality. In the
beginning the Whites appointed "captains," men who spoke
English and could transmit the orders of the agents to their
people. The Indians had no objection to choices made by Whites
since the chief, even in the old days, had to be a fluent,
good-natured, peaceable man, the sort who best served the
purposes of both parties. The only case mentioned in which
difficulty arose was one in which the government farmer tried
to make Captain Bill, the Concow chief, work against his will
and habit. The farmer set fire to the sweathouse and Captain
Bill, without a word to anyone, saddled his horse and rode to
Paskenta, where he died. Several of the early "captains" were
Methodist preachers.  This also created no conflict.  Even
the Concow, whose chief was chosen by the "masons," found
this acceptable. "The Concow didn't mind, because it was
easier to talk to him if the White people made him a preacher."'
The last Concow "captain" died about six years ago. "The
agent appointed him and the people liked him. He told the
people what to do, and he went to the agent. He was good-
natured, quick speaking to anybody, conducts himself right.
People were all satisfied with him.  He died chief.  Now
everybody for themselves." One very intelligent Wailaki man
fits the old ideal, but I heard no mention of him as chief
until one of the former agents spoke of him as such.  Told
about it, he agreed, "Might as well be." He "looks out for"
his old people, is not easily angered, hauls wood and does odd
jobs for other Indians, digs graves, and makes himself generally
and unobtrusively useful. At present, one of the younger
councilmen is said to be the leader of the reservation, who
keeps petty bickering in check, and is trusted by Whites and
Indians. None of the Indians spoke to me about him, but he
identifies himself with them and does everything he can to
improve their conditions. Many of his relatives are said to
depend on him. He uses his education in behalf of the Indians,
leading the council, writing to investigation committees, etc.
-Ceremonials lasted for a long while, almost to the present,
but it is difficult to determine at what point they became a
performance put on for the benefit of the Whites and with
their contributions. When they did take place, however, the
old Indians seem to have kept the aboriginal attitude toward
them, continuing to believe in the spirits and making the
necessary arrangements to do the thing properly.  Even before
36
1872 the sweathouses in the Clear Lake region had been burned
by Whites or fallen into disuse. Feather dances have been
made part of the Fourth of July celebrations in Round Valley,
but the last one is described as a pathetic affair, with an
old, blind, half-Concow man beating time with the split-
stick, the dancers wearing feather coats with suspender
straps, and only a few young men showing verve in dancing. A
half-hearted attempt to have a feather dance last summer fell
through when the Whites who had promised to raise money for the
affair (money is essential for the spirits) backed out. To
prevent disaster, the Indians (mostly Concow, it seems) gave
a "lunch" so that the spirits would not cause disaster to fall
on them. The complete loss of ceremonials now is due to the
dying off of the old people, the lack of interest of the
young, the need for financial support, and the existence of
the Pentecostal Church which this year held a revival on the
Fourth of July. About ten years ago there was a sweathouse in
Round Valley.  Today there is none.
Shamanism, in its social and political function, was
destroyed almost at the first contact, but as a curing mechanism
it continued. It still supplements White medicine, to which
from the first the Indians responded well. It is claimed that
Indian doctors have cured patients that White doctors gave up,
and some White people employ Indian doctors. There is none in
the valley now, but a Concow couple practised here until a
few years ago, and occasionally an Indian doctor visits or is
called in.
To a large extent the curing function has been taken over
by the Pentecostal Church. From the beginning the Indians felt
that White doctors could cure White diseases, like venereal
disease, but they realized that, like Indian doctors, "some-
times they can cure it, sometimes they can't." The early
government doctors could hardly have inspired much confidence
and the hospitals in Willits and Ukiah, overcrowded and under-
staffed, do not encourage Indians to enter. However, the
Indians are considered by government doctors to be more re-
sponsive to health campaigns, vaccination, etc., than the Whites.
Certain aspects of life in Round Valley might as easily
be the results of White influence as survivals of Indian
customs.  "Lots of things here are the same ruling as the
Indians got, from what they tell me," said a Wailaki who has
observed White people carefully, and in several conversations
he gave as examples of typical Indian personalities White men
he knew.
At the same time, there are important obligations which
are definitely aboriginal. Kin feeling is strong, and in
37
several cases men with moderate incomes are imposed on (from
the White point of view) by relatives. However, since re-
ciprocity no longer functions, the obligation works hardship
on the ones who live up to. it.  Even the Wailaki "chief" ad-
mitted that he is "getting meaner" because he gets no return
for the things he does, and he can no longer afford, since he
is unemployed, to do things for nothing. Stinginess is gossiped
about, though it does not stop some people from being stingy,
any more than it did in the old days, when "some were mean and
some were good." Another social situation which stems from
Indian custom is the easy treatment of children, and the tend-
ency of grandparents especially to give them their own way.
The result, now that there are no solid groups, is that gossip
and censure have no power over them, especially since the
younger people have been taught by the school system to have
no respect for old customs or old people who still use them,
and many of them show a complete lack of control.
The Indians recognize the loss of their culture.  The old
Concow who was chief when his people were brought to the re-
servation is quoted as having said, "My past is dead; the
present is passing; and I have no future"   (Tassin, 1884, p. 7),
An old Lassik woman who was a child when her band was wiped
out, says often and sadly, "Halfway I learned it, White people
came and broke it up." One experienced anthropological in-
formant cannot understand why White men destroyed Indian life
and now come to ask questions about it. White people who know
the valley and the people speak of them as "a few old Indians
and the rest disgruntled Whites."
Organized opposition to the Whites was almost impossible.
The battles in which Yuki and Wailaki fought were usually
forced upon them.  One exception was the story of Bloody Rock
(Powers, 1872, V. 9, p. 310; Addendum 4B). Murders of isolated
White men occurred, when it was fairly safe or when provocation
was intense. On the reservation five or six Yuki were hanged
for planning the "last uprising" in 1863, but the circumstances
surrounding the situation suggest that the "plot" may have been
imaginary. Punishment followed so quickly that the facts never
came out   (See Addendum 4B. ).
Later, the buildings of the Indian school were twice
burned down by boys, who, according to the Indians, "were tired
of school." Covelo Whites still offer this as proof of the
worthlessness of Indians s "Give them education and see what
they do." Several factors may account for the arson, though
they are still unclear. Children were forcibly taken from
their homes to what the Indians considered a pesthouse;
punishment took the form of beatings with "blacksnakes," and
"certain parties told the older boys the agent had no right to
38
keep them there." Later, the report of the principal teacher
was that the robberies in 1895 were instigated by the White
fathers of the half-Indian boys who carried them out and that
punishment of these thefts involved the agency and the school
and the lives of the employees were threatened (BIA, 1895, p.
137), Feelings had never been good between settlers and school
or settlers and agency.
The only nativistic movement recorded was the ghost dance
of 1871-2,* which Professor Kroeber analyzes in the Handbook
of California Indians.  "The ghost dance of 1871-4 had the same
rituals and the same ideas as that of 1889-90, which touched
hardly any California tribes. They were immune to the second,
but why the second spread a thousand miles to the east and the
first made no progress, can be explained only by the fact that
in 1870 most of the Indian tribes had not been reduced to the
necessary condition of cultural decay for revivalistic in-
fluence to impress them. That is, the native civilization of
Northern California appears to have suffered as great a
disintegration by 1870, twenty or twenty-five years after its
first serious contacts with the Whites, as the average tribe
of central United States had undergone by 1890, or from fifty
to one hundred years after similar contact began. In the Plains
it was the destruction of the buffalo, in California, the gold
rush, and in each case, ten or twenty years after the death
blow, realization of the change was great enough to provide
soil for doctrine of restoration"   (Kroeber, 1917, p. 868;
1904, pp. 32-35),
Reactions varied among tribes differently situated--
some were enthusiastic, some aloof, and Dr. Kroeber expected
intensive study to show that the skeptics were so situated
that they did not consider the old life irrevocably gone. Many
of the northern tribes show no traces of the dance, but the Pomo
and Wintun, who had felt the effects of Mexican settlement and
missions, felt the influence of the new religion.
The following is Mooney's description of the origin of the
first ghost dances The original Messiah was the father, or an
older relative of Jack Wilson (Wovoka) who started the second
and widespread dance. The older man, Tavibo (White Man),
lived in Mason Valley. He was a Paiute, and when the White
man came, he went into the mountains, met the great spirit,
and came down with a revelation. He was told that an earth-
quake would swallow the Whites, but leave their improvements
for the use of the Indians. Many were sceptics, and his second
*
Dr. Cora DuBois' manuscript on The Ghost Dance in Northern
California unfortunately was unavailable in 1937.
39
revelation was that Indians and Whites would be destroyed, but
the Indians would be resurrected in the flesh. This belief
was popular, but it wore off. Finally the divine spirit,
angry at the lack of belief, decided that the unbelieving
Indians would be damned along with the Whites   (Mooney, 1892,
Pt. 2, p. 701ff.).
Dr. Spier points out that it went with speed and re-
vivalistic effect in northern California, as the 1890 dances
did to the east, but it was not inflammatorys "The California
Indians were doubtless too well aware of their own impotence"
(Spier, 1927, pp. 39-56).
At Round Valley "a report was circulated among all the
Indians of this part of the State, the substance of which was
that the world would end in the ensuing August, and that they
need do nothing but dance, and so prepare themselves for a
transfer to the 'happy hunting grounds.' They evinced their
faith in the report by refusing to make any provision for their
support after the set time, neglecting their gardens, both on
and off the reservation, and only worked either to supply
present necessities or as they were required to do so.  No
reasoning availed anything with them, and the result is that
they have no produce of their own. Many of them see the folly
of their course, and will not be apt to again throw away their
prospects for a crop on the strength of an idle rumor"   (BIA
Annual Report, 1872)
The place nearest to Round Valley for which there is a
description of the dance was Clear Lake, from which, shortly
after the dance and perhaps because of it, many Pomo were taken
to Round Valley. "Shamans were brought from Grand Island on
the Sacramento River, and the Indians from the whole region,
even as far west as the coast assembled here to celebrate this
ceremony and await the end of the world which was expected
immediately. They are said by the Whites to have numbered up-
wards of three or four thousand in all, and the celebration in
this place lasted nearly a year"   (Barrett, 1908).
A gathering of this size, from so large an area, indicates
how completely tribal separation had broken down. This is the
way Powers described its "About that time, the Lone Pine
earthquake occurred, and the prophets dreamed of another which
would destroy the Whites, and the Indians would flee to Clear
Lake to escape the dies irae. There was scarcity everywhere.
Hundreds flocked to the lake. The coming earthquake was vague,
but fishing and dancing were rare good sport, and 'apprenticed'
Indians came with passes. Week after week slipped by, the
time for planting passed, Whites were afraid and some banded
together and chased them"   (Powers, 1877, pp. 204ff. ).
40
According to George Foster, who let me see the field note
he was taking in Covelo, Santiago of Stonyford, a southeaster
Pomo, brought the "bole" dance (the ghost dance of 1870, or a
revival under its influence) to the Yuki. The people who join
were told that they would meet their parents; White people
would be subject to the Indians, who would get power to turn
them out.  "We're going to have plenty of money." Santiago
told them that whenever he smoked and cleaned his pipe, four
bits fell out. The return of the dead had been an element of
the old ghost religion as well as of the 1870 dance.
In the revivals that occurred every once in a while, the
dead came to the living in dreams to tell them to dance. Among
the Pomo the priests of the new religion (Maru) got their power
through dreams.  Certain elements of the old cults, like the
foot-drum and dance-houses, were carried on and spread by the
new wave of dancing. The "dream dance" continued until about
twenty years ago among the Wintun.
The only material on dances in Round Valley since 1870 is
from a Concow Maidu woman whose dead husband and uncle came
to her in a dream (she was one of those who dreamed frequently
when she was young, but rejected doctoring power. ) and told
her that the people had forgotten to dance the "Big-Head."
"Why it came to me I don't know."  She told about the dream
and the next night they had a dance. Another dance took place
after her aunt had a dream in which a brother showed her a
dance in heaven and gave her the song and costumes. She became
ill, and recovered only after she had overcome her reluctance
and had preparations made for the dance. "I saw my brother in
heaven. He said I was in time to see a big dance. ... No
masons now, old gone. Dream keeps coming, all I got to do is
fulfill it." The song as paraphrased by her niece went like
this:s
"This is the way we dance
In this here white-geese-feathered-sweat-house.
This is the way we dance and we want you to face north
and dance.
And we're angels from heaven dancing and this is the
way we dance."
The Pentecostal Church serves, for a few old people at
least, very much the same purpose as the Ghost Dance, and has
similar concepts.  But here again it is difficult to determine
how much came from White culture.  Even the idea that the end
of the world is imminent is as important in the White Pente-
costal religion, (and slightly less important in the Methodist
and other Christian denominations) as it is on the reservation.
But the Indians speak of it as the "Indian Church." Not only
41
has it taken a central role in the social and religious life of
the group, poor though that may be, but it resembles shamanism
in several important respects. Experience of God comes in
dreams, the preachers doctor with song and with laying on of
hands, there is talking in tongues, which resembles the speech
of the spirits, and there is trance and vision experience.
There were no opportunities for me to watch the services, but
from descriptions given by Indians and Whites, the Pentecostal
Church is revivalistic in its patterns of ritual, and in the
fact that the Whites and unbelieving Indians are excluded from
the glories of heaven. It will be discussed below as a feature
of the present community.
Chances in AccePted and Retained Elements
If the elements of White culture accepted by the Indians
have been changed, only long and intimate knowledge of both
cultures would make it apparent. The same holds for retained
elements. Some of them can be isolated, but whether and how
they differ from the old customs is almost impossible to say.
It was difficult to get definite and specific information in
1870, and few present informants can be trusted, because of the
seriousness with which they take Christianity, and the conscious
effort many of them make to equate old myths to Bible stories,
and old customs to new. From the fact that there are still
aboriginal religious beliefs held by the most ardent Christians,
it seems that they have been very little, if at all, integrated
with White beliefs, and even the Methodist exhorter who says
he cannot serve two masters, obviously believes in the old tabus
whether he admits it or not. Where current feeling coincides
with past, observant informants are quick to point out that
"White people have the same ruling that Indians used to have"
(particularly in regard to being kind to people so they will
like you, which is now expressed in the golden rule and
brotherly love).  Old Indians often remark that the young people
"go by White ruling."
Only among the old people are there indisputably Indian
customs and beliefs. A White woman who knows the Wailaki well,
and is on the alert for signs of their background, quotes the
Indians as sayings "It is easier to make an Indian out of a
White man than a White man out of an Indian."  The veneer of
White culture, she says, is thin, and sometimes, under stress,
the "true wood" shows through. However, she admits that this
is infrequent, and gives as evidence three examples s wailing
at a death, remnants of ceremonies, and obligations to one's
relatives. The first two have by now almost disappeared,
recent ceremonies showing a mixture of elements from different
tribes. Obligations to relatives are increasingly difficult to
carry out, and neglected by the majority of young people.
42
Among the old Indians, the Wailaki seem inclined to be
more self-respecting, independent in spirit, observant and aware
of themselves and their problems than the Concow, who are in-
clined to fawn. This fits nicely with what we know of the re-
ported character of the two tribes, but it is hard to generalize
from limited observations my own observations were obtained
from only three old people of each tribe, and two of the Concow
were half-White. Also, even were the generalization to be
established, it would be necessary to take into account the
different histories of the two tribes. The Wailaki were af-
fected by a sparse immigration of pioneers, and allowed to stay
near their old homes, whereas the Concow were hit by the gold
rush and transplanted across the mountains to a valley of
hostile Whites and Indians.
As for the younger people, there are no traits that anyone,
Indian or White, points to as being "Indian," much less as
stemming from tribal affiliations. The decision of the Indian
Office to call these "The Consolidated Round Valley Indians"
(it was to be expected in view of the amount of genetic mixture)
is significant, because the senior clerk at the Sacramento
office, who has worked here some seventeen years, and knows
almost all the Indians in the jurisdiction personally, feels,
like many others, that the younger people are practically "poor
Whites." Professor Kroeber finds Round Valley depressing
because the Indians live neither in the past nor in the present.
The covert grudges, the undercurrent of hostilities which
is expressed mostly in gossip, the informal leadership, and
even, to a slight extent, kin solidarity, can be understood as
a reflection of Covelo and the result of its influence, as
readily as they can be referred to Indian life. Since the
Whites were able to destroy anything they opposed in Indian
customs, we may assume that the implicit sanction of the Whites
(and, in some cases, their encouragement) was at least as sig-
nificant in determining the present picture as the tendency
of old attitudes to linger after the functioning culture of
which they were a part had been destroyed.
Economic obligations to relatives which are retained to
some extent, conflict with White economic drives, and even with
the need to keep one's head above water. Some children, it is
said, stay with their parents only to take advantage of old-
age pensions or relief allowances, and one hard-working young
man is impoverished by the relatives who come to be supported.
Since there is no sanction for reciprocity, one who follows
the custom is constantly at a disadvantage. This custom and a
certain naivete toward economic manipulations account to some ex-
tent for the fact that the few estates that were built up before
deeds were given for the land were dissipated. One old lady
43
ran through some $40,000, her relatives staying with her "as
long as the money lasted and the automobile went."
Marriage, or the lack of legal marriage, is probably not
very different from the old pattern of brittle monogamy, but
it is said that the Indians learned from the first Whites
"how to throw their women around."  Informants tend to idealize
the past in this respect. In all phases of life, however, the
information that can be collected, necessarily through gossip
and reconstruction, is always colored by the close association
of Indians with Whites. Especially where recent events are in-
volved, "you never know to how many White men an Indian has
talked" said a former agent, and it is clear that the White
men are involved in every situation which they think may be
turned to advantage.
Changes in Attitudes toward White and Aboriginal Cultures
In the nature of the case, no gradual development can be
traced, but the historical material indicates that the present
attitudes are very much what they were soon after the first
impact. In any case, the present situation is clear enough,
though the attitudes may be contradictory.
The idealization of old social relationships is justified
in that they were coordinated with economic realities as they
are not now. Obligations were reciprocal and the band was the
important functioning unit of society. Undoubtedly children
could be kept in line with "talking to them," and wives may
have been more faithful. However, the prestige of White cul-
ture was accepted at the beginning and is still felt strongly
by the old people.  Expert basketmakers show you, not their
baskets, but their patchwork quilts to be admired.  Methodists,
Pentecostalists and even Catholics tell the old stories with
conscious Christianization. Jesus, in one story, lived in Big
Valley, in Pomno Country, and ascended to heaven from the top of
Uncle Sam Mountain. They repeat with vigor that the Re-
organization Act will make the Indians "sit on the floor and
eat acorn soup."  At the same time they keep the old tabus as
far as they can, and deplore the "White ways," "educational
ways" of the younger generation.
