Thousands of indigenous people lived unmolested in northwestern California for 8,000 years. In 1849, miners found gold in the Trinity River causing thousands of Americans to flock to Humboldt Bay. They spread inland and exterminated every Indian they came across. The war lasted 15 years. Very few Indians were left. A surviving Indian determined to spread the word of this genocide to America entered UC Berkeley to hone his skills of persuasion. Authorities attempted to cover up his work.
Thousands of indigenous people lived unmolested in northwestern California for 8,000 years. In 1849, miners found gold in the Trinity River causing thousands of Americans to flock to Humboldt Bay. They spread inland and exterminated every Indian they came across. The war lasted 15 years. Very few Indians were left. A surviving Indian determined to spread the word of this genocide to America entered UC Berkeley to hone his skills of persuasion. Authorities attempted to cover up his work.
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Overview
Thousands of indigenous people lived unmolested in northwestern California for 8,000 years. In 1849, miners found gold in the Trinity River causing thousands of Americans to flock to Humboldt Bay. They spread inland and exterminated every Indian they came across. The war lasted 15 years. Very few Indians were left. A surviving Indian determined to spread the word of this genocide to America entered UC Berkeley to hone his skills of persuasion. Authorities attempted to cover up his work.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781647539986 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Urlink Print & Media, LLC |
| Publication date: | 11/17/2021 |
| Pages: | 474 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.95(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Indian Tears Along the Mad River
The Story of the Destruction of Northern California's American Indians
By Rick Ruja
AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2016 Rick RujaAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5049-7352-6
CHAPTER 1
IN THE BEGINNING
If hunter-gatherers, four-thousand years ago, could have chosen any location on earth to live, they could not have picked a site to support a more comfortable lifestyle than the area near the California coast in a region centered between parallels forty and forty-two degrees latitude. This would include the present California counties of Humboldt, Trinity, Mendocino and adjacent environs.
About 17,000 years ago, anthropologists believe, a people who eventually settled in California, crossed the Bering Straits between Asia and North America during the last Ice Age. About 6,000 to 3,000 years ago the Wailakki Wintu emigrated from the Alaskan region along with their powerful cousins, the Hoopa, south to what is now Northern California. The Hoopa settled on the Klamath River, while their cousins moved further south to a well-watered area where the mighty Trinity River and its South Fork tributary converged.
It should be noted that migration theory is commonly held to explain the American Indian presence on the North and South American continents. These migrants possessed physical characteristics such as epicanthic eyelid folds, features identical to those people living in Asia. This viewpoint is shared with near unanimity by the modern scientific community. However certain Native Americans reject this explanation claiming that the theory disparages a variety of Creation Stories that constitute the cultural foundation of many Indian tribes and clans. For example, the Wailakki Wintu believe that their Ke-nes-tah culture was founded through the power of an ancient and revered coyote. Whether these two systems of belief, the migration theory and the indigenous creation accounts are mutually exclusive is a judgment that the reader will have to determine.
The Wailakki migrants found dense sprawling greenery growing throughout the Trinity and its South Fork's watershed. Redwood stands dominated the coastal region of the Pacific shoreline. These majestic trees covered over two million acres and grew to heights exceeding four-hundred feet. The cool, coastal climate ranged from 40-60 degrees F. With the fog's moisture added to over fifty inches of rainfall per year, the Redwoods became the tallest trees on earth. Only the massive Sequoias of the Yosemite Valley exceeded them in bulk. Redwood trees have graced the coast of California for over twenty million years.
The banks of the rivers were covered with a variety of floral species, from conifers like Douglas Fir to groves of deciduous Maple trees. Indian Rhubarb grew alongside Manzanita thickets. The boulder-strewn tributaries roared towards the Pacific, their flow traveling in the opposite direction from that of the Chinook and Steelhead salmon that would arrive to spawn after prowling the Pacific Ocean gaining size and strength. A native's meal of fish might be accompanied by camas root, pine nuts (cha-te-me), wild potatoes (pa-pas) or the Mariposa Lily, a tulip-like plant also, known as sego lily, that could be roasted and consumed. Seasonal acorns were ground into a fine powder through use of the tso-bok and ta-kee (mortar and pestle) and made into soup or bread. With berries in profusion wherever the Wailakki looked, the people decided that this area would make a fine location for a central village. Thus, the first settlement was called Hlelldin, located near the current town of Salyer, off of California highway 299. Their neighbors included wolverine, Black and Grizzly Bear (called noni), herds of elk and black-tailed deer. Above them flew Golden Eagles, the Northern Spotted Owl and the majestic Condor, a high-gliding scavenger possessing the longest wing-span of any bird in the world.
The people spoke an Athapascan dialect referring to themselves as "North-Speakers".
Wailakki life was supported by the creeks that carved tributaries from the river canyons. The dense growth of evergreens clung from the streams' steep hillsides. On the valley floors, oak trees provided, in season, the acorn, an invaluable source of nutrition for the newly-arrived people. But, initially, the rivers were their main source of sustenance supplying not only seasonal salmon but, trout, crayfish and mussels as well as water fowl that filled the flyways in the thousands before resting in the riverine shallows. Birds were hunted throughout the year. Mountain Quail and ducks were always seen as targets of opportunity.
The finest archers would prepare special arrows made from current saplings, just for hunting ducks. The feathers for these arrows came from the Yellow Hammer Bird. The bow wood was taken from either the Ash or Yew trees. Deer products were used to both add strength and suppleness to the bow. For example, boiled deer hide could produce a glue-like substance that was used to attach sinew (tendons) to the wood. Some archers employed the "lacquer" found in beetle shells to cover their bows for both strength and decoration.