Young people have had no direct experience of Indian cul-
ture except in a few superficial forms like the feather dance
and grass game, have been carefully discouraged from having
respect for it, and when questioned most of them plead ignorance.
One thirty-five-year-old woman knows something about it, be-
cause she was ill with tuberculosis for four years and stayed
home instead of going away to boarding school when she was a
44
little girl.  She is the only young woman who can make baskets.
At the same time, she is more nearly "White" than many others
in her housekeeping and the fact is that she and her husband
are self-supporting and independent. Whether and how this is
related to her upbringing, I cannot say. Many young people,
having traveled considerable distances from Round Valley, know
that the prejudice against Indian blood is less outside, and
that beyond the three counties (Mendocino, Lake, and Sonoma)
it is by comparison non-existent. They resent Covelo, and many
want only to leave the valley permanently. Old Indians and
Whites speak very badly of the young mixed-blood group. The
Whites, according to one of the Indian Service men who visits
the valley frequently, resent the aggressiveness of young
Indians who, through their education, are better able to defend
themselves than their grandparents were.
There is general resentment against the Indian woman who
has had outstanding economic success. She is aggressive and
boisterous, albeit good-hearted, and anxious to improve the
condition of the Indians. Indian reaction may be not simply
to one who has "gone White" (White observers, never Indians,
used the word, for Indians never gave a reason for their
hostility), but rather to one who has succeeded in it where
most have failed.
Chances in the Value System
In the value system there was no opportunity, even had it
been logically possible, for aboriginal attitudes to be
modified in the direction of White. There is either retention
of the old or acceptance of the new, or both, with attendant
contradictions.
( Aboriginally, even the Wailaki, nearest geographically and
culturally to the Northwest Coast, although they traded in
bearskins and shell and magnesite "money," did not manipulate
property for prestige purposes, but felt that wealth consisted
rather in useful objects, in having the things one needed to
live and work.  Broadly, such things evaluated in terms of the
labor put into them and their scarcity. Property was given to
a chief "so he could be proud" (Maidu) but it was also, and
mainly, given so he could help his people if they needed any-
thing, and so that he could properly receive visitors.
(Personal property was buried or burned with the deceased, for
supernatural and emotional reasons.)
Shortly after White objects came into the hands of the
Indians, they used them as they had their own goods. Coins
and gold pieces were put into the eyes and mouth of the dead,
45
and at a Pomo burial that Powers saw, household objects like
old cruets and whiskey bottles were thrown into the grave.
Maidu "burnings," at which comparatively little property was
destroyed in aboriginal times, became lavish; coats, hats,
shirts, and baskets were piled up and hung on the posts.
However, valuable objects were usually traded just before the
actual conflagration (Loeb, 1933, pp. 139-232), or auctioned
off, frequently to Whites.  The last "burning" which took place
at Round Valley in 1882 has not been described. Even now,
gifts of money seem to take the place of the old food sharing.
The Indians know that White men stress accumulation. One
of them said, "A White man isn't satisfied unless he has a
pocket full of money." An unusual man who knew a great deal
about the old life and tried consciously to adjust himself to
White standards, solved his problem by avoiding his "old folks"
sometimes so that he would not have to do them favors. He
stopped giving his wife money because she gave it to her re-
latives, which he could ill afford. He has worked all his life.
Now he is over sixty and cannot get work from the farmers. They
tell him he is too old for relief work, but when he asks for
old-age pension, they say he is too young. He has no proof of
his age. He says, "Early days we can get a job any place. If
I knew what was coming, I could have had money in the bank.
A man never learns 'til he gets too old. We should save money
like White man." But even he has not learned how to make
money at someone else's expense. Out of friendship, he sold
me a feather basket at what it had cost him though he could
easily have tripled the price. An old Lassik woman still
talks about the "old, no-account" basket she sold for $35. She
cannot understand why anyone should offer so much for a torn
basket that was of no use to anyone. The feeling is strong
that White attitudes are "stingy." However, there are some
old Indians who are "tight" too, and there were a few in the
old days as well.
The Present Community
The White town of Covelo is in the middle of Round Valley,
which has a radius of about three miles.  Highways (dirt roads
that follow the old Indian trails over the summits and along
the crests of the ridges) lead north to Eureka, east to Willows,
Paskenta and the Sacramento Valley, and west to Dos Rios on
the railroad and to Laytonville on the Redwood Highway.  There
are three general stores, three service stations a hotel, pool-
room and saloon, two churches, an electric plant and a school.
The houses are rather close together in town, but scatter out
beyond it. Several White families have homes on what was once
the reservation, in the northern part of the valley. At the
46
southern end is the hop ranch, owned by one of the largest
land companies in the state. The important occupation is cattle
raising. It is said by Whites that the people in town are much
wealthier than they look. "They don't go around in fancy cars,
but they own as good sheep as any in California, and have fine
bands of Hereford cattle."  A group of three men is said to
set wages and prices. One of the Indians feels that "the only
really wealthy people in town are the shopkeepers.
A survey made in 1934 for the Senate Committee on Indian
Affairs (Senate, 1934) by a group including Dr. IcGregor, Mr.
Sidney J. Thomas, Mr. Gene Stirling, et al., in regard to
economic conditions in Round Valley reports s
"The agricultural land is good enough in quality to yield
two to three cuttings of alfalfa per year without irrigation,
and oats do equally well. The growing season is from 100 to
150 days, with an annual rainfall of well over 30 inches....
The range looked fair to good." It is said that the topography
is such that grazing can go on all year round. If the winter
rains start early enough to start the fresh grass in October,
there is no problem of feeding the stock all winter.
"Covelo is 28 miles from Laytonville, and 14 miles from
Dos Rios.  In the winter these roads are practically impas-
sable, and hazardous at all times. Due to this seclusion from
outside market facilities, the local Whites have developed their
activities on the basis of self-sufficiency and selling only
their surplus. Nearly all have livestock, milk cows, garden,
a few fruit trees, and their agricultural lands planted with
supplementary food for livestock, alfalfa, oats, corn, and
some sudan. For pasture, the Whites have purchased some lands,
lease some, and just use some more- usually Indian lands.
"As on other reservations, but here possibly a great deal
worse, trespass, checkerboarding and strong arm stealing is
reputed to be in full sway.
"The isolation of the area has enabled such practices to
develop and continue for many years. I do not doubt in the
least, but have no proof, that such a White economy as there
is here was established first by land-grabbing from Indian
owners, then by a great deal of free pasturage on Indian owned
range."
The historical proof has been presented above.
In the White social scheme, the Baptist and Methodist
Churches and the Women's Improvement Club of Covelo are the
centers, and anyone who does not participate in their activities
47
is suspect; one hears very negative comments about the few
Catholics. So close are Church and State that school teachers
are expected to teach in Sunday school. In the Club, the more
prosperous women get together in a sort of caste system. The
Church creates a holier-than-thou feeling, and the Baptists,
especially, heap hell-fire and damnation on heretics. In re-
lation to the Indians, it is said, White people keep up just
enough show of friendliness to make "indian buck Indian for
the benefit of the Whites."
In 1874 a citizen of Covelo, answering the charges that
had already been leveled at the land speculators, wrote to a
newspaper that he would speak for the "much-abused community,"
and Covelo still feels itself to be an injured community.
There is special resentment against outsiders who show a
sympathetic interest in the Indians. Doctors, social workers,
Indian service officers, anthropologists, and the few residents
whose interests are not bounded by the foothills, all find life
in Covelo difficult. The feeling of the Townspeople is that
these people are betraying Covelo and White society s They
are "White people who go up to the reservation to agitate the
Indians."
The number and variety of rationalizations for the way
the Indians have been treated is surprising. Few White people
will admit that the Indians have suffered. On the contrary,
everything has been for their good. The mildest remark I
heard on the subject was   "The Indians are all right - in
their place. .. They wanted to sell the land, and it's not the
White people's fault for wanting it. ... The Indians never did
anything with the land anyway. ... They need mountain land,
it's better than valley land for them. Let the government re-
stock the mountains for them."
In the preliminary write-up of the current report (BIA,
1937), these personal impressions appear:  "This little com-
munity is narrowness exemplified. The geographical setup was
perfect for renegade Whites in the early days. The topography
until very recently has barred outside interest or interference.
The government has always been easy pickings and so have the
Indians for anyone so inclined. ... The Whites have not only
gained the best and upper hand, but will resent any sort of in-
terference with their locally developed social or economic code.
As I was born in, and spent many years in other similar small
communities, it is easy for me to understand the depth of
feeling, the lengths to which these people will go, and the
methods they will use in maintaining their bigoted little
kingdom.
48
"They oppose Indians' doing WPA or other relief work as it
upsets their old labor system as well as raising the scale of
wages.  It also spoils their grip on the situation.
"They oppose expansion of Indian farming as it knocks them
out of cheap leasing and would force the local market down; the
market is limited in this valley, and no mistake.
"They would not like to have the Indians' pasture fenced
and manned by rangers as the price of lease would go up. This
action might even break some of the larger operators.
"In fact I believe they would oppose anything for the
Indians that they could not control thoroughly and possibly
make a little out of in some way or other.
"The act of 1934 stopped these Whites from finishing what
they started, and the Indians still have a foothold that should
be maintained or else it will be back in the mountains for
them in a very short while."
Direct interference in Indian affairs occurs, especially
in the school, which is a regular state elementary school
covering a territory in which some Whites now live. White
votes influence the election of trustees, Whites sell wood to
the school, Whites drive the buses, etc. However, where
funding is concerned, the reservation school suffers in com-
parison with the town (White) school.
A less direct, but more dangerous interference by Whites
is the creation of opinions among the Indians which may be ob-
jectively harmful to them. Recently, this has taken the form
of telling the Indians that the Reorganization Act will make
them wards of the government, "You're just as good as anyone
else.  You can go anywhere, buy anything."
Population Trends
It is difficult to get a clear idea of the native population
on the Round Valley Reservation because of much moving around,
and the fact that some 300 work out of the valley and come home
irregularly. About 400 are permanently within a twenty-mile
radius. The most recent Indian Office census lists 839, of
all degrees of blood. On the whole, the figures since 1900
rise rapidly, but much of this may be due to the return to the
valley after patents for the land were issued, of Indians who
had left, married, had families elsewhere, and brought them
back to share in an inheritance. In 1918 there were 641 Indians
listed; in 1925, 830.
49
There are no vital statistics since 1914, but the death
rate is high. Every year there is a flu and pneumonia epidemic
on the reservation. There were eleven deaths between July,
1937, and March, 1938s two infants, one old man (stroke),
three women (two of intestinal disorders, one abortion), one
case of tuberculosis; four pneumonia.
There are no statistics for births, but the county nurse
says that although there is much sterility among rancheria
Indians, Covelo Indians are rather fertile- several women have
large families. There were two births between July and November,
and three or four are expected soon (March, 1938).
Racial and tribal mixture has gone on to such an extent
that it is impossible to establish the actual amount of White
blood or Indian blood. Of 378 individuals, the census shows
the following distributions:
Full blood . . . . 78
7/8  . ?  . . . . 22
3/4  . . . . . . 57
5/8  .    .  . . . .13
9/16 .     . . . . . 9
1/2  . . . . . .122
3/8  . . . . . . 19
1/4  . . . . . . 32
3/16 . . . . . . 9
1/16  .  .  .   .   .  .  1
1/32 .   . . . .  9
0 (White) . . . 7
378
"Even these figures are by no means correct; ... a drop of a
quarter in each category would be much nearer correct," the
survey states.
Health conditions, obviously, are bad. There is a govern-
ment doctor in the valley to treat non-citizens without charge.
He is paid by the government, about $125.00 a month. He is
there, usually, as the only resident physician for White
patients, too. However, there are intervals of several months
between the time one physician, disgusted with having to treat
the Whites practically free of charge (one is said to have been
almost literally starved out, his White patients refusing even
to pay him in chickens or garden produce), leaves, and a suc-
cessor can be prevailed upon to replace him. The nearest
hospital is in Willits, about forty miles away over the
mountain roads. This, and the Ukiah hospital, are understaffed,
overcrowded, and have records of losing patients. A hon-ward
Indian, who will probably not have enough money to recover in
50
the hospital, might as well spare himself the two trips. The
result is usually the same anyway. The Indians are subject
especially to respiratory infections, and to diseases for which
there is no specific, since their resistance is low. There is
a considerable amount of tuberculosis in a valley where the
Whites have little and the cattle almost none. Syphilis is
politely called tuberculosis. However, the Indians have less
venereal disease than Whites of the same economic class ac-
cording to the county nurse, and the greatest incidence of
gonorrhea is at hop-picking time, when Indians are in close
contact with poor Whites.  There is no resident dentist.   A
visiting dentist from Petaluma extracts teeth for the Indians
without anesthetic: One man had eight extractions at one
sitting.
Economic Conditions
There is some independent economic activity on the part of
Indians; there was probably more before the patents were given
for the land, and still more before the allotments.   However,
leasing has been going on since the beginning of the century,
and few Indians work their own land. The allotments (ten
acres of valley land and fifty of mountain, or five and sixty,
or none and seventy) were not economic units.   Estimates are
that twenty acres of valley land would keep someone "if he knew
how to take care of it," and twenty acres of mountain land will
support one animal. The Indian Office estimates that twenty-
five acres is a workable unit.
There have been several causes for the lack of farming.
The initial success in training and "civilizing" the Indians
is mostly on paper. Afterwards, some Indians learned to farm
by working for Whites, and some used their allotments. As a
rule, however, the smallness of the plots, the difficulty of
getting teams, machinery or credit, and the heirship tangles,
made it simpler to lease the land. The only Indians who were
trained to farm were those who went to school at Riverside,
California, where they were taught citrus farming, useless here.
It seems hardly necessary to invoke Indian background as an
explanation, except that Indians had no psychological need to
accumulate property, and certainly no motive was given them
strong enough to survive in the face of the obstacles. The
Indians have never acquired the feeling, which many Whites
have, that heavy manual labor is the most important thing in
life. It is impossible to be sure that the Indians would have
accepted agriculture wholeheartedly had there been no barriers,
but it is reported that Pomo women learned to garden very early,
sitting on the ground and softening the earth with their hands,
a method which was long and laborious, but gave excellent
51
results. By now, most houses in Round Valley have at least
small gardens.
After the patents were issued, the land was lost "like
snow melting off the mountain. The Whites got it by default,
through frauds, and straight business deals." It seems to have
been a policy of the Whites to avoid buying outright if they
could possibly help it. It was preferable to involve an Indian
in debt. Recently, the Reorganization Act prevents sale. At
present the same disabilities operate against the Indians as in
the past; no credit, no terms; even if the land were worked,
the value of garden-produce in town (due partly at least to
price-fixing) is so low that it is not worthwhile to carry it
in.
Ninety percent of Indian-owned land is leased, at good
rates. However, leasing has been pretty well controlled by the
Whites, who agree among themselves in advance on the bidding,
and who are reportedly unhappy with the present alert Indian
administration.
Many Indians are excellent cattlemen. They worked as
vaqueros, shepherds, and sheep-shearers in the earliest con-
tacts, and there was a herd of individually owned animals
grazing on the tribal land until one of the agents sold it.
A member of the Soil Conservation Service who worked with the
recent survey group, writes, "The range allotments have had
about the same history as the valley allotments. In other
words, a majority of them have been sold so that there no
longer exists any continuous stretch of range land. This has
made it impossible to control grazing on the Indian lands.
Many of the Indians sold their mountain allotments because they
could make no use of them, or because the Whites virtually ran
them off their own property. The present situation is that the
Indian range land is being continually trespassed upon by
White cattlemen."
After the land started to be sold, White neighbors made it
difficult for Indians to garden or to keep cattle. One Indian
explained that once he tried to raise turkeys and stock, but
his neighbor refused to fix the fence - laughed when his stock
got into the Indian's land, but waited for him to get home from
work in the evening to complain when the reverse happened.
"This is my home.  I want to live here peaceable," so he gave
up his stock, and now owns just three horses and some chickens.
"White people are friends of the Indians only when they have
nothing."
The survey summary continues s "Quite a few subsistence
gardens are grown here, and a number of families have
52
chickens, pigs, and a few head of livestock. Several farm
their own places and three families even lease other Indian
land for agricultural purposes. Even our investigators were
able to find $3,341.00 income last year from the sale of farm
produce. Livestock brought in $1,173.27 and probably triple
that, not counting those butchered and consumed at home....
The Indian often sells a cow, sheep, or pig when he needs a
little cash. The local people buy these at about one-half
the market price outside of the valley; the same principle holds
for the sale of hay, and the Whites often sell it back at twice
the purchase price." The wife of a White cattleman judged the
selling price to be about one quarter of the value. Poor Whites
suffer like the Indians because they cannot sell in large enough
quantities to ship cattle out of the valley or have feed sent
in. All goods are very expensive when bought in small quantities
The local butcher pays almost nothing for meat but sells it high.
The Indians are sometimes cheated by White men who take
pride in driving a shrewd bargain, or giving handfuls of change
for an animal worth twice what they give. And it is said that
if a White man does not succeed in fooling the Indian, he will
boast that he did just the same.
The survey found an average cash income of $634.85 per
subsistence group of 5.6 persons. This seems high, in view
of the living conditions and the great number of families on
relief. However, in 1934, the WPA and later old-age pensions,
increased cash income. Lease money averages $20 per acre for
pasturage and $2.16 per acre for valley land. No figure was
established for the supplementary hunting and fishing which
Whites and Indians do. There is a short hunting season.   For
this reason and because of the cost of a license, probably
most hunting on the part of the Indians is illegal, though it
is seldom punished.
About half of the income of Indians is from wages. They
take wage-labor whenever they can get it, working on the hop-
ranch in the valley, cutting and threshing hay on local ranches.
"The usual practice is for the White farmer to plow the
Indian's field for him in return for labor in hay-cutting
season." As a rule, Indians are given the heaviest work, such
as cutting wood, and those who have other skills seldom use
them. Reportedly, Indians are paid less than Whites for the
same labor. At fruit- and hop-picking, Indians are preferred
labor. They are paid by the piece, and slow, "clean" pickers
are valued. During the summer they follow the crops (hops,
cherries, beans, grapes, pears, prunes). The whole family
goes, making a social occasion of the camping, and school never-
opens before October when the children start coming back.
53
Labor is completely unorganized. There was an attempt of
organizers to get into Ukiah, where many Covelo Indians work,
with the result that vigilantes were called out. During hop-
picking in Round Valley last summer for the first time the
gates were closed at 8 p.m. though there was not an organizer
for miles.
Credit was always a problem for the Indians. They used to
be able to run up bills of from $75 to $100 for food and pay
them off in the summer. Now only one store gives them credit to
the extent of $10 a month. The Indians pay in hay, animals,
etc. Only one farmer gives the Indians food in the winter.
The Indians work for him at low wages and pay well for what he
advances to them, but they "think he's it." Despite the cur-
rent opinion that Indians are unreliable, there are some Indians
who are given credit in preference to some Whites, and there is
a rather common White custom of running up bills with no notion
of ever paying them.
Living conditions vary, but the survey found about one
third of the houses to be ramshackle shanties. About half
have inadequate clothing and bedding. The houses are warmed
with wood-stoves, often in a very dangerous condition, and the
walls are lined with newspapers or cardboard. Some are very
clean, some are dirty. There are big gentle dogs and families
of skinny cats. Most families have a sewing-machine and big
family portraits in heavy gilt frames, purchased after the land
sales. The government has built a "rancheria" of houses with
modern conveniences, but the Indians prefer houses on their
own land and argue that living so close together breeds
quarrels.
"Relief" or "welfare" for the Indians is opposed by Whites.
Even one of the more sympathetic White women said they do not
feel that the county should be responsible for Indians since
"the government dumped them here." Before county funds were
given, the Indians were dependent on charity from the churches,
from the Women's Clubs of California, and the Daughters of the
American Revolution, obtained through the efforts of this woman.
The present county administration of "relief" is humane and un-
prejudiced, but works under a terrific case load of about 1300.
Direct relief takes the form of clothing made by sewing projects,
and food ("surplus commodities") bought from farmers. Ninety
Indian families in the county were "on relief" last summer,
fifty of them in Covelo. During the winter 90% of the Indians
are on relief in one form or another. The Works Progress Ad-
ministration does road repairing. Professional work earns a
maximum of $60 a month. During the summer, work relief was
closed during the harvest season at the request of White farmers.
54
The Indians are said to be apathetic and lazy, but no one
could explain away their eagerness to work at wage labor.   It
is undoubtedly true that many spend money almost as fast as
they earn it, mostly by drinking and driving around, but even
this, though it may still express something of the old feeling
that "Indians live every day," can be explained by the lack of
self-respect and motivation, and the impossibility of achieving
economic security.  Added to this is the effect of long years
of hardship and the tendency to trust the Government to take
care of them. One hardworking woman remarked that the only way
to get help is to be lazy and have a houseful of children.
Even some of the young and intelligent Councilmen seem over-
optimistic about what the Government can and will do for them.
There is a survey in progress to determine the feasibility
of setting up a cooperative cattle venture for the Indians.   It
is understood that unless the Whites can be kept off, they will
be bucking a stone wall. The 1934 survey (See above ) pointed
out:  "It hardly seems justifiable for any stock endeavor to
be pushed over for the Indians when there are so few of them
and as the cost of fencing, purchasing, maintaining and super-
vising and breaking trespass would be immense. The Indians are
half-way happy in their menial social condition and are satisfied
with their economic subsistence as is, especially with the
pensions coming in, so why start anything unless we can finish
it for them? Otherwise the reaction will be on their heads
and not ours. ... I would be the last to recommend a half-
hearted rehabilitation program against such social and economic
factors as they have to live with year in and year out." I
question only the statement that the Indians are satisfied.
Certainly none of those who are articulate give that impression.
The problem of getting the Indians united behind a program
is something else. It is often remarked, without prompting,
"They don't hang together here," or "Indian bucks Indian for
the benefit of the Whites," and friendly White people describe
the petty bickering that goes on over minor matters - such as
who is to get the left-over sandwiches after a party- and the
drinking and fighting even among the youngsters.   Here again,
though one might invoke the Indian pattern of constant suspicion
and grudges to explain the situation, the present economic and
social situation is at least a strong contributing cause, as is
the example and influence of some Whites past and present on
the Indians. The poolroom is regarded as the worst evil by the
Councilmen who are trying to unite the Indians, because there
the Whites treat Indians to drinks and convince them to oppose
Reorganization.
Opposition to Reorganization also stems from the work of
Frederick G. Collett, former minister of the Gospel, and leader
55
of the Indians of California, Inc. About 1920 a struggle
started, perhaps due to the activities of Collett, to bring
before the United States Court of Claims a suit by California
Indians against the United States Government for the value of
the goods and lands promised in the "lost Treaties." The
progress of the legislation and of the suit for libel brought
by Collett against Collier, Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
for accusing Collett of forgery in his successful effort to
have the Hupa and Klamath Indians reject Reorganization, can
be found in Government publications   (Senate, "Ruling in Order
to Show Cause, 1937), Collett's is the only organization of
Indians in this part of the State and, in his own words in a
letter to his attorney, "It is an established fact that when-
ever I have presented anything to the Indians that required
their financial support, they have gotten behind it to the ful-
lest extent necessary." One of Collett's representatives, a
Pentecostal preacher named Thompson, reported at a church
meeting which I attended on a message from Collett. The message,
for the most part, said, "Victory," and suggested collections.
All but two or three of the Indians were asleep at the end of
Thompson's impassioned appeal. Among other things Thompson
urged that when the (Reorganization) bill is passed they
should "Holler for per capita payment," and a member of the
Indian service judges that sooner or later the settlement
would probably take that form. Thompson and Collett are both
good speakers and their influence seems to be strong among the
older Indians. It may be true, as they claim, that Indians of
California, Inc. was active in getting public education and
citizenship for the Indians.
Social Orcanization
Family and Tribe
A family in Round Valley consists of parents, children,
old relatives, and the illegitimate children of the girls.
Some old people are taken care of, some are neglected. Il-
legitimate children are accepted with affection, and often the
grandmother will bring up a child even though its mother is
able to. Kin solidarity and obligations have been discussed as
a survival of Indian custom. They were described by a White
woman as still existing but, perhaps because I was there in the
summer when so many were gone, I had little occasion to observe
the patterns. One case, in which the rather close relatives
of a boy about to be brought up on trial for disorderly conduct
were discussing the brawl, showed that they were inclined to
emphasize everything in the incident except the boy's guilt, not
unlike Whites. An old, blind, half-White Concow spoke of a
family as "his people" although they were distantly, if at all
56
related to him. They took him to town in their car, but, I
observed, at his expense.
There is no clear division along tribal lines. The
younger Indians are so mixed that there is no objective basis
for it, but occasionally the old Concow vs. Yuki or Wailaki
feeling crops up, especially Concow vs. Wailaki, based, it is
said, on the Horse Canyon massacre    (See Addendum 4B; Tassin,
1884, p. 7). One White observer says that "Whenever a good row
is on, with a bottle thrown in, it's Wailaki against Concow
same as ever." But friendships based on neighborliness fre-
quently occur between these two tribes. A woman who has been
married about fifteen years said that there was opposition in
her Concow family because she married a Yuki, but none of the
recent marriages received any comment on this score.
Techniques for Control of the Individual
Legal
The reservation comes under Federal law, but has no law-
enforcement officers present. In Covelo, Indians are arrested
for minor offenses and often receive harsher punishment than
Whites for the same offense. Covelo, an unincorporated town,
comes under county law, but the county seat is sixty miles away.
Amonq the Indians
On the reservation there is a minimum of control over the
individual. The younger people, better educated, have been
taught to be ashamed of the old people. Their over-indulgent
grandparents (this has been given by Indians as an example of
an old custom) may regret "White ways, educational ways," even,
as one good Methodist does, call the valley "Sodom and Gomorrah,"
but there are no sanctions they can apply. For example, one
girl of about twelve lives with her grandparents. They send
her to town with money for food, and she may come back four days
later, without the food. Another girl knows that her father is
strict and would whip her if he knew that she smokes, drinks,
and "lays around," so she lies to him.  Even the Wailaki "chief"
admits that when a girl, distantly related to him, comes for
help, he "gives her a talking to and a little money, not much."
Another man complains that his grandson, spoiled by his grand-
mother and grandaunt "walks over me, too," but, meeting him in
Ukiah, he gives the boy money and then goes home to wait for
letters which never come.
57
White-Indian
The psychological domination of the Whites is as strong
as the economic. Within at least the last twenty-five years
there has been no need for the Whites to use force, although
the history of the valley and the strength of present race
feeling indicate that they are capable of it. On public oc-
casions things seem friendly enough. Whites and Indians sit
and ride together in the Rodeo, Whites attend Indian funerals,
and sometimes point out Indians as their friends, saying, "Mrs.
Johnson is the better type." However, outsiders often remark
that Covelo is like the South, though not quite as bad.
On the social plane, there is no mingling   One of the
quietest, best-spoken and cleanest of the Indian women has
been in only three White houses in her life, as a servant; a
group of little Indian boys who went to the Women's Improvement
Club to give a puppet-show were carefully placed at a separate
table; a high school trustee, saying that open discrimination
on the part of a teacher against Indians would not be coun-
tenanced by him or by one other trustee, added that they would
not express that opinion openly, and, "Of course we would n6t
insist that the White children walk arm-in-arm with Indians."
One wealthy woman remarked at a swimming party that the Indians
ought to have a separate swimming hole.
This feeling affects formal relations as well: Preparing
for a conference on health to which heads of clubs and school
officials were invited, the principal of the Indian school had
to battle with the high school principal who did not wish to
send invitations to the proper officers on the reservation,
though the school on the reservation is a regular state school.
One boy who lives some distance from the valley and attends
the town elementary school was very noticeably more friendly
and at ease with me than the two other Indian children, who are
extremely shy and reserved. Clearly, they have no social ex-
perience with White people and expect only rebuffs. It has
been suggested that children in most Indian tribes are shy of
strangers, but it seems significant that Indian and White
families who live in the mountains around Covelo are on the
best of terms, visiting each other, etc., but as soon as they
come down to Covelo, are at once "Indian" and "White." It
suggests strongly that public opinion in Covelo is responsible
for the shyness of Indians, young and old. Self-respect and
self-confidence are lacking in young people, who are often
truants from school, who have nothing to do with their time.
Boys are more aloof than girls:s on several occasions when I
was with a family and conversation was general, a young man
in the group would neither say a word, nor look in my direction.
58
It is mentioned by White people, friendly and unfriendly to the
Indians, that a girl, especially if she is attractive, may have
slight entrance to White social affairs - a boy, never. There
are many alliances between White men and Indian girls, but never
(and since gossip here is all-revealing) of an Indian man of any
degree of blood with a White girl. One girl, an outsider,
accompanied an Indian man to the valley this summer. She
appears White and at first practically said so, but after a
few days, started to insist that her mother was a Cherokee,
and she had only been brought up by White people.
One mother pointed out proudly as something exceptional
that her little girl was very friendly with White people, es-
pecially White men. Older people say in so many words that they
are !afraid of having their feelings hurt." Indians have been
barred from White dances in the valley; they know that they
are much less hostilely received away from home. They usually
do not address a White person first. A White woman told me
that an Indian fellow working for her husband was in her house
and she spoke to him, and then "he talked a blue streak."
A revealing incident occurred early in the summer. I was
in a car with Indians when we ran out of gas near the house of
a White family. We asked the girl of the house to drive us to
town for gas, which she did. In town we happened to meet her
mother, a sour-looking woman, who returned with us. As we
returned to our car, my friend, a young girl, took all the
change she had in her pocket and put it in the woman's hand
without a word.
Along with the conscious feeling of superiority that White
people express, there is an undercurrent of fear. The women
often speak of "drunk Indians" as most carefully to be avoided,
and observe that they sometimes break into White people's
houses.  Even when this happens there is never any report of
theft or damage to property. Most significant is the fact that
though Indians, when drunk, very often get into "cutting
scrapes," they have almost never, since the early "wars" in
this region, been known to attack a White person. Indeed there
are only two cases known in Mendocino County - one, that of a
bootlegger who suddenly refused to give whiskey to his Indian
patrons; the other, that of a White man found in the Indian
camp "fooling around with" an Indian girl.
We might suggest, with caution, that perhaps the resentment
which many, if not most Indians feel against Whites, and which
is blocked from overt expression, lies behind much of the
hostility the Indians show to one another on slight provocation.
Beside this there is, as has been mentioned frequently, de-
liberate creation by White men of discord on the reservation.
59
There are, of course, a few White people who treat the
Indians decently and oppose the commonly held prejudices
One White boy consented to walk with an Indian girl, a very
attractive and charming girl, at the high school commencement;
one young woman (the only one who defies Round Valley con-
ventions by smoking openly) in an argument with an older woman,
burst out, "If I were an Indian I'd hate every White person in
this valley."
It is very difficult to point to specifically "Indian"
elements in these situations and it hardly seems necessary in
most cases. The only common Indian reaction which has been
pointed out by informants and which may be significant here,
is the tendency to run away and sulk when thwarted. Even now,
the reason given for a child's truancy from school is some-
times that the teacher insulted him. However, after such de-
termined suppression for so many years there are few reactions
that any people could make. They can only withdraw as most
have done here, or become over-aggressive, as a few are.  That
the younger generation especially shrink from White people is
not strange in view of the constant recital by White people
and old Indians of their laziness, improvidence, and worth-
lessness. The school principal puts it sadlys "If only they
could be brought to believe in themselves more."
Mores
Property attitudes have been discussed as retained
elements of Indian culture in conflict with White standards.
Some young Indians have accepted White property values and a
few have succeeded in gaining economic independence.
Sex attitudes differ markedly from those of the Whites,
although they share similar Church influences. There is no
sex education. However, Indian women, especially, are said
to have a lusty humor when they get together, which even
sophisticated White women find embarrassing, and on the whole
their attitude seems healthier than that of the Whites. White
girls may remain virgins longer, but if pregnancy occurs a
White girl will be taken on a "vacation" by her family or
quickly married, whereas an Indian girl has her baby and is
"just as proud." Indian girls are expected to sow wild oats.
Though there is no stigma attached to illegitimacy, older
Indian women will point out that so-and-so is married, but so-
and-so is just living with a man. Beyond this, legal marriage
is not of great concern. The government recognizes joint resi-
dence as marriage, and until recently, when an old law was
resurrected allowing a couple not minors and already living
60
together to be married without a license, marriage involved
two trips to Ukiah, three days apart, at considerable expense.
White Covelo is horrified if an Indian girl leaves her husband
and spends the rest of her life with another man, or if she
dispenses with legal marriage but stays with one man. There
is a curious feeling, reported by a White observer, that
children are closer to their mother than their father, and are
spoken of as "Mary's boy," rather than by name or as someone's
son or brother. Since there is no indication of this in re-
ports of informants about the old days, it may be that this is
due to the prevalence of illegitimacy. A full-blood woman
said that her child, who obviously had White blood, was full-
blood, "because you count blood through the mother." This
may account for a weighting of census rolls toward the Indian
side.
There is much gossip about sexual promiscuity, but young
girls reply that the old women were just as bad in their day.
However, the result of promiscuity is alarming. Girls of
twelve and thirteen have babies, often of White fathers, but
there is one accomplished Indian held responsible for the "ruin"
of most of the girls. Old people are really indignant, however,
only at the marriage of cousins, which was strictly prohibited
in aboriginal times and, to a lesser extent, at the forward-
ness of some women.
In this, as in other life situations, personal freedom is
at a maximum as it was in the old days, but there is no
compact kin group to keep the individual in check by its dis-
approval, or by the need on his part to keep its support.
I had little opportunity to watch the upbringing of children,
and the two situations in which lack of control is most ap-
parent (seXual promiscuity and truancy) are complicated by
other factors. In any case, there is no overt discipline and
the conviction that one can talk, but do nothing to interfere
with others, is still very important among the Indians.
Foci of Interest
There are several interests shown by Indians though none
is sufficiently absorbing or rewarding to deserve the implicatio
of the word "focus." Excluded from town dances by the towns-
people, and from the weekly movie "show" by lits cost, the Indian
have to find social activity on the reservation. The ad-
ministration of the reservation school is making every effort
to supply the need, with the cooperation of the county super-
intendent of schools.  Dances and entertainments take place in
the auditorium;'a Women's Club whose membership, carefully
cultivated, is now sizable, meets every week; boys are beginning
61
to drop in at the library and read for an hour or so. All
this, however, is the work of a few people, regarded even by
many of the Indians as "godless."
Social life is a function of the churches too, and a kind
of awkward, unhappy social life goes on at the Methodist
Church under the eye of the minister's wife. More attractive
to Indians is the lively singing and dancing of the Pentecostal
Church, which offers the incidents that supply food for gossip
and the opportunity for young couples to meet. At revivals
and fellowship meetings one finds food and people, and "some-
thing doing" all the time.
Personal interests beyond these are few and stereotyped.
Many women are fine cooks, but they bring food for school
parties only after much encouragement. Grass games (gambling
with bones) practically stopped with the advent of Pente-
costalism. Old folks read their Bibles. Young boys and girls
ride around in dilapidated cars, fill the roads with empty beer
tins and read True Story and True Romance. Even one old man
commented on the reading:s "Nowadays learn book business,
certain kind of ideas. All they do is lay around and read
those books. They buy those, and powder and paint. People
a little younger than I are in the same condition. They should
be doing something. Book-reading is a poor business if a man
got anything to do. It's getting worse."
Supernaturalism
The Indian churches, whatever their shortcomings, seem
nearer ideal Christianity than those in town, from the point
of view of tolerance. Though its ministers may rant, the
Indians hold no one's religion against him. Almost everyone
attends services, often going to the Methodist Church in the
morning and to the Pentecostal in the evening, or attending
one when the other is not functioning.  Most Indians, however,
have been lost to Methodism. In 1874 the first missionary,
who was also the agent, won souls by his kindness and because
the Indians identified being Christian with having the promises
of the government fulfilled. Defection was reported four years
later   (BIA, 1878). The church never quite succeeded in stop-
ping grass games and Indian dances, or in making monogamy a
habit.  Old people who "didn't know A from B" went to church
to be patted on the back and talk to people, but, as I had
occasion to observe, slept through the sermon. The present
minister concentrates his energy against the Pentecostal
Church. Several old Concows and the more "White" set go to
his services, but even they are not true to him. Some doubt
62
the theological superiority of Methodism. All agree that at
the Methodist Church one "sits and goes to sleep. "
The Pentecostal Church, on the other hand, has Indian
preachers, was built by Indians, and is "the Indian Church."
You "feel the presence." Seizure by the Holy Ghost is a trance
experience not unlike the old pattern of obtaining supernatural
power, the "talking in tongues" is described as sounding like
the old ventriloqustic speech of the shamans, and curing in-
volves dancing and singing by all present and the "laying on
of hands" to drive the evil spirit out of the patient. The
most ardent members are old Indians who used to be most
active in grass games, especially a few strong individuals who
obviously use the opportunity to exercise leadership. One of
them, an elderly Yuki of rather unsavory reputation, had some
differences with other members and experienced a vision in
which a small voice told him to stay away from where he was
not wanted, so he conducted separate meetings at his house all
summer. Now he has returned to the fold. No one has been
accused of simulating trances, but sometimes the trances are
under the "wrong power," as in the case of one woman who liked
the preacher and "kept falling in his direction," and another
woman who struck someone against whom she bore a grudge.   One
visitor said that "many are baptized but few stick to it. The
others meet snares and pitfalls and stumble." One man, too
honest to join when he knows he cannot live up to the rules,
says: "I see it's a pretty strict way of living. They're
supposed to live up to it, but they don't." Reclamation of
inveterate gamblers and drinkers is claimed by the Pentecostal
Church while the chief attack of the Methodists against the
Pentecostal Church is based on the criminal records of some of
the leaders and a few members 1 There are temporary and
permanent conversions and some who join "just to blind people
to what they are."
A ninety-year-old Lassik woman who remembers a great deal
about her people and their life, is a devout Pentecostalist.
She and an old Yuki woman are said to be the best two members
even if they "don't understand a word, but when the song starts,
jump up and start to jig around."  The Lassik woman may not be
interested in sermons, but she has integrated the church into
her life as few others have done.  This is the story of her
conversions Her husband was ill, and the preacher came to
pray for him, offering to pray for others present at the same
time. The singing and praying cured her own headache and
rheumatism. For a year she was a church member before she
got the Holy Ghost. Then, at hop-picking, they called her to
a "sing." The tent was full of people. She sat on a box.
They sang "I know the Lord put a hand on me."   "I tried to talk,
to get up, and started to shake. Funny feeling.   You know
63
everything but you can't move. I ain't afraid no more. It's
like fire on top of your head. Some fall on the floor, but
nobody touches them, they come to sense themselves. Some-
times it takes a little while to get over it, sometimes a long
time.  Once at the Dutchman's (a friend) I feel the power
coming down on me. I sing, pray. I don't see nothing, don't
hear nothing, no snake, no lizard. I never see nothing."
The day after she gets the power, she feels "like a little girl
again." She has a recurring dream in which her two daughters,
long dead, hold up her arms and tell her God is coming down.
She tells the "outside people, the ones who laugh when the
power comes down on us," that He is coming the first time just
to show himself, but the next time He will destroy the unbe-
lievers and they will be swallowed up with earth and water.
Then He comes, a nice-looking man with clothes like the ones in
the picture in church, with black whiskers, pretty curly hair
and black eyebrows, stepping down a ladder of black, red, white
and blue clouds. She says to the people, "You talk brave, now
look at him." His face is so shiny it hurts her eyes. Her
daughters tell her to continue to go to church. "The outside
people laugh when the power comes down, say you are crazy, but
God hears it and says, "poor my children, I don't want them to
laugh at them. I take my children with me, they be happy with
me. Outside people I cover with dirt."
The similarity to the ghost dance religion is clear. A
few old Indians find in the church a satisfying emotional ex-
perience and an outlet for their feelings against the Whites.
Younger, more sophisticated people give logical and theological
arguments for preferring this to other churches. They point
out that the Methodist and Baptist Churches pat rich men on the
back while this is "a church for the poor and oppressed."
Some quote the Bible on the descent of the Holy Ghost, the
"singing in the upper story," etc., and offer the conversions
and cures as proof of the correctness of their return to the
full gospel. A well read man adds that people say there is
hypnotism used but "how can it be hypnotism when the people
come out of the trance by themselves?" Further justification
for belief in this and in other religions in Covelo and on the
reservation, is the argument that recent events bear out the
prophecy in the Bible that the world will come to an ends
Armageddon approaches, there are strikes and wars, the Com-
munists are teaching the people not to believe in heaven and
the "Roosians" are turning churches into warehouses.
The BIA survey group considered the Indians "Methodists
with a scattering of Pentecostalists," but my impression is that
the Pentecostal Church has a stronger hold and many more ad-
herents. The appeal of the merciful aspect of Jesus and the
promise of reward in heaven are strengthened by the pride
64
engendered by the fact that the church leaders are Indian, and
by the opportunities for social contacts. One of the men least
affected by the emotional appeal said that "all the Indians go
to church, good ones, bad ones, young ones, old ones. All
those fools that used to start things. It's just as much fun
there, that's why I go lots of times. They sing without
thinking. That's why I say Pentecostal Church is for Indians."
Education
White education has reached many of the Indians, in the
form of day-school and/or boarding-school. Of 158 individuals,
66% had been to public school, 23% to boarding-school, 1% to
Round Valley High School; and 10% had no formal education.
The elementary school on the reservation reflects and
creates problems. It is an additional elementary school that
exists in a valley where there are none too many children for
one school, because of the opposition of the Whites to co-
education. With two schools expenses are doubled and the re-
servation school has to fight for support. School ad-
ministration is hampered by county politics, although the
present school superintendent is a young man sympathetic to
Indian needs. Truancy, serious in all Indian communities, is
decreasing here as a result of the long, uphill work of the
teachers. The present curriculum includes woodworking, crafts
and sports; the girls sew curtains for the school windows,
children's drawings are on the walls. So difficult is it to
overcome the Indian-White barrier, however, that the new teacher
could not at first get boys to come even to a baseball club.
In the past parents did nothing to discourage truancy
because, as the social worker points out, their own education
was useless. Now, several express anxiety to have their
children educated "so they can stand up to White people" but
only one native woman is bold enough to send her children to
the Covelo town school.
The high school is another sore point. It was built about
three or four years ago with Indian funds which the principal's
trip to Washington helped to make available. The Indian Office,
knowing nothing apparently of the true situation, expected
Indian children to go to the new high school instead of to
Riverside or Carson schools, and now is surprised to find that
only about a half dozen Indians attend high school. The rest
drop out after the first year, because they are not made wel-
come and because the incidental expenses are too high for them.
There is little checkup on absence of Indian children; one
example:s an Indian boy stayed away from school because he had
65
no shoes, and when he returned, the teacher, commenting on
his absence, said it was all you could expect from Indians.
The boy left school. A White woman remarked that the Indians
"think they own the school and get ornery." As far as ability
is concerned, those who have taught both Indians and White
children see no difference. As a matter of fact, two Indian
high school graduates are continuing their education while none
of the Whites is.
Social Problems
There is much drinking, even by young boys. "It makes a
poor man rich and a sick man stout." White men take money or
a share of the liquor in return for getting it for several
Indians, who contribute to a "jug." All present "drink from
the bottle," trying to get as much as possible before the
others do, and "pretty soon they's all drunk." Some Indian men
say that when they are in a large city and not likely to be
prevented from going to a bar, they take one drink and leave.
The girls too start to drink very early. My Lassik in-
formant says that "girls don't help their mothers, just lay
around and 'Oooops, "' (tipping up an imaginary bottle).
Promiscuity is blamed in part on White men who treat the girls
to drinks. (Sexual offenses with minors go unpunished when
an Indian is the victim.) A social worker who started work
some eight or nine months ago writess "In my brief experience
with Indians, I have not yet found a problem which I felt could
rightfully be called an 'Indian problem.' They are all human
problems - ones which could be matched case for case by White
families." This need not be taken literally, since the history
of Round Valley provides ample cause for present difficulties,
but in the lives and attitudes of the young boys and girls on
the reservation, I have detected few traces of Indian culture.
The social worker attributes delinquency not only to the lack
of social life and of anything interesting to do, but to the
early physical maturity of the Indians, which she and the
public health nurse judge to be about two years ahead of that
of White children. Without further evidence, I hesitate to
accept this as a biological fact, in view of the preponderance
of White blood in the young population.
Young people of mixed blood are not a unique group. They
share in every social maladjustment; in fact, they constitute
a majority of the young "Indians." No one seems reluctant to
discuss the degree of Indian blood anyone has, although White
paternity of illegitimate children is seldom mentioned and
there is, as has been said, a tendency to speak of "blood" as
that of the mother. Some Indians are said to be anxious to
66
have their daughters marry White men. Others, such as two
young women who expressed their opinion, insist that they would
never consider marrying any but their "own kind."
Political Orqanization
The political organization in Round Valley consists of the
council of eight, elected under the Reorganization Act which
includes several well-educated young men. The Indian Office
considers them competent and rational, but the Indians accuse
them of favoritism in handling land matters, and concerned
Whites cannot see that they have done much so far. They seem
to underestimate the economic power of the Whites and over-
estimate the government's willingness and ability to set up a
cooperative cattle enterprise. However, they are familiar with
the way White political affairs run, and when a case came up in
regard to the validity of the Reorganization Act in the Duck
Valley reservation in Nevada some time ago, the council managed
to have the Women's Club and the Interdenominational Church
write to Collier, Commission of Indian Affairs, and their con-
gressman to defend it. One councilman spoke of the $2,000,000
revolving fund as if it were surely going to buy back the whole
valley for the Indians.  Meanwhile the government has spent
about $60,000 in conducting surveys and "chasing its tail,"
with the net result that one piece of property is held by the
Indians. This they are hoping to turn into a home for the
aged, but it is near town and everyone agrees, but for different
reasons, that it should not have been bought. The council
considers most of the Indians "in line," but opposition is audi-
ble. Even White people who wish the Indians well are aware of
the unfulfilled promises of the government, and one Ukiah
lawyer opposes the Indians' giving up their rancherias to the
government on the grounds that the present administration has
no guarantees that it will remain in office and the next may
not be as careful of the Indians' welfare.
The Modern Individual
It is difficult to point to approved personality types,
though one can observe disapproved personalities to which
critical gossip is the clue. The most consistently disapproved
person is a certain woman who is economically successful. The
Whites resent her for her shrewdness and aggressiveness - she
has hauled them into court, sometimes successfully. The
Indians accuse her of getting land by fraud, and gossip
constantly about her. However, this does not seem to bother her;
she continues to work for the good of the other Indians, and
has testified before several investigation committees. She
67
is boisterous in manner, always trying to get a laugh. White
people say she can talk herself out of anything, and that she
is too militant for her own good. She sends her children to
the town school and her name never was mentioned in connection
with the Pentecostal Church.
One intelligent old Wailaki man in his sixties, on the
other hand, draws little gossip and appears to be well-liked by
Indians. He has achieved a certain degree of adjustment by his
ability to see the Whites clearly and thereby to keep his self-
respect and independence of thought. He is the only person
who answers charges of Indian misconduct by pointing out all
the White men who drink and lie. As he told one of the Indian
agents, "White men are just as big thieves as Indians." He
ran away from school after third grade, going to live with an
old Indian couple in the mountains. From them he learned many
of the old ways, which he respects and many of which he follows.
He has been an interpreter for various government officers and
was anxious to have me learn his language and keep a record
of the past, of which he is the youngest to know anything.
He goes out of his way to be helpful, but none of the Indians
followed the former agent in calling him the Wailaki chief.
He is the only Indian who does not accept the missionaries com-
pletely.  "When we're dead, we're dead, and the preachers
don't know any more about hell-fire than we do. Must be trying
to scare the people." He is not inclined to excuse Indians
either if he thinks they are wrong. Though he does not often
discuss individuals, he is rather annoyed by one man who em-
phasizes his physical disabilities to appeal for help from
White people and prides himself on his earning power as an
anthropological informant. As for the latter's vision which
for a time split the Pentecostal Church, his succinct comment
was:s "Poppycock. He wasn't getting enough attention."
At his own word, he is "an old souse," and he tells how
White men with whom he worked driving hogs to Ukiah long ago
gave him whiskey and it became a habit. He never drinks when
he is working, and never comes home drunk. He stays away until
he has sobered up. There was whiskey on his breath only once
during the summer, and he explained later, as was obvious at
the time, that it was because he was "suffering around" so
badly with toothaches. He lost three promising children and
tries to forget about them. "Only fun I get is to go to town,
get a little drunk." His great regret is that his very bright
grandson is not going to college. The boy finished high school
in three years but when everything was ready for him to go to
Haskell to study automotive engineering he hid the papers
because he could not bear to leave his wife, who deserts him
periodically but always returns. Among the young girls who were
in the valley for the summer were several who were conspicuously
68
"bad."  One is a fifteen-year-old, usually sloppy in her dress,
whose hair is dyed and waved and her brows plucked. She tries
to conceal from her father her smoking and drinking, and spends
every spare minute with True Stories. The richest boy on the
reservation (a full-blood, jailed last summer for drunken
driving) wanted to marry her, but when she used his car to
drive around with another boy, the affair seemed to be off.
The latest news from the valley is that she expects a baby.
Like many promiscuous girls, she reputedly had a "wild" mother.
She is sullen and boisterous by turns, and with me was
alternately shy and over-familiar.
Two other girls of the "wild" group have a notorious family
situation.  Their mother was apparently happy in her marriage
until a young fellow came along with whom she fell in love. She
bore him four children, two of whom are living and still very
young. Then her oldest daughter took the man away from her
and she "cut loose." Her mother took the children and she, at
last report, was living with a worthless man. The daughter
spent the summer with her father, having promised never to see
her stepfather again, but in the fall she was again driving his
car, in which one morning she made love to him a few feet from
where I was working.
There were two murders in recent years, both by jealous
husbands. One of them killed the wife who was about to leave
him through the influence of a famous shaman from Pit River,
and committed suicide before the officers caught up with him.
Several girls who do not fit into this sordid picture are
waiting for the chance to get out of the valley. The White
father of one family is very strict with his daughters. The
youngest girl is in the same grade as the girls described
above, but she is two years younger and seems like a little girl.
She and her older sister get up at four in the morning to start
taking care of the horses and chickens and to cook before
leaving for school. The oldest daughter left the valley as the
bride of a Stanford graduate and went to live in Southern
California. The others plan to go away to college themselves.
In another family, of mixed-blood parents, there are two
very nice girls. One, recently married, teaches crafts at the
reservation school.  The other, miserable during her vacation
because she had to stay in Round Valley where there is "nothing
to do," works part-time and studies at the Extension Division
of the University of California in Berkeley.   I was unable to
learn much about their background, though I saw them often,
because they were very quiet, and because no one gossiped about
them. The family seems to be more prosperous than most in spite
of the father's heavy drinking.  He raised horses until the
69
use of machinery made it unprofitable, and still acts as a
guide to hunting and camping parties in the fall. His family
works at fruit-picking and before school opened the older girl
was cook for the farmhands on one of the ranches.
A third family, whom I did not know personally, has two
girls. One, described as very bright, is working and studying
in San Francisco, but her sister, dull and stolid, has settled
down early to marriage and babies.
Maladjustments of personalities need hardly be explained
in terms of being Indian except insofar as social and psycho-
logical oppression accompanies the economic.
It seems hardly necessary to repeat that there has been a
pathetic lack of cultural integration among the Indians in Round
Valley. Their culture was destroyed by social and economic
forces which they were totally unprepared to resist and in which
they were prevented, despite their apparent willingness, from
participating by groups of Whites to whose interest it was to
keep them in an inferior position. Round Valley natives are
described by employees of the Indian Service as "a few old
Indians and the rest disgruntled Whites." Poverty has pre-
vented their keeping up much formal social life among them-
selves until rather recently when the Pentecostal Church and
the reservation school began to offer possibilities. The
school is a progressive force in the community.
Opposition of the Whites is asstrong as ever, they con-
tinue to divide the Indians. If there is anything which would
mark this group as Indian to anyone unacquainted with their
background, I have been unable in one summer to discover it.
Everything in the present scene which might be referred to
aboriginal times can as easily, or more easily, be explained by
a combination of historical forces in which the aboriginal
situation played only a small predisposing part.
The basic economic problem might be attacked in several
ways, one of which is the contemplated government action in
setting up a cattle  or a combination cattle and farming venture.
The difficulties in the way are apparent. It seems likely that
the conditions of the Indians will improve only with those of
other agricultural workers in California.
70
EDITOR ' S SUMMARY
ROUND VALLEY ACCULTURATION
Although the treatment of American Indians by the Whites
has generally been bad, the Round Valley situation finds no
close parallels among the other studies included in this volume.
It is unique in the complete domination of the Indian by the
White group, the speed with which this domination was achieved,
and the frankness and the thoroughness of White exploitation.
The White attitudes disclosed here are, perhaps, not unlike
those held by pioneers in their dealings with Indians else-
where, but their persistence down to the present and their
combination with absolute power over the Indians are both un-
usual, making them a significant factor in the present study.
On the Indian side unique features are provided by the lack of
well-developed war patterns, which did much to make overt re-
sistance impossible, and by the lack of tribal solidarity even
in aboriginal times.
The case must be construed as primarily one of directed
acculturation, although the direction was almost entirely of
the negative sort. Any native culture pattern which appeared
objectionable to the Whites was suppressed. This, coupled
with the profound changes produced in the local ecology by the
activities of the Whites, eliminated overt expression of most
of the aboriginal culture.  At the same time, no real attempt
seems to have been made to impose any patterns of White culture
except those of peonage, while Indian attempts to adapt to
the new conditions by taking over White techniques such as
farming or crafts were systematically discouraged. The place
of the Indian in the combined Indian-White community was
designated almost entirely by the White and was at the very
bottom of the social and economic scale. The function of the
Indian, in the eyes of the dominant group, was to provide
cheap and docile labor and any attempt to depart from this
role was punished by the expropriation of the Indian's property
even if there were no more forcible measures. The Indian was
to be a slave without even the security which a chattel slave
might derive from his value as property.
If the Round Valley tribes had resisted this treatment
they would probably have been exterminated during the first
few years of contact. As it was, the tribal organization
seems to have been dissipated by the first violent contact.
Tribes as functional units seem to have broken almost at
once, while as cultural and linguistic units they survived
little beyond the lifetimes of those reared under the old
conditions. However, the very lack of tribal coherence and
71
sentiments of solidarity probably made for individual survival.
The people who composed the tribe were able to react to the
new situation as individuals, making such diverse adjustments
as they could. In this they were not hampered by any feeling
of loyalty to the group or even to fellow tribesmen beyond the
limits of family relationship. Their acculturation was, there-
fore, in individual terms and in widely varying degrees. In
this they seem to have resembled a slave group of heterogeneous
origin rather than a tribal group.
Everything seems to indicate an admiration of White
culture on the part of the Indians and a complete willingness
to accept it and to become absorbed into White society.  That
they have not been absorbed is probably due to White re-
sistance rather than their own will. The constant affairs of
Indian girls with White men and the tendency for young Indians
to leave the community and go to regions where there is no
prejudice against them both point in this direction. Such
behavior contrasts sharply with that of persons in a self-
conscious, well-integrated society like that of the Fox. The
younger generation seem to have accepted the culture patterns
of the Whites at the same economic level in toto, and their
complete absorption into the American population is probably
only a matter of time and opportunity.
72
ADDENDA
1. Treaties
2. Slavery and Indenture
3. Round Valley Reserved
4   "Wars" and "Massacres"
A. Clear Lake
B. Round Valley (1858-63)
C. Eden Valley and Eel River
D. Potter Valley (Bloody Rock)
E. Mendocino War
5. Reservation System
6. Indian Schools
7. Settlers
73
1. Treaties
A.  "The Lost Treaties" - Report of E. F. Beale, Esq., Super-
intendent of Indian Affairs for the State of California, May
11, 1852, to Honorable L. Lea, Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
Washington City, D. C.
....as to the merits of the treaties I state that in regard to
the general line of policy pursued by the commisioners and agents
in negotiating with the Indians as proper and expedient under
the circumstances.  My own personal knowledge and experience on
Indian affairs, and particularly in reference to the tribes
within the State of California, incline me to the opinion that
to secure their peace and friendship no other course of policy,
however studied and labored it may have been, could have so
readily and effectually secured the objects in view. My ex-
perience in Indian affairs has also convinced me of the fact
that those who best understand the Indian character are ex-
ceedingly cautious and deliberate in their negotiations with
them, and that precipitate counsels are invariably the results
of ignorance, and generally terminate deplorably to both parties.
The Indian by nature is suspicious and though easily governed
when his confidence has been obtained, it becomes almost im-
possible to treat with him after his suspicions have been
aroused.
The system of reservations as adopted in these treaties,
is but the natural result and consequence of the policy pursued
throughout and may be stated to involve two important con-
siderations, vix. whether the Indians are to have any lands set
apart for them and if so, whether those already selected for
them may be justly considered as suitable and appropriate.
Humanity and justice alike urge acquiescence in the former,
while the following considerations suggest themselves to our
attention in connection with the subject. It is evident that
if allowed to roam at pleasure, their early extinction is in-
evitable, and I am slow to believe that the Government, re-
cognizing, as it does, their possessory rights to all the soil
inhabited by them, would deny them the occupancy of a small
portion of the vast country from which such extraordinary
benefits are in progress of receipt.....
With reference to the expediency of ratifying or rejecting
the treaties, in my opinion it would be unwise and injudicious
in the extreme to reject them, even should it be deemed expedient
and necessary hereafter, without previously preparing the minds
of the Indians for such an event, and the offering, at once,
of some suitable and proper substitute   (BIA, 1852).
74
B. Report of E. F. Beale respecting the condition of Indian
Affirs in California.
.. I premise, what is well known to you, that our laws and
policies ... have been neglected or violated in that state;
that they are driven from their homes and deprived of their
hunting grounds and fishing waters at the discretion of the
whites; and when they come back to these grounds and waters to
get the means of subsistence, and also when they take cattle and
stock from the inhabitants for food, they are often killed, thus
giving rise to retaliation and to wars; and in this war a state
of things exists there which is not known in other parts of the
U.S., where the Indian intercourse laws are enforced by the
government and Indian territorial possession is protected by
the government. This anomalous state of things is necessary
to be remembered in order to understand the operations of the
superintendent and of the agents in that country.....
To remedy this state of things and to secure to the Indians
some resting place and supply them with some food, and make
some compensation for the country taken from them, the es-
tablished policy of making treaties with them was adopted by
the government, and several treaties made, all of which were
rejected; so that now the Indians remain without practical
protection from law or treaties and the government officers
have to do the best they can to save them from death by mas-
sacre or starvation. For that purpose the rejected treaties
stipulated for "reserves" for the Indians to live upon, and
for supplies of food, and a part of the food, in the form of
beef cattle was immediately contracted for, and in some part
delivered; but in some of these deliveries great irregularities
occurred.....  (Senate Documents, 1853, Second Session, 32nd
Congress, Volume 7, p. 1)
C. Thomas Henley, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in California,
to G. W. Mannypenny, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Dept. of
Interior.
"in conducting the affairs of this superintendency, I have re-
jected entirely the idea of making treaties with the Indians or
recognizing, in any way, the rights which they claim to the soil.
The Indians in every portion of the state have already been
made acquainted with the policy proposed by the government in
regard to them, and are everywhere highly pleased with it, ex-
cept in locations where malicious or interested white persons
have, by false representation, prejudiced them against it. A
few persons of this class in the various localities have been
the cause df most of the Indian difficulties which have occurred
in this state. The Indians are generally peaceable and well
75
disposed toward their white neighbors; and in almost all cases
where they have been guilty of aggression, it has been to
avenge some outrage committed upon them by the class of persons
in question.
* ....the mass of the white settlers of this state have uniformly
treated the Indians with the greatest possible kindness;
giving them protection and advice, and frequently contributing
of their scanty means to relieve their pressing wants, and save
them from actual starvation. The outrages upon the Indians,
which have been, I regret to say, of frequent occurrence,
have emanated from a few lawless and desperate men, for whose
conduct the masses should in no way be held responsible"
(BIA, 1856, p. 795). (Compare Henley's words with Henley's
actions, which he obviously did not regard as "lawless and
desperate." See Addendum 4C below, especially Lt. Dillon's
letter of 4/2/59 and Capt. Johnson's letter of 8/21/59.)
D. Report of Indian Commissioners, 1920
The hearings of the Congressional Indian Committees on the
California Indians shows pity but no recognition of the legal
debt of millions of dollars due to Senate refusal to ratify
treaties made in 1851-2.....*
If gold had not been discovered in California in 1849, it
is almost certain that the Indians of the state today would be
extensive land owners and land users, for it seems to be ac-
cepted that it was the influence of the Forty-niners which pre-
vented ratification of the treaties which the Government com-
mission made with the Indians in 1851-52.  The land was made
public domain, later turned over to whites.
401 Indian Chiefs, Captains and Headmen of 119 tribes,
bands and nations signed 18 treaties, with US Army Officers as
witnesses. They were read in the Senate on June 7, 1852, and,
"with the attached documents, referred to the commission of
Indian Affairs and ordered to be printed in confidence for the
use of the Senate." On July 8, it was "resolved that the
Senate do not advise and consent" by 38 negative votes
(Senate Document pp. 417-419 ). On Jan. 18, 1905, 53 years later,
the injunction of secrecy was removed and the next day 50 copies
of the treaties were ordered reprinted for the use of the Senate.
While these unratified treaties lay forgotten by all but
the Indians in the secret archives of the Congress, all but
517,118 acres of the several million acres which the Government
treaty commisioners told the Indians would be set apart for the
sole use and occupancy of the Indians were acquired by the white
people of California. The records of the middle decade of the
76
last century, which tell the story of the decline of the
California Indians, do not make pleasant reading, for they
chronicle the atrocious happenings, massacres, murders, heart-
less evictions, and brutal treatment of an inoffensive people
who happened to be in the way of the adventurous, determined
gold seekers from all parts of the US who rushed to California
by the tens of thousands in 1849.....
It is worthy to note that the two most important areas of
land which have been set apart for the Indians and are now
held, in trust, for them by the United States, are the Hoopa
Valley and Round Valley Reservations in the northwestern part
of the state. These reservations were established for the
purpose of corralling prisoners of war, Indians who, driven to
desperation by the cruelties and aggressions of the white in-
truders, dared to fight and so today own the land. The Govern-
ment practically ratified the treaties made with the Indians
who resisted.
On the other hand, Indians who peacefully trusted the
Great Government which made treaties with them in good faith,
they believed, and as their descendants still believe, quietly
moved into the restricted areas carrying out their treaty
stipulations only to be driven away, evicted from their homes,
driven from pillar to post and scattered apart until today most
of the names of the tribes and villages are lost. These are
the landless or nonreservation Indians of California made so
apparently because they did not fight the great white people
who had taken their lands from them......they were promised
horses, mules, plows, clothing ... white farmers, blacksmiths,
carpenters and others to teach them useful handicrafts; also
school teachers "to live among and work for and teach said
tribes and .such others as they may be required to work for and
teach so long as the President of the United States should
deem advisable."
They are uneducated, illiterate, and ignorant of white
men's ways although they have been living among white people
for generations. But, more than all else they have for
generations been treated by their white neighbors as an in-
ferior people and have been accepting this appraisement quite
as a matter of course, and yet they are a self-supporting people,
they get their own living by the work of their own hands. But
it seems they must work for others....with few exceptions,
they are seasonal or casual work people...most of them are idle
during the winter months...they migrate to the hopfields, vine-
yards, the prune, apricot and other orchards, to the citrus
groves, ranch and rice field. When the salmon are running those
in the north work in the salmon fisheries and canneries.
77
During the harvest time many Indians are found in the factories
where vegetables, fruit, olives, etc., are canned.   A large
number of them find employment in the sawmills, on the surface
of mines, in logging camps, and on railroads and public roads.
During sheep shearing these Indians are in demand and many of
them are shepherds for white men. They herd cattle, milk cows
and do general farm work. The women who live near cities and
towns go out by the day as domestics and laundresses....during
the earning season the Indians take their families with them
....The Indian villages are deserted by all save a few of the
old folk who stay at home as caretakers.
Indian labor, generally, is preferred by white employers
of the State. The Indians are regarded as faithful, honest
and fairly reliable work people. It is true that they will
knock off work for what seems to their employers to be trivial
reasons, and sometimes their social gatherings, fiestas, and
religious demands interrupt important labor at critical times,
but as a rule the Indians work without requiring watching and
carry out their contracts and orders.
Nonresident Indians include "landless" Indians who live
on government owned ranches, where they have undisturbed pos-
session as long as they occupy and cultivate, and land-owning
Indians who having allotments which are worthless to them,
practically are "landless." The rancherias are especially in
Mendocino, Lake, and Sonoma Counties. Most of the allotted
nonreservation Indians are in the north of the state    (BIA,
1920, pp. 39-60).
2. Slavery and Indenture
A. 1853 - Senate Document 57, 2nd Session 32nd Congress Vol.
7 p. lff Report of E. F. Beale, Superintendent of Indian
Affairs in California
.....I give an instance of this new mode of oppressing the
Indians, of catching them like cattle and making them work, and
turning them out to starve and die when the work season is
over. It relates to a scene of which there are many instances,
and the knowledge of which, coming to me from report, I sent
out a reliable person to attend to the cases
Letter to Beale from J. H. Jenkins, San Francisco, Jan. 13, 1853.
"These Indians were brought into this county (San Pablo in
Contra Costa County) from some place near Clear Lake, by
Californians.....who have for some time made it a business of
catching them, and in various ways disposing of them, and I have
78
been informed that many Indians have been murdered in these ex-
peditions. These present Indians are the survivors of a band
who were worked all last summer and fall, and as winter set in
were broken down by hunger and labor, without food or clothes,
they were turned adrift to shift for themselves as best they
could.....I am happy to inform you that even when starving,
and surrounded with horses and cattle, yet I heard no complaint
of their stealing. These people could easily be made to sup-
port themselves. These Indians were offered by their captors
to the farmers in the neighborhood for hire at a dollar a
day; but that price was considered too high for beings so low
in flesh, and rather than lower the price they were allowed to
starve as reported. It is a common practice, and I know it to
be such, to catch Indian children when they are out gathering
acorns, and take them and hold them as slaves. Not two months
ago I was implored to restore some who had been taken from the
Yo-kei tribe in this way   (BIA, 1853).
B. 1854 - Report of H. L. Ford to Henley, Sept. 7, 1854, at-
tached to report of Henley, Supt. California to Mannypenny, and
included in Annual Report to Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
1856. (Walter Goldschmidt had copy, courtesy of W. H. Woodson,
quoted in manuscript on Nomlacki.)
"I had a talk with the Nome Lacke Indians, during which I
learned that the tribe was now reduced to less than three
hundred but all that was left would if an establishment was
made come in and work with goodwill....that a party of Mexicans
had been for the last six months roving through their country,
that whenever their women and children ventured out to gather
seeds, they attacked them.....This I found corroborated by
some settlers of the valley, who informed me that a short time
ago a party of Mexicans came to Colusa, having with them some
fifteen or twenty children including both sexes, which they
were taking below to sell"   (BIA, 1854).
C. 1856 - Report of July 3, 1856, from E. A. Stevenson at Nome
Lacke Reserve to Henley, Supt. IA San Francisco.
"Of the Indians residing in this neighborhood, a large
number are on the ranches or farms of private individuals, who
are using them as working hands, and who seem to have adopted
the principle that they (the Indians) belong to them as much as
an African slave belongs to his master and that they have the
right to control them entirely. Many of these Indians have
left their places and come to the reservation and have been
followed and demanded by persons claiming them as private
property. This system of slavery is, in my opinion, far more
objectionable than that which exists in any other country, as
the Indians claim to be the rightful owners of the soil"
(BIA, 1856).
79
D. 1861 - Win. P. Dole to C. B. Smith, Secy Interior Nov. 21,
1861.
Under a law recently passed by the state legislature,
large numbers of Indians have been nominally "indentured" for
long terms to white masters. This "indenturing", if my in-
formation as to the character or the law and its practical
operation is correct, is but another name for enslaving those
who are so unfortunate as to become its objects, since, by its
operation, Indians of any age under thirty and of either sex,
without their consent, or if they be minors, that of their
parents, are "indentured" to white masters, who thereupon be-
come entitled to the "care, control, custody, and earnings" of
those thus "indentured" whom, in consideration thereof, they
undertake to "feed, clothe, care for, and protect," but no
security is required that this undertaking shall be performed
and neither are any penalties prescribed for its violation. A
law like this is subject to enormous and outrageous abuses,
and may be made the means by which the most wicked oppression
may be perpetrated   (BIA, 1861),.
E. George M. Hanson, Superintending Agent of Indian Affairs,
Northern District of California, to Dole, Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, BIA Annual Report, 1862, pp. 310-312, Dec. 31, 18_2.
In the month of October last, I apprehended three kid-
nappers, about 14 miles from the city of Marysville, who had
nine Indians, from three to ten years of age, which they had
taken from the Eel River in Humboldt County. One of the three
was discharged on a writ of habeas corpus, upon the testimony
of the other two that "he was not interested in the matter of
taking the children;" after his discharge, the other two made
an effort to get clear by introducing the third party as a
witness, who testified that "it was an act of charity on the
part of the two to hunt up the children and then provide homes
for them, because their parents had been killed and the children
would have perished with hunger."   My counsel inquired "How
he knew their parents had been killed?" "Because," said he, I
killed some of them myself.".....Suffice it to say that I found
good homes for the children, who are now doing well, and their
kidnappers each were placed under five hundred dollars bonds to
appear and answer.
The fact is, kidnapping Indians has become quite a business
of profit, and I have no doubt is at the foundation of the so-
called Indian wars. To counteract this unholy traffic in human
blood and souls, I have appointed a number of special agents in
the country through which the kidnappers pass when carrying the
Indians to market in the settlements, with instructions to
watch for them, and thus, I think, that a temporary check has
been put to their commerce.
80
I shall make an effort this winter, in a memorial to the
State legislature, to have the law repealed authorizing the
indenturing of Indians, under cover of which all this trouble
exists   (BIA, 1862 )
3. Round Valley Reserved
1854
On the morning of May 15, 1854, Frank M. Asbill went up
the mountainside in search of the horses, and a wonderfully
beautiful valley met his gaze, upon which probably, no white
man's eye had ever rested before. ****It was given the name
of Round Valley by the party from Mr. Asbill's description of
it   (Palmer, 1880, p. 595).
1856
In 1856 the Indian farm was established at None (Nome) Come
or Round Valley. It is estimated that there wer upwards of
five thousand Indians in Mendocino county at that time, and
that three thousand of them were subject to the Round Valley
farm******.. While this Round Valley section was a farm only
it was used as a stock range principally*****. In 1858 the
Round Valley farm was changed into a regular reservation, wilh
contained about 25,000 acres. April 14, 1868, it was ordered
that the reservation should extend to the summit of the sur-
rounding mountains.  March 30, 1870, the land embraced in the
above boundaries was set apart by a proclamation of the
President of the United States for reservation purpose. Mare
31, 1873, an act was passed by Congress setting all lands
formerly embraced in the reservation south of the line betwen
township twenty two and twenty three to the public domain, and
extending the reservation north to the hills with certain
boundaries, as followss The line between to nships twenty two
and twenty three being the southern boundary; main Eel River
being the western boundary; Eel, River being the northern
boundary; Hull's Creek, William's Creek and middle Eel River
being the eastern boundary, containing one hundred and two
thousand, one hundred and eighteen and nineteen hundredths aq
(Palmer, 1880, p. 171.)
Date of original reservation
There is some argument about whether 1858 or 1860 was the
exact date that the land was reserved. Settlers argued that
latter was correct, but contradictory evidence is implied in
the petition from the settlers that was forwarded by then
81
Superintendent Thomas Henley to the commissioner of Indian
Affairs in 1858, asking that the land not be reserved. (See
also below, under date of 11/18/58. ) (Harrison, Michael-
Chronological History of Round Valleys typed mss. given me by
the Sacramento Indian Office, 1937. A.S.)
1858 - Henley to Mix, Sept. 4, 1858
.....Nome Cult....as good, if not the best, location, for the
purposes of a reservation yet selected. The valley which has
been heretofore described containing upwards of 20,000 acres
and surrounded by rolling hills of fine grazing, and abounding
in various descriptions of Indian food, would probably subsist
more Indians than any place of the same extent which can be
found in the State. It is also isolated from other agricultural
lands and is incapable of white settlement.   (My underline A.S.)
.....the settlers in the valley have all made their improvements
with the knowledge of the fact that a recommendation had been
made for its occupancy for Indian purposes...about 20 settlers
?..and (it would cost) about $15,000. for the claims, which is
not more than the actual value for the improvements, all of
which are substantial and would be needed for the government.
But the problem as to whether the Indian is capable of, or will
be benefited ultimately by civilization, or whether he was in-
tended by the "Great Spirit" for any other than the wild and
savage life in which our ancestors found him, remains yet un-
solved   (BIA, 1858, p. 283),
Nov. 18, 1858 - Superintendent Henley directed by the Com-
missioner of Indian Affairs by order of the Secretary of the
Interior to notify all concerned that the entire valley was
set apart and reserved for Indian purposes    (It is claimed
that this notice was not posted until 1860.)   (BIA, 1858).
Jan. 28, 1859 - Henley transmitted to the Commission a petition
by Round Valley settler protesting the reservation    (BIA, 1859).
1861 - G. M. Hanson, Superintendent Indian Affairs, Northern
District of California to W. P. Dole, Commissioner of Indian
Affairs in Yuba City, July 15, 1861.
Re  Nome Lackee
.....parties took possession of the land, saying that they did
it under the sanction of Henley. Got indentured servants of
most able-bodied men; enclosed list of the men and the judge
under whom this was consummated....
82
Round Valley ...
60 miles north of Mendocino, high mountains, 19 thousand acres
of well watered land, 2/3 of which yields a rich reward, the
timber ample for all purposes and all time.
Henley had given permission to settle, there were 20 to
25 farms of more than a thousand acres, enclosed and cultivated
mainly by Indian labor. About 50 white men and 3 white women,
improvements worth some $50,000. surveying going on of most land
in the valley, with a view to taking them as "swamp and over-
flowed land"   (under California law. A.S. )
The stock of the whites overruns the valley. If a few
cattle or sheep are missing (which easily happens with such
herdings as they have) the Indians are accused of stealing as
a matter of course, and are treated with violence. A very large
number of the whites are unmarried men, who constantly excite
the Indians to jealousy and revenge by taking their squaws
from them. In a word, it will be impossible to govern and in-
form the Indians unless these white inhabitants can be alto-
gether removed from the valley. The present settlers express
a willingness to remove on condition that the government pay
for their improvements.
The Indians who remain on the reservations appear to labor
cheerfully with almost no want but food, clothing and tobacco;
they are easily controlled and on removal from associations
with vicious white men, they are capable of rapid and permanent
improvement   (BIA, 1861 ).
1862
1) Letter Jan. 10, 1862, Henley to Sen. M. S. Latham.
.....*suggests selling Nome Lackee and Mendocino.  His sons live
there, and "have ranches and stock, the Indians kill their
cattle and there is no remedy but to kill the Indians.....as
long as there are any Indians left, they will steal cattle.....
I will give you my word that I would rather they would take
half the cost of their improvements than remain there, to go
through the usual routine of losing cattle and killing Indians"
(Goldschmidt, Nomlaki Ethnography, unpublished in 1937, A.S.).
2) Hanson, Superintendent State of California, to Dole, Com-
missioner of Indian Affairs, Mar. 31, 1862.
"continual and additional trespasses committed by the settlers
on the Nome Cult or Round Valley reservation Mendocino County,
rendering it beyond a doubt that something must be done
83
immediately either by law or military force, in order to prevent
the settlers from entirely breaking up one of the best Indian
reservations in California.....nearly all of the best pasture
lands in the valley, the most of which the government has under
fence, has been entered upon by settlers, surveyed and purchased
by them from the State as "swamp and overflowed lands," there-
by destroying the best pasture, cutting down the best timber
and continually throwing down our fences and exposing our
crops to destruction. I have not been able to get legislative
protection from the state, and again urge upon your department
to instruct me.....I have hitherto urged the propriety of paying
all the settlers in the valley for their improvements and then
remove them entirely out of the limits of the reservation.....
Peace and quiet generally prevail among all the numerous
tribes within the district. Occasionally a few cattle are
killed by the starving Indians, whose lives, or others en-
tirely innocent, pay the forfeit or damages"   (BIA, 1862).
Extracts from the "Report of the Indian Commissioner for the
Year 1862," Pages 310 to 312.
As before reported, this valley is located in the interior
of the state, in the northeast corner of Mendocino County,
about 300 miles travel eastly from Smith River Valley, and
separated from the Sacramento Valley by about 50 miles travel
over an exceedingly high mountain, impassable in winter time,
owing to the deep snows, except at one or two indentations at
the southeast. The valley, previous to a late stampede, con-
tained above 2,000 Indians, and, as its name indicates, is
round, containing nearly 20,000 acres of land, over one third
of which is arable, the remainder well supplied with good
living, water, and an abundance of white oak timber, suitable
for fencing purposes; the wet lands producing abundance of
grasses.
The altitude of this beautiful valley is several hundred
feet over the Sacramento Valley, producing every description
of grain and vegetables raised in the eastern states, and well
adapted to the wishes of the interior Indians, and entirely
surrounded by uninhabitable mountains for 20 miles in every
direction.
Originally, as I am now informed by Colonel T. J. Henley,
the old superintendent of Indian Affairs, only a small portion
of this valley was taken up and used by him as a farm, con-
nected with the Nome Lackee reservation; and as a matter of
self-protection, he allowed and perhaps gave encouragement to,
persons to settle on the adjoining lands. The following year,
however, he had the whole valley surveyed for an Indian
84
Reservation, and then gave notice thereof, forewarning further
settlement and improvements on said valley lands. Neverthe-
less, regardless of said notice, many other persons thereafter
made settlements thereon and have entered upon the land en-
closed for purposes of Indian pastures, taking the same up as
"swamp and overflowed lands," and in this way have been a
great annoyance to the Indian service, for the last two years
and no remedy is to be found except by an action at law, which
I have not been advised to commence, the United States sur-
veyor having first reported and returned all the lands in the
valley as belonging to the United States, but afterward sent
in another report saying that this portion of the valley should
have been returned as "swamp and overflowed lands."
I have often urged the necessity of paying the first
settlers in this valley the value of their farms, and at
once remove all of them entirely withoutthe bounds of the re-
servation. * * * * I am more than ever convinced of the great
impropriety of keeping Indians on a small piece of land as an
Indian Reservation, the lines running close around their
houses and the lands they cultivate.
This will never keep away a class of unprincipled white
men, whose business alone is to mix with the Indians and at
every opportunity make merchandise of their children and wives
of their squaws; but by enlarging their boundary you at once
secure peace and quiet on the reservation, and will not re-
quire troops for the protection of either the whites or Indians
for the white man will not be allowed to settle within some ten
or fifteen miles of the Indian villages. It is very important
that the United States government should attend to this matter
without further delay, as additional evidence of the importance
of this matter allow me to say, in the month of June last, the
settlers in this valley surrounded the camps of about one
hundred Ylackie Indians on this reservation, and killed more
than one-quarter of their number, saying that they "had done so
to prevent them from stealing their cattle." Again, during the
growing season of our crops in this valley, the settlers de-
stroyed nearly everything raised on the reservation by throwing
down our fences and turning in their cattle, hogs, and horses.
My informants say that the fences are good, but often find
them laid down in from two to ten places during one night.
After the crops had all been destroyed except a part of the
potatoes, the settlers drove away between three and four
hundred Indians out of the valley, under a threat that, "if any
of their stock was killed, or should be missing, they would
kill every one of the Indians."
Having just received a letter from the superintendent of
that place, I will insert it, which corroborates the reports
of others, and the telegraphic dispatches on the subject, viz:
85
Round Valley Sept. 25, 1862
Dear Sir: It becomes my duty to inform you that the whole of
the Concow and Hat Creek Indians pulled up stakes yesterday
evening and went away. The settlers have succeeded in de-
stroying a large portion of the small grain and the corn crop
entirely. We have found as many as seven slip-gaps of a
morning there. The corners of the fence had been raised and
chunks of wood put in, so that the largest hogs could walk in.
Where they had destroyed the crops, they told the I. that there
was nothing for them to eat, and that they would have to starve
or steal, and that if they did not leave they would kill them.
Quite a number of settlers came in about the time I left, I
suppose to see that all went off right. I did not attempt to
try to keep them by force, for I knew it would be useless, as
I could do nothing alone when everybody in the valley were
doing all they could to drive them off. Old Reese, after I had
supported him all winter, came here and told the Indians to
leave and go home; that there was no longer any reservation;
"that it had gone in." So say the Indians. There were several
of the citizens that went up and spent the night with them on
Eel River, and some of them brought squaws back with them this
morning. Just after they had started last evening, Steve
Smith said, in the presence of a number of Pitt Rivers, that
if they did not go inside of three days they woudl all be killed.
They are very much alarmed, some are for leaving, and others
feeling willing to risk it to stay. If they do stay, and the
whites make a break, if I can save them I will do it, even at
the sacrifice of my own life. I have given up all hope of
soldiers coming to our relief, and the secessionists have got
the reservation. They have got their certificate of purchase
for the swamp land, and say they are going to turn their stock
into the field on the grass. I want to know as soon as pos-
sible what is going to be done - if we are to try to go ahead
in spite of them, or give it up. If we are to stay, let us have
that saw-mill as soon as possible, and we will put up a fence
that cannot be thrown open at will.
On account of the destruction of the crops, I am fearful
that there is not enough to support what Indians are left. If
I could get what is due me, I would give a hundred dollars
towards buying provisions for them. I think the cheapest and
best feed that could be got would be Shorts, on the other side,
and take the mules and all the Indians and pack it over this
fall. There ought to be soldiers speedily sent here, so that
the Indians as well as ourselves, would not be at the mercy of
these rebels when we know that they have no mercy.
86
To the Hon. G. M. Hanson (name of writer omitted)
I shall now be compelled either to purchase supplies from
these same unprincipled men, who thus drive the Indians away,
or remove to Nome Lackee, or some convenient place to navigation,
where I can winter them on cheap flour and beef.
Had the appropriation been made by the last Congress to
pay these settlers for their farms, as I had previously urged
the necessity thousands of dollars would have been saved to
the government and scores of the lives of these inoffensive
and unfortunate Indians. The future of the present year may
present something still more alarming, as threats are constantly
making against both Indians and employes    (BIA, 1862).
1863 July Hanson to Dole
"....When Captain Lincoln, big chief, send Indians plenty
blankets?"..
August  ...meeting at Pence's ranch..."about 300 of the
most infuriated men I ever met'"...resolution to remove every
Indian in the county to the reservation within thirty days...
carried out their threats...hanged two and scalped them...
murdered two men, a squaw and a little girl..."More harmless
persons to not exist, and a more cowardly murder was never
perpetrated."
Captain Douglas found 200 sick Indians from Chico "scat-
tered along the way for 40 miles...dying by tens for want of
care and medical treatment and from lack of food." He accused
the agent of being off on private business to San Francisco,
where he "passed several hundred both going and returning"....
and "I am well informed that he took no notice of them whatever
to relieve their sufferings"    (BIA, 1863, p. 414.).
Austin Wiley, Superintendent California, to W. P. Dole, Com-
missioner of Indian Affairs
"I found a state of feeling existing between Capt. Douglas,
Commanding Officer at Fort Wright, and the officers and em-
ployees on the reservation...The settlers are all extremely
anxious concerning the intention of the government relative to
the purchase of their improvements...Col. Henley, former Super-
intendent, called to see me. He is the ruling spirit among the
cooperhead settlers in the valley and of course knows more of
the situation of the original lines than any other man; indeed
I think more than he would care to tell"    (BIA, 1864, p. 129).
87
Special Commissioner R. J. Stevens to L. V. Bogy, Commissioner
of Indian Affairs
"The Indians are the only things in the valley not pleasant
to contemplate"    (BIA, 1867 ).
1871 - Commissioner J. V. Farwell:s Report of the Investigation
of Claims against the United States
....."The want of a fixed policy...the presence of a sufficient
number of soldiers to make a foothold for a few traders, set-
tlers and camp followers has inevitably fixed the status of the
Indians as doomed to perpetual trials and tribulations unless
the strong arm of the government shall interpose to define
the boundaries of the reservation and protect it from invasion.
There are at present about 100 settlers, all of them squatters,
knowing when they came that it was set aside for Indian oc-
cupancy... I rode over these swamp lands and should consider them
as valuable for cultivation as any in the valley. One large farm
of 2500 acres is claimed by a former superintendent and I was
informed that the work of fencing it was all done by Indians
...timber claims and cattle ranges have been taken up by set-
tlers, reservation cattle are shot on sight...claimants threaten
to shoot any Indians sent by the agent to get timber"    (BIA,
1871, p. 155; U.S. Government Printing Office, 1872).
1872 - Whiting, Superintendent to Walker, Commissioner
"Since the order of the U.S. Attorney General to suspend
all legal proceedings against certain trespassers on the Round
Valley Reservation, some of them have become bold and insolent
...Indians have been driven off and outside stock wickedly
turned into the reservation enclosures, there to riot in growing
wheat, oats and corn...It is not, however, considered a safe
undertaking in the neighborhood of Indian reservations in
California, for a good, law-abiding man to attempt to punish a
bad man and a lawbreaker for an indignity to an Indian or those
having them in charge...It is not considered a crime to steal
horses and cattle in Round Valley, so long as they are taken
from the Indian reservation...*.Originally. the whole of Round
Valley, 25,000 acres, was set apart for Indian purposes.
Afterward an order...extending the boundaries to the summit of
the mountains. The Indian Department has in actual possession
only about 4,000 acres and a portion of that is falsely claimed
as swamp land. The balance of the valley is in the possession
of the settlers, all clamorous for breaking up the reservation
and driving the Indians away...so long as these settlers have
a voice in the selection of our Representatives to Congress and
the Indians have none, they must and will be heard at Washington
.... (BIA, 1872).
88
1873
"Round Valley stockmen never did a better day's work for
themselves than when they rushed the Act of March 3, 1873,
through Congress and the credit which the Henleys claim for that
performance has never been grudged them by their neighbors...
If a tithe of the stories told by settlers in Round Valley
should prove to be true, of the murder, arson, hamstringing and
killing of cattle of the new settlers...the government should
promptly institute an investigation.... (S.F. Daily Examiner,
Feb. 5, 1888, pp. 9-10.).
1875
"By Act of Congress, 2 years or more since, 20,000 acres
of beautiful arable land, worth $25./acre were detached...added
to public lands, to be greedily appropriated by the enter-
prising whites who had inspired this legislation, at $1.25/acre
while the wild mountain lands that were added to the reservation
by the same act, a miserable compromise at best, are still held
and occupied as sheep ranches by squatters, whom the government
fails to eject...*eNot an Indian...owns a foot of land in fee
simple and not one, however much advanced, in civilization,
is secure in his home. If he build houses and plant vine-
yards, he may not be allowed long to occupy one or to gather
the harvest for which he has toiled in the other...a few lines,
skillfully and perhaps furtively introduced into a legislative
act at the close of a congressional session, have been the
means of inflicting a wound on justice and humanity in the
persons of these poor children of the forests for which atone-
ment is difficult and perhaps impossible   (BIA, 1875, p. 7),
4. Wars and Massacres
A. Clear Lake 1849-50
The Stone and Kelsey "Massacre" on the Shores of Clear
Lake in 1849.
The Indian Viewpoint.
"The author, William Benson, son of a white father, and the
hereditary chief of the Xabe-nape and Xolo-napo divisions of the
Pomo, was born about 1862. His version of the story was ob-
tained from the five Indians who killed Stone and Kelsey. The
events in Benson's narrative took place at different times; the
killing of Stone and Kelsey in the fall of 1849, after the gold
discovery...Indians of the Clear Lake region had been dragged
89
along virtually as slaves by the gold seekers, and very few
had straggled back.
"The punitive expedition took place a year later, and was
conducted with a savagery of which Benson's own account gives
only an inadequate notion. Nothing except sadistic lust on the
part of the white soldiers can explain it, since the generally
pacific character of the California Indians was well known,
and Vallejo's agents, under whose control these particular
Indians had been for years before 1849, lived in terms of the
utmost friendliness with them...." (Introduction by Max Radin),
Benson's account, exactly as written, follows:
"Shuk and Xasis..were the instigators...it was not because
(they) had any ill feeling torge the two white men. There
were two Indian villages..the Indians in both of these camps
were starving. stone and kelsey would not let them go out
hunting or fishing. Shuk and Xasis was stone and kelsey
headriders looking out for stock. cattle horses and hogs..
.only those herds got anything to eat.   each one of these (18)
herders got 4 cups of wheat for a day's work. this cup would
hold about one and a half pints of water. The wheat was boiled
before it was given to the herders and the herders shire with
their famlys. the herders who had large familys were also
starveing. about 20 old people died during the winter from
starvetion. from severe whipping 4 died....such as whipping
and tying their hands together with rope. the rope then
thrown over a limb of a tree and then drawn up untill the indians
toes barly touchs the ground and let them hang there for hours.
this was common punishment. when a father or mother of young
girl was asked to bring the girl to his house. by stone or
kelsey. if this order was not obeyed. he or she would be
whipped or hung by the hands...these two men had the indians
to build a high fence arund thir villages and the head riders
were to see that no indian went outside of this fence after
dark..tied both hands and feet.. next day. taken to a tree and
was tied down..then the strongs man was chosen to whip the
prisoner...many of the old men and woman died from fear and
starvetion...the starvetion was the cause of the massacre of
stone and kelsey.........one day the lake watchers saw a boat
come round the point.  som news coming... the white warriors
had come to kill all the indians around the lake.....the indians
said they would meet them in peace. so when the whites landed
the indians went to wellcom them. but the white man was de-
termined to kill them. Ge-Wi-Lih said he threw up his hands
and said no harm me good man. but the white man fired and shoot
him in the arm and another shoot came and hit a man staning
along side of him and was killed. so they had to run and fight
back...many women and children were killed on around this island.
90
old lady (a indian) told about what she saw while hiding under
a bank in under a overhanging tuleys. she said she saw two
white man coming with their guns up in the air and on their guns
hung a little girl. they brought it to the creek and threw it
in the water. and a little while later, two more men came in
the same manner. this time they had a little boy on the end of
their guns and also threw it in the water. a little ways from
her she said layed a woman shoot through the shoulder. she held
her little baby in her arms. two white men came running torge
the woman and the baby, they stabed the woman and the baby and
threw both of them over the bank into the water. she said she
heard the woman say, 0 my baby; she said when they gathered the
dead, they found all the little ones were killed by being stabed.
she said it took them four or five days to gather up the dead.
and the dead were all burnt on the east side the creek. they
called it the siland creek....the whites hung a man on Emersons
iland. this indian was met by the soldiers while marching from
scotts valley to upper lake.  the indian was hung and a large
fire built under the hanging indian. and another indian was
caught near Emerson hill. this one was tied to a tree and burnt
to death. the next morning the soldiers started for mendocino
county. and there killed many indians. the camp was on the
ranch now known as Ed Howell ranch...the indians wanted to
surrender, but the soldiers did not give them time. the soldiers
went in the camp and shoot them down as tho if they were dogs
....they killed mostly woman and children...one old man..a boy
at the time said the soldiers shoot his mother, she fell to the
ground with her baby in her arms. .. his mother told him to climb
high up in the tree..he could see the soldiers runing about the
camp and shooting the men and woman and stabing boys and girls.
he said his mother was not yet dead and was telling him to keep
quiet. two of the soldiers heard her talking and ran up to her
and stabed her and child. and a little ways from his mother he
said laid a man dieing, holding his boy in his arms the soldiers
also stabed him, but did not kill the boy, they took the boy to
he camp crying, they gave it everything they could find in camp
but the little boy didnot quit crying. it was a boy about
three years oa age, whenthe  soldiers were getting redy to move
camp, the raped the boy up in v blanket and lief the little
boy seting by the fire raped up in a blanket and was tils crying
and that boy is live today, his name is bill ball, now lives in
Boonville....One old man told me about the soldiers.. in the same
camp...he must have been about 18 or 20 years of age...he and
another boy. .there were two soldiers in charge of them. . one
ahead and one behind. they both were bear-footed.. when they
were climbing over the bottlerock mountain thir feet...were
bleeding...the man behind would jab them with the sharp knife
fixed on the end of the gun..one of the soldiers came and looked
at thir feet and went to a box opened it took a cup and diped
something out of a sack...took a hand full..and rubed it in the
91
cuts on the bottom of their feet....look like salt..the solder
tied cluth over their feet and told them not to take them off
*..all the solders came up and stood around laughing. they
roled and twisted for about two hours....two or three days
later the chife soldiers told them they could go back. they
was then gaven meat and bread...raped a lot of cloth around thir
feet and by doing so made thir way all right...looking back all
the time thinking that the soldiers would follow them and kill
them....they got to thir home. he said to himself. hear I
am not to see my mother and sister but to see thir blood scat-
tered over the ground like water and thir bodys for coyotes to
devour, he said he sat down under a tree and cryed all day"
(California Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 11, 1932, pp.
266-273.).
B. Round Valley
1858-9
1. My copy of Browne's article is a carbon of the typed ver-
sion which I obtained from the Sacramento Office of Indian Affairs
in 1937, together with a brief vita of Mr. Browne : He was "in
the Revenue Service in California where he reported the sessions
of the first state constitutional convention, later Minister to
China. In 1869 he made an elaborate report on the 'Resources
of the Pacific Slope. "'
The last page contains a copy of a letter from Dorcas J.
Spencer of Alameda (undated) including... "My parents were pioneer
Californians and California then had not many, if any other
writers of Browne's caliber, so his writings were the intel-
lectual tidbits of my girlhood. ....I can testify to its truth.
One of my brothers saw the official survey for the Round Valley.
When the Indians were sent there he went to see whether they got
it, because it was fairly good land. All that land was promptly
seized by white men, the land given the Indians being a barren
region of steep mountains nearly inaccessible until within the
last few years.
"My father's home was probably the only one south of Eel
River that was not notified and its men invited to take part in
the massacre on Indian Island and two others near the coast on
the same night, Feb. 26, 1860. Pardon reminiscences. I know
whereof I speak. I later served as Superintendent of work among
Indians in the National W.C.T.U. nearly twenty years. By the
end of that time I had learned that the Indians of no other
state were so poor and neglected as ours"   (Browne, 1864),
92
1859
Major Johnson reported that on the previous New Year's
certain whites "armed with rifles and revolvers, went to the
several farms upon which Yuka Indians were employed as servants
and in cold blood killed some 40 or 50 of them. They directed
the ranch owners to select such Indians as they did not wish
killed, and they would kill the rest..I have not heard that any
reason was assigned for the massacre, but have understood that
it was a sort of New Year's frolic   (Tassin, 1887, p. 27).
Henley refuted Johnson in the S. F. National of Feb. 5,
1860, and Lt. Carlin, in the absence of Johnson and Dillon,
"answered the aspersions on their courage and veracity."
Pending the solution of the controversy, the state authorized
the employment of volunteers.
Carlin, July 1859, "The captain of volunteers says he will
operate in Round Valley and Eden Valley until all the Indians
are removed...Eden Valley was the scene of religious ceremonies
at certain times of the year"   (Tassin, 1887, p. 29).
1862 - G. M. Hanson to W. P. Dole, Aug. 18
"a short time after I visited Round Valley, Nome Cult reservation,
in the month of July last, about 100 Ylackee Indians voluntarily
came on to the reservation and encamped near headquarters, and
I have little doubt but that they came to secure the protection
of the government employees, and share a portion of the clothing
and provisions issued to other Indians a short time previously.
"The same band, or about the same number of the same tribe,
visited the reservation when I was there one year ago, and I
made them some presents of blankets, shirts, calicoes, etc.
under a promise that they would remain: but not long afterwards
they all left again for their native hills. As soon as the white
men of the valley (who had been some days in search of these,
or some other Indians, who, as they alleged, had been stealing
their cattle) ascertained that these Indians had arrived on the
reservation, they armed themselves, numbering 27 strong, and
surrounded their camps, killing 45 of their number, mostly men.
They allege, as the cause of this outrage, that they had fears,
when the Indians left again, they would steal and drive off
their cattle and other stock.
A few days previously the same party, or a part of them,
attacked some four or five Indians on the reservation, killing
one with a knife. (The supervisor writes me that he was one of
the best and most innocent Indians on the reservation.) The
others they took off and hanged.
93
"I obtained from Brig. Genl Wright to send troops there
for our protection, and still they have not arrived. The truth
is the lands occupied by the government for Indian purposes in
Round Valley are so encroached upon by settlers, who seeing that
Congress has refused to pay them for their improvements, have
determined in my opinion, to get the Indians all off, and take
possession of the entire lands; nor will troops, I fear, pre-
vent them, for I learn they have threatened to drive off or kill
every Indian in the valley this winter....
"I have so repeatedly represented to your department the
immense trouble and vexation caused among us by these reckless
men, and that no other remedy can be provided for it than a
removal of all the settlers from the valley, and payment for
their improvements, except such as have come on to our en-
closed lands or settled in the valley since notice was given
forbidding them to do so"    (BIA, 1862, pp. 310-312),
Hanson to Dole, Aug. 22
"Two or three weeks ago an incendiary set fire to 30 tons
of hay and a barn of a settler. Captain Douglas investigated.
The crime was fixed on 5 or 6 members of the Yuka tribe, one
of whom lived on the reservation, the others with settlers.
The principal testimony was by squaws living with white men,
who testified to threats made by the Indians, who were judged
guilty and hanged. (The supervisor and Hanson were ignorant of
the affair and Douglas' motives "were probably pure.") A
fellow distinguished for kidnapping Indian children has been
arrested, examined, and acquitted for burning this wheat,
although the circumstances are strong against him and nearly
everyone in the valley believes him guilty."
Dec. 31
"Again I beg leave to call immediate attention to the great
importance of. .paying the settlers on Nome Cult. .and remove them
entirely out of the valley. Since my last report, several persons
have entered what they are pleased to call swamp and overflowed
lands on this reservation and have thus taken possession and
even purchased, some five hundred acres of the best land (within
our enclosure) under cover of the law granting to the State
the swamp and overflowed lands. Now these settlers are be-
coming more numerous every year and already exceedingly annoying,
both to the employee and the Indian. A liquor establishment is
kept in said valley, at which place the troublesome white men
become intoxicated, then come on the farms, threatening the em-
ployees, and abusing the Indians and recently they massacred 108
Indians in that vicinity under the pleas that they or some others
had stolen and killed some of their hogs and cattle and on two
94
other occasions within the last two years, several other Indians
have been murdered in the most inhuman and cold-blooded manner.
Counsel, the best I could find to consult, say that we cannot
compel these men to abandon this valley, from the fact that one
of my predecessors invited and encouraged settlement in said val-
ley when he was superintending agent of Indian Affairs. Of
this I know nothing except through information of others, but
one thing is certain, that a great number of cattle are being
brought into the valley by the settlers, and are devouring the
grass upon which govt animals have to subsist; that our fences
are thrown open in a clandestine manner, and thus the crops are
constantly exposed to destruction"    (BIA, 1862).
1863 - Hanson to Dole, April 25
"One Bowers had been killed by an Indian with an axe, and
that Bowers had killed two Indians on the two previous days,
while coercing them to go with him in search of a squaw, by whom
he had a half-breed child."
1863 - Hanson to Dole, June 17
'...received Dole's letter of 25th ultimo, saying "It is dif-
ficult for this office to give you any definite instructions
as to the best course to be pursued..and hence it will be neces-
sary to depend much upon your own judgment."
Hanson called the settlers to offer suggestions and expres-
sed disapproval of the wanton killing of 23 or 24 Wylackis and
especially the employees who winked at or secretly aided in it.
Some viewed the plan for renting and paying them very favorably,
others did not.
Undated - Story of Horse Canyon
Tome-ya-nem, last chief of the Concows "the people were
hungry did not have enough ground to raise corn, potatoes and
watermelons....they go to Round Valley. It was hard work and
there was less to eat, but the Ad-sals (white men) liked the
chief and knew the Concow were good Indians. After a year White
men told them that the Wylackies were killing the stock, that
if they weren't punished they would kill Concows and Whites. I
said, "No," that I knew they were bad Indians, but they had done
no harm to me or mine. They went to the agent who did not know
what to do, other Whites prevailed on him, and he asked them to
go. Some Yukas and Pit Rivers were camped near a place full of
horseheads.  Wylackies thick as leaves, singing, dancing,
children playing, the trees full of drying meat. The Whites,
frightened, asked him to be chief in the battle. He told them
to obey and gave his men orders not to kill women and children.
95
The Concows and Pit Rivers were drunk with blood, tomahawks (?)
used on young and old." One White man and he gathered women and
children, (until) a Yuka came with the news that a White was
killed or wounded, and the man with Tome-ya-nem commanded them
to kill the women and children. Some were hidden among the
rocks, "perhaps they did not die. The dead Wylackies were strewn
over the ground like the dead leaves in the fall, the sky was
black with ravens, and now, in summer days, the bones bleach
.....the Ad-sals were afraid their Great White father would keep
all the valley for the Indians and that the Whites would have to
go to some other home and they hated us for it very much; often
late at night in the springtime, some of the Ad-sals would steal
around our fences and throw them down and drive shumim (?) into
the fields and the- young corn and everything green would dis-
appear in the night"    (Tassin, 1884, pp. 7ff.),
C. Eden Valley and Eel River
N. S. Clark, Col. 6th Infantry, Brt Brig Genl Commanding,
to J. B. Weller, Governor, enclosing letters from Edward Dillon,
2nd Lt. 6th Inf. to Brevet Major E. Johnson, Fort Weller    (Fort
Weller was located on the west side of Round Valley.),
April 2, 185_
"I have said above that the party went to Eden Valley to
hunt Indians returned, having killed two; this is a mistake,
for only a portion returned, leaving the larger number in Eden
Valley, where they have been for nearly two weeks, hunting
Indians...it is currently reported that 240 Indians were killed,
and I have been told by as reliable a man as there is in the
valley that one of the party said they had killed that number.
'Mr. Hall...was here a day or two since and asked me if I
intended to do anything in the matter. I told him I could do
nothing and would do nothing; that, after this recent exploit,
he could expect no sympathy if the Indians should kill every head
of cattle or stock in the valley.   He said that the citizens in-
tended to organize a company to go out and hunt the Indians to
extermination, and I have no reason to doubt that it will be
done. ..
"On last Sunday, Thomas Henley went over on Eel River with
some of his employees, and finding some huts, surrounded them,
and sent an Indian in to tell the Indians to come out and come
into the Reservation, that they would not be shot. Four bucks
came out, but one of them professed to be lame and unable to
walk, whereupon Mr. Henley either shot him or had him shot. The
other three Indians came in with him. Mr. Henley does not charge
these Indians with having stolen anything from him, but says they
96
were too near him and he is afraid they will steal. He says
he killed this Indian because he looked like a bad Indian and he
did not want to leave him. The three Indians who came in say
that all the rest of their band would come in, but they are
afraid. I told the interpreter to tell them to go out and tell
all the Indians they could find to come in or they will be killed
by the citizens, but would be protected here. Night before last
57 came in and I think it likely before long more will follow."
Fort Weller (Round Valley), Aug 21, 1859, Brevet Major and Capt
6th Inf. Johnson to Major W. W. Mackall, Asst Adjt Gen. U.S.
Army.  S.F.
"A war of extermination is being vigorously waged by the
citizens of Round and Eden Valleys and a company of men under
one Jarboe, from Russian River, has started out against the
Indians who inhabit the county adjacent to Round and Eden Valleys.
This Jarboe has been expecting a commission from the Governor
of this State, but had not as I learn, received it when I left
Round Valley. Up to the fourteenth instant, he said he had
attacked 12 Indian rancherias and I am informed that up to that
time he had killed some 50 Indians....Three squaws with young
infants in their arms, were captured and brought in by him,
who informed me that in the attack on their camp, 6 men, four
women and 4 children had been killed.
"A few days after that event, some of the settlers of Round
Valley turned out and killed 11 Indians over on Eel River,
headed by Col. T. J. Henley, late Sup't of Indian Affairs. This
party, three of whom were Col. Henley's sons called on me.
They acknowledged the killing and justified the act by pro-
ducing a horse's ear and two tongues, which they stated had
been found with other evidence of guilt on the part of the
Indians in the rancheria they had attacked. None of the party
complained of having lost this stock, but said that the Indians
had killed stock and would continue to do so. They killed the
Indians and then discovered what they considered conclusive
evidence of their guilt. Col. Henley approved of their course
and defended the acts of Jarboe and party. The Indians, driven
by these repeated attacks from their usual places of resort, have
taken refuge in the almost inaccessible fastnesses of the
mountains, where it is impossible for them to glean even a
scanty subsistence and pinched by hunger have doubtedless killed
some of the stock which, loose and unherded, ranges for many
miles over that country.  But, that they have killed anything
like the amount of which they are accused, I do not believe, nor
is there evidence to substantiate the charge. Every head of
stock that is missing is charged to the Indians.
97
"I believe it to be the settled determination of many of
the inhabitants to exterminate the Indians and I see no way of
preventing it. I have endeavored to collect them on the Re-
servation and several hundred are there now, but they have a
great aversion to coming in, doubtless owing, in great measure,
to the mortality at this time prevailing among thems some eight
or ten per day having died previous to my leaving the valley.
This mortality is attributed to a change of diet, scarcity of
food, and the great prevalence of syphilitic disease among them."
Dillon to Jarboe
"I have received your note of this morning and have to
state in reply that I have no evidence of M. Bland being killed
by the Indians nor do I know of two hundred head of cattle, or
any number of animals having been killed by Indians near the
forks of Eel River, in Long Valley.
"I must therefore respectfully decline to cooperate with
you against the Indians"    (California Legislature - Appendix
to the Senate Journals - Correspondence relative to Indian Affairs
in Mendocino County, 1860, p. 3ff.),
D. Story of Bloody Rock (told by two Potter Valley White men)
"The Shumeias (Uki) tried to get the Pomos to unite against
the White men, but the Pomos told the Americans of the plot. A
company pursued them on the Eel River, hunted them over the
mountains and through canyons with sore destruction. The battle
went everywhere against the savages, though they fought heroically
falling     from village to village, from gloomy gorge to gorge,
disputing all the soil with their traditional valor...
"But of course they could not stand against the scientific
weapons, the fierce and unresting energy, and the dauntless
bravery of the Americans..The smoke of burning villages blackened
the sky at noonday, warping and rolling over the mountains; and
at night the flames snapped their yellow tongues in the face of
the moon; while the wails of dying women and of helpless babes,
brained against a tree, burdened the air.
"About 30 or 40 were cut off, pursued, and escaped up Bloody
Rock, an isolated boulder standing grandly out, scores of feet
on the face of the mountain, the only access by a rugged narrow
cleft in the rear, which one man could defend against a nation.
Once on the summit, they found that the Californians could knock
them off in detail. There was a truce and parley, and three
alternatives were offered. They could continue the fight and
be picked off one after another; or to continue the truce and
perish from hunger; or to lock hands and plunge down from the
boulder. The Indians were not long in choosing; they did not
falter or cry out or whimper, but decided in short consultation
to leap down. They advanced to the brow, joined hands, then com-
menced chanting their death song and the hoarse, deathly rattle
floated down far and faint to the ears of the waiting listeners
..As they ceased and the weird unearthly tones of the dirge were
heard no more, there fell upon the little band of Americans a
deathly silence, for even the stout hearts of those hardy
pioneers were appalled at the thing which was about to be done.
The Indians hesitated only a moment. With one sharp cry of
strong and grim human suffering, which rang out strangely and
sadly over the echoing mountains, they leaped down to their
death"   (Powers, 1872-74.).
E. The Mendocino War
1. Discussed in California Legislature
"The march of civilization deprives the Indian of his
hunting ground and other means of subsistence.*either from
motives of revenge or, what is more likely in California, from
the imperious and pressing demands of hunger, kills the stock
of the settler...and a war is waged against the Indians, with
its incidents of cruelty, inhuman revenge, rapine and murder,
which, we are sorry to acknowledge, have in some instances been
perpetrated by a few of our citizens.
"In Mendocino County..the Indians have committed de-
predations on the stock of the settlers...Some have been, in a
pecuniary point of view, almost ruined...The citizens, for the
purpose of protection to their property, have pursued the tribes
supposed to be guilty to their mountain retreats and in most
cases have punished them severely...the conflict still existst
Indians continue to kill cattle and horses as a means of sub-
sistence and the settlers in retaliation punish with death.
Many of the most respectable settlers in Mendocino County have
testified before your committee that they kill Indians found in
what they consider hostile districts, whenever they lose cattle
or horses, nor do they attempt to conceal or deny this fact. The
citizens do not admit, nor does it appear by the evidence, that
it has been their practice or intention to kill women or children,
although some have fallen in the indiscriminate attacks on the
Indian rancherias...in the recent authorized expeditions...women
and children were taken to the reservations...in the private
expeditions this rule was not observed, but..in one instance an
expedition was marked by the most horrid atrocity...the mass of
the settlers look upon such acts with the utmost abhorrence.
"... inadequate reserves of the Federal government... other
land open to settlement, tho aborigines are still on them....fine
grazing...The stock deprives the Indians of clover, roots, acorns
*....
of
04oo
99
(After trouble in Round Valley, the Indians were driven to
Long Valley, 25 miles away, where they killed some stock. )
"A most fearful retribution...an armed organization of 40
men, which is yet in existence, who go out at the call of their
captain for the purpose of hunting Indians whenever they are
satisfied that any stock has been slaughtered by the Indians,
and without ascertaining the guilty parties, shoot them down
indiscriminately and afterward seek for the evidence of their
guilt.
"Accounts are daily coming in from the counties in the
Coast Range, of sickening atrocities and wholesale slaughter of
great numbers of defenceless Indians in that region of the
country. Within the last 4 months, more Indians have been
killed by our people than during the century of Spanish and
Mexican domination"    (California Legislature, 1860, p. 3ff.).
2. Reported to Washington
William P. Dole, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to C. B.
Smith, Secretary of the Interior, Nov. 27.
...the causes which led to the employment of US and volunteer
forces against the Indians in the frontier portions of Hum-
boldt and Mendocino Counties, and..the crimes that are committed
in the wake and, as seems to be the case, under the quasi pro-
tection of those forces, presents a picture of the perversion
of power and of cruel wrong, from which humanity instinctively
recoils. This so-called "Indian war" appears to be war in which
the whites alone are engaged. The Indians are hunted like wild
and dangerous beasts of prey; the parents are "murdered," and
the children "kidnapped"..... (BIA, 1861).
5. Reservation System
"The government, observing how the old missionaries made
the Indians support themselves and lay up fat stores for the
fathers, devised, in 1853, the reservation system but committed
the radical blunder of sending out professional politicians as
Indian agents, instead of men with some tolerable idea of con-
trolling Indians by moral means...The result...was a disgraceful
failure ,  (Tuthill, 1866, p. 635),
"The number of Indians, men, women and children in California,
at any time after the discovery of gold, did not exceed 20,000...
Capt Wilkes USN..in 1841, says, "The number of Indians is
variously stated as from twelve to fifteen thousand; but it is
100
believed by some of the best informed, that their number, since
the smallpox made its ravages among them, is not much more than
one-half this number, or eight or nine thousand.
"The character of the Indian was as much misrepresented by
Gov. McDougal as their number. The valley tribes, it is true,
always represented the mountain tribes as extremely fierce and
warlike. They were only so in comparison with the valley tribes.
They made some forays, ran off some cattle, and now and then
killed a settler, but their most violent crimes were really
crimes of stealth. Their murders were the murders of the Thug,
not of the bravo.  There were then, at the time Gov. McDougal
wrote, 3000 to 4000 "warriors," mission and wild, poorly armed,
disunited, and of little or no spirit.....
"The national government..sent its quota of arms for 100,000
militia.. .the general govt changed its plans. Three commis-
sioners were appointed to treat with the California tribes and
the militia were ordered to be held subject to their orders.
The treaties they made were simple agreements for the Indians
to go on reservations. The Indian titles were never extinguished
in California as they were in the other states. Most of the
tribes made the agreement gladly, but some of the mountain
tribes feared to come in, on account of anticipated punishment,
or because they preferred their mountain lairs, and were treated
as hostiles. Catching these Indians and bringing them in con-
stituted the 'war of '51 and '52.'
"...an improved reservation system was put in force by
the government in 1853. Klamath...fairly well managed and suc-
cessful...Nome Lackee, west of Sacramento in the foothills of
Tehama County. It had no game, no acorns, no fishery, and no
rain, and hence being useful for nothing else, was eminently
fitted for a reservation. Adjunct to Nome Lackee was Nome Cult
(Round Valley a.s.) a pretty valley of about 20,000 acres, about
sixty miles southwest of the former and across the Coast Range.
The Indians did very well there until the agent and employees
got their relatives, friends, and partners to come and settle
there. Before long that place became too good for the Indians,
as we shall see presently.. *.Mendocino.. ATejon... Fresno...King's
River.
"The management of these reservations was under one of the
ablest Indian rings ever known in America. Not a reliable re-
port went in to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for five
years, but their work was so well done that they received com-
pliments for their able accounts of their labors. The total
number of Indians was scandalously exaggerated. .and the numbers
at the reservations in like manner. So far as can be learned,
not more than 2,000 Indians were subsisted at the reservations
at any time, and they drew principally on the oak trees, the
101
manzanita bushes and the clover fields for their rations.   The
great majority of the Indians were quietly earning their living
as vaqueros and farmhands or picking it up in the mountains,
as they had before the government began civilizing them.
Fabulous numbers of acres were reported to be under cultivation
and magnificent crops were always just about to be harvested
when blight or mildew or smut or drought intervened and ruined
them. A small army of employes was on hand to instruct the
Indians and defend the agency in case of outbreak, and the
agent or employe who failed to get a claim of his own, and have
it fenced and improved by Indian labor, was a man of no enter-
prise.
"In 1858, in consequence of repeated charges by army of-
ficers and citizens, special agent Bailey was sent out to in-
vestigate affairs in California. He did not seem to grasp the
whole truth, but he was not in the ring, and he told the truth
as he saw it. He showed that the salaries alone of the employees
..subsistence for themselves and their families...(was) over
$100,000, that there was no such number of Indians on the re-
servations as reported; that the value of the crops was much
less than a quarter of the salaries..*that the only contented
Indians were off the reservations; that friends and relatives
of the agent and employes had been allowed to settle in the Nome
Cult and create disturbance there; and that the Indians were
neither being taught anything nor civilized in any respect.
The Commissioner of Indian Affairs reported that the California
reservations were a failure"    (Bailey recommended in BIA re-
port to 4Mix, Commissioner, that one reservation be set aside,
in Round Valley, the whole valley.  His underline a.s. ). "He
gave, among other reasons, that the Indians had not been "suf-
ficiently thrown on their own resources." It is difficult to
see how they could have been thrown on their own resources
more fully, unless the acorn, berry and grass crops could have
been destroyed.... a change was made, a new superintendent
appointed; the appropriation was cut down to $50,000. a year;
and Tejon, Fresno, Nome Lackee and Masttole, with all their
improvements, were abandoned in the course of a few years"
(Dunn, 1886, p. 169),
6. Indian Schools
Lame Dancing Masters - an Indian View of Government Schools
- Land of Sunshine 12, 1900, p. 356-8.
We "Red Men" are taken to be educated, enlightened, made
into citizens, taught to take our place in the world. To do
this work upon us, the government pays a small army of men and
women.
102
Are we educated? Yes, but how? Can a lame man teach
dancing? Ninety-nine out of a hundred of our teachers are
lame dancing masters, and it is lame dancing they teach.
There is the school farmer, who instructs us. Is he a
man who has ever farmed in this locality or anywhere under
similar conditions of soil and climate? No, indeed l Has he
ever been able to make a living at farming anywhere? Pre-
posterousl That is not the sort of man who would be chosen. A
man need not have farmed to pass a civil-service farmer's exam-
ination. Indian schools are not "business". If the white-vest
farmer cannot raise his own horse-feed - and generally he cannot
- the government furnishes.  But he teaches us to plow, rake,
harrow, sow, plant, cultivate. How profitable--as we never
realize a harvest under his instruction.
We learn to garden as usefully. Beans are much eaten in a
all the schools - a chief article of diet. They are all pur-
chased,--though 'most any land would raise beans, and all
schools have land that would. We eat beef and mutton - but are
we taught to raise our own cattle and sheep? Only in a few
schools. We eat dried fruit the year round in schools, where
the neighboring farmers have abundance of fresh fruit.
Manual training - is it taught by a skillful workman who
has made a living at his trade, a cabinetmaker, joiner, smith?
None of these, too often the teacher is a woman, who could not
sell all the bric-a-brac she ever made for enough to buy a
summer hat. If the teacher is a man, he is generally as useless.
If he hadn't a job teaching others the trade, he couldn't get
a living. Manual training in many of our schools is merely
to occupy our hands and make us content. It asks no practical
questions of cost of material, time employed, usefulness of the
finished article.
We saw wood, or clean sewers or sink-holes for fatigue duty,
so that we may always have all the distaste for such work that
the penal idea can pile upon its general unpleasantness. We
"clean yard" in much the same spirit. Some boys are made to
read their Bibles as a punishment. This is a good way to make
them fond of the Bible and of cleanlinessl
It is a boast of the service that superintendents of Indian
schools stand in loco parentis to the pupils, but they are
rather amateur parents. Many of these superintendents - men
and women - are unmarried; many who are married are childless.
What do they know about fathering or mothering many, if they
never fathered or mothered any; they call us to them and make
us good talks, but they do not go to the child to see if it is
happy. He is fed and clothed; what more does he want? But ah,
103
friends, we have been happy without these things, in our homes
where love was; in school we have them and are not happy, be-
cause love is not there. How many superintendents ever sat down
to listen to and pity the story of a bruised heel or some other
child woe? but a father would listeni a father would pity.
Even a "red Man" father.
Our matrons are mostly good women, and mostly old maids.
They do not know much about falling in love; they are not quite
qualified to deal with growing girls - and grown ones - who still
have woman-nature undried. These good but unappointed women do
not know how to control and advise natures which crave and have
not learned to dissent; the only recourse such teachers know is
to use punishments. They cannot understand that my sister's
look or gesture of longing is the forerunner of the pretty blush
which so many hundred years of careful training have taught the
Caucasian maiden who of course never betrays her nature except
by a blush I
Our teachers - can they teach? Have they ever been suc-
cessful in other schools, not of Indians? Yes, more than any
other employes in the Indian service. But everywhere many of
them are narrow and strangers. Most of them are Easterners who
do not understand the frontier; most of them cannot take or make
a place in the western communities to which they have come.
They know a little about books - not very much, I think - and
very little about life. White Westerners are not such fools,
and neither are we. The teachers are not always looked up to
by either class. They have not as much respect among their own
people as we have among ours. Does this seem strange to you?
It ought not to, for it is true. Among us Indians, only the
wiser teach the children; among the whites, it seems as if those
who couldn't make a living at anything else get a job to teach
Indians.
Under this sort of a system, of which I have only given
hints, we are brought up in a govt Indian school, after being
taken from our homes. At no point are we in touch with actual
life. At home we would have learned, with fathers' and mothers'
love to do the things we shall have to do. At school we were un-
made as Indians; and not made into white people. We are always
trained by people who do not know our game and never could win
their own.
Many of these teachers mean well. But I think that when a
contract is let to build a school building, the contractor isn't
paid for meaning to put up a building. He doesn't get his money
unless he puts it up - nor then, unless he puts it up right.
Maybe that is the reason so many more take positions than con-
tracts; for the teacher is paid for attempts, the contractor only
104
results. If half as much care and shrewdness were given to
the pupils as to the buildings, the Indian might have some
chance to be really educated   (at an Oklahoma agency),
7. Settlers 1867
Robt J. Stevens, special commissioner, to L. V. Bogy, Commis-
sioner of Indian Affairs on the California situation - res in-
debtedness, where to locate a single reservation, etc. - Jan. 1
Round Valley settlers and the land they have enclosed
W. P. White - Geo. E. Agent
The four brothers Henley - farm
Samuel S. Davis
Witt William H. Johnson (s and o)
D. C. Dorman
W. M. Johnson
M. Corbett
J. A. Wiltsey
H. Schenck
J. H. Thomas
S. M. Smith
J. A. Owen (s and o)
C. H. Bourne (s and o)
R. Rice
S. O. Moore
S. N. Gambrel
S. C. Lawrence
Antone Legar
S. Hornbrook
C. H. Eberle (inside res. limits)
Updegraff (Wiltsew's ranch)
Griffin
Chandler
Morrison (quartersection)
Parnell
Gray (grist and sawmill)
1,600 acres
1,200
640
560
320
320
320
240
100
180
2,000
320
160
160
80
40
160
160
150
160
320
160
320
320
9,990
Settlers' conduct good - waiting for govt action on their claims
- some object to leaving now that hard fight for security is
over - others waiting for money    (BIA, 1867)*
105
Bibliography
Anonymous, "Lame Dancing Masters - an Indian Viewpoint of
Government Schools", Land of Sunshine, Vol. 12, 1900, pp.
356-8.
Anonymous, "A Stolen Valley", San Francisco Examiner, Feb. 6, 1888.
Anonymous, San Francisco Daily Alta, Feb. 9, 1852.
Bancroft, Hubert H., Works, Volume XXIIs History of California,
Vol. V, 1846-48; Vol. VI 1848-59; Scraps, Vol. XXXVI
(Indians); Newspaper Clippings, Vol. XXIII, San Francisco,
1882-1891.
Barrett, S. A., Ethnogeoqraphy of the Pomo and Neiqhboring Indians,
University of California Publications in American Archeology
and Ethnology, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1908, pp. 1-332.   (This series
cited below as UCPAAE).
Benson, William Ralganal, "The Stone and Kelsey 'Massacre' on the
Shores of Clear Lake in 1849: The Indian Viewpoint",
California Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 11, 1932.
With Introduction by Max Radin.
Browne, J. Ross, California Indians, A Clever Satire on the
Government's Dealings with its Indian Wards, Harper Brothers,
New York, 1864.
-----, "The Indian Reservations of California", Harpers Magazine,
1861. Also in Beach's Indian Miscellany, J. Munsell, Albany,
N.Y., 1877.
Bureau of Indian Affairs, Annual Reports, U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1849-1937. (See alphabetical listings Indians of
California, arranged by reservation. )
Curtis, Edward S., The North American Indian, Volumes 13, 14,
Seattle, 1924.
Dixon, Roland B., "Northern Maidu", American Museum of Natural
History, Bulletin 17, 1905, pp. 119-346.
DuBois, Cora, Wintu Ethnoaraphy, UCPAAE, Vol. 36, No. 1, 1935.
Dunn, J. P., Massacres of the Mountains, A History of the Indian
Wars of the Far West, Harper Bros., New York, 1886.
Foster, George, Yuki field notes, 1937.
106
Freeland, L. S.   "Pomo Doctors and Poisoners," UCPAAE, Vol. 20,
No. 4, 1923, pp. 57-76.
Goldschmidt, Walter, Hill Wintun Ethnography, mss. Berkeley, 1937.
Halpern, Abe, Southeastern Pomo, mss.
Kroeber, A. L., "A Ghost Dance in California", Journal of American
Folklore, Vol. 17, 1904, pp. 32-35.
-----, "Handbook of American Indians"   Bureau of American Eth-
nology, Bulletin 78, 191,
-----, "The Patwin and their Neighbors, UCPAAE, Vol. 29, 1930-32.
Loeb, E. M., "The Eastern Kuksu Cult", UCPAAE, Vol. 33, No. 2,
1933, pp. 139-232.
.-., "Pomo Folkways", UCPAAE, Vol. 19, No. 2, 1926, pp. 149-404.
.-., "The Western Kuksu Cult", UCPAAE, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 1-137.
Mooney, James, "The Ghost Dance of 1870", BAE 14th Annual Report,
Pt. 2, 1892-3.
Nordhoff, Charles, Northern California. Oregon and the Sandwich
Islands, Harper Bros., New York, 1877.
Palmer, Lyman L., History of Mendocino County, Alley Bowen and
Co., San Francisco, 1880.
Powers, Stephen, "Northern California Indians" Overland Monthly,
April 1872 - December 1874.
...-, "Tribes of California"    Contributions to North American
Ethnology, Vol. III, 1877 (Department of Interior; Geo-
logical Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, Chapters XII,
XIII, XIV, XVI, XXV, XXVIII, XXX, XXXVIII. )
Spier, Leslie, "The Ghost Dance of 1870 among the Klamath of
Oregon", University of Washington Publications in Anthro-
pology, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1927, pp. 39-56.
Tassin, A. G., "Chronicles of Camp Wright", Overland Monthly
N. S. Vol. 10, 1887.
.-., "Concow Indians," Overland Monthly, Vol. 4, 1884.
Thomas, Sidney J., Round Valley, Mendocino County, California",
Berkeley, 1937   (Unpublished report of 1934 survey of Tribes
of California, for the BIA. )*
107
Thompson, Robert A., "The Russian Settlement in California
known as Fort Ross; founded 1812, abandoned 1841. Why
the Russians came and why they left."  Santa Rosa,
Sonoma Democrat Publishing Company, 1896.
Tuthill, Franklin, History of California, H.H. Bancroft Co.,
San Francisco, 1966.
State and Federal Le islative Documents
(arranged chronologically)
1. U.S. Senate Documents, 2nd Session, 31st Congress, 1850-51,
Vol. 1.
2. California Legislature, Majority and Minority Reports of the
Special Joint Committee on the Mendocino War, Appendix to the
Journals, 11th Session, 1860, Document 4.
3. California Senate Journals - Appendix. 11th Session, 1960.
Correspondence relative to Indian Affairs in Mendocino County.
4. U.S. House of Representatives - Committee on Indian Affairss
Indian Tribes of California, Hearings before a Sub-Committee
of the Commission on Indian Affairs. 66th Congress, 2nd
Session, March 23, 1920 (printed 1921).
5. U.S. Senate - Committee on Indian Affairs: Survey of the
Condition of Indians in the United States.  Pt. 2, 70th
Congress, 2nd Session, Nov. 1928; Pt. 29, 72nd Congress,
1st Session, 1934, No. 26465.
6. U.S. Senate - California Indians Jurisdictional Act, 1st
Session, 74th Congress on S. 1793 (No. 133805), 1935; 1st
Session, 75th Congress, on S. 1561 and S. 1779, Pt. 2
(No. 14286).  Especially Report of Charles West, Acting
Secretary of the Interior, pp. 345ff.
7. U.S. Senate Ruling upon order to Show Cause - Issued by
Honorable Harold Louderback, U.S. District Judge, San
Francisco,Cal., March 17, 1937, continuing contempt of court
proceedings against J.W. Henderson on refusal to produce
certain documents or to give further testimony in the case
of Collett versus Collier, a suit for alleged libel, pending
in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, No. 85496.
Senate 132876, with letter from R.M. La Follette, Jr. to
Hon. Elmer Thomas, March 29, 1937.
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4. Top (left to right).  Emma Ledger, Flora Clark, Polly
Anderson, Annie Feliz (all Concow).
Bottom (left to right). Grace Welsey, Lillian Hixie, Nelda
Curtis, Dorothy Welsey, Alice Ive.
PLATE 4
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5. Top. Martha and Arthur Anderson (Yuki).
Bottom. Arthur Anderson, Austin McLaine, Woody Whipple.
PLATE 5
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8. Top.  Mrs. John Heenan (Yuki-Pomo).
Bottom. Rachel Logan (Yuki).
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10. Top. Dixie Duncan (Yuki).
Bottom. Sally Duncan, wife of Dixie, (Yuki-Wailaki).
PLATE 10
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12. Top. Lucy Young (Wailaki), Age 90.
Bottom (left to right).  Mrs. Olsen, Polly Anderson, Austin
McLaine.
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PLATE 12
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13. Top.  Mollie Major, wife of Fred (Clear Lake Pomo); Polly
Anderson and Johnnie Wilsey.
Bottom. Little Toby (Yuki); Fred Major (Wailaki) .
PLATE 13
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15. Upper left. Austin McLaine.
Upper right (left to right).
Polly Anderson, Genevieve Austin,
Evelyn Brown, Maria (not Indian),
Frank Day.
Lower left. Lucy Young.
Lower right. Ethel Johnson, nee Logan (Yuki).
PLATE 15