The village expanded over time. Five or six dwellings would appear on one bank of a tributary, representing what we might refer to as an "extended" family. On the opposite bank another group of shelters with another extended family would do the same. The extended family was the most critical social unit. A man identified his brother's children with those of his own. A woman behaved similarly towards her sister's children.
The "Clan" or kee-yah would develop over time from the growth of families who shared similar lifestyles. The neighbors became inter-dependent, supporting each other socially, in the communal task of food collection as well as the sharing of specialized skills such as knot-tying, the application of medicine in healing and the art of weapon-making to protect themselves from predators in harvesting game. These included specialized bows and arrows, three-pronged spears for fishing and the surprisingly, deadly slingshots that both men and women used with effect.
Their dwellings were, usually, of two designs. A pit would be excavated two-feet deep. Poles were inserted around the circular depression bent towards the center, then tied together using rope and covered with bark, stones, and dirt. Kewels employed similar technology and materials without the pit being dug. Slabs of thick bark were laid over a pole framework. A hole at the top of the shelters permitted smoke from warming and cooking fires to escape. Inside the kewels, shelves were built for storing food and cooking baskets. The village would be dotted with large woven granary baskets storing the majority of edibles, the large containers placed between the dwellings. An observer of Hlelldin would see smoke spirals from women either cooking over coals or using hot rocks dropped into basketry "pots" that caused water to boil the soup, stew, venison, fish or vegetables.
Upon entering a large dwelling, a visitor would find multiple baskets that held dried salmon or trout, berries, seeds, dried camas roots, tallow and even water that required the most tightly-woven storage containers. Also, the shelters stored tools such as awls, drills, scraper knives, winnowing baskets, and spoons and knives designed to open clamshells.
Obsidian blades and knives were highly sought-after. Rope could be made from grape vines or even from the iris leaf fibers that were split and woven together.
Sleeping arrangements began with laying down a bed of pine needles, surmounted by cedar, Redwood or fir boughs, and covered with blankets fashioned from deer hides and furs. The fir and cedar, in addition to providing pleasant aromas, also, deterred bed bugs.
The village awoke to warming fires being tendered within each shelter. Then the people bathed in the ubiquitous streams and creeks. During the breakfast meal, the village Headman (wee-ah) assumed a central position within the clusters of dwellings in order to direct the day's activities. While not dictatorial, his guidance was welcomed based on his good judgment proven over time. He might present the chances for good hunting prospects based on animal locations reported by the scouts as well as his estimate of the weather's cooperation. He could decide to emphasize the importance of completing certain tasks, like staking out the camas root fields, designating the people he wished to carry out the chore. As the Headman coordinated the day's work, the people would listen while eating their breakfasts of venison or smoked salmon. This was not unlike modern people having breakfast with the radio on. Later, the women, between food gathering and basket-making activity would cook a communal meal to be shared by all at the end of the work day.
Over time, the North-Speakers spread their culture to the south and east, establishing multiple villages along the Mad, Van Duzen and Eel Rivers, in what are now Humboldt, Trinity and Mendocino counties. They ventured as far east as the Sacramento Valley and reached the shores of San Pablo and San Francisco Bays to the south.
Wailakkis as well as their Hoopa cousins were known for a characteristic language pattern in identifying a stranger from outside their village. They used the points of the compass to identify visitors rather than their proper names. Someone living west of the host to whom he was being introduced might hear, "This man is from the west, a 'west-speaker'." The Wailakkis were known as the "North-Speakers" when exploring San Francisco Bay.
By the early 1800's, a prominent family within the Wailakki Wintus, the White Lily clan, was gaining influence. This sub-group would produce offspring who would play key roles in the recent history of the people, notably Ellai, ne Chief Lassik, and his daughter, T'chet-sah ("little girl"), later to be recognized by modern scholars as Lucy Rogers Young.
A review of the historical record of the modern activities of the Wailakki people in the early 1800's can be problematical from the sketchiness, the gaps, that are the inevitable result of the few people left alive for Nineteenth and Twentieth Century scholars to interview and document. But, putting together environmental influences, along with visits by students of the University of California allows a plausible picture to emerge of the likely life and times of certain Wailakki leaders.
It is probable that the boy who would later grow up to be the great tribal leader, Chief Lassik, was genetically-related to members of the White Lily Clan. Some evidence exists, according to Essene, that the young man also, had biological connections to a group known as "Wintun" from the Hayfork Valley. According to Patricia White Lily Burrell, Lassik's clan was closely affiliated with their neighbors, the Hoopa, the Sinkyone and the Nongatl or "Nongaah" people all who spoke related dialects. Lassik was probably born in or about 1810 in an area now known as Alderpoint. It should be noted that in the absence of Caucasian interference, his family was nomadic, ranging from the main Eel River country, into the Kettenpom Valley, the Hayfork area, as well as visiting relatives within the Middle Eel Wilderness to the east. His given name may have been "OelyiO" but, he was called "Ellai". The name meant "tie in knots" and was given to him because of his facility in manipulating rope into knots, a skill highly-valued among his people. There are few pictorial likenesses of this man available today, but from his activities, it is likely that he was a well-formed, somewhat athletically agile fellow who eventually grew to a height approaching five ft. 8 inches. He possessed a strong, sinewy body and was quick afoot. A friendly, even boisterous boy, he was an indefatigable tree climber and a mischievous fellow whose boldness made him stand-out from the typical village males.
One year, when Ellai was ten or eleven years old, his family traveled to a region south of the Hayfork Valley, in late October, in order to gather acorns for the winter in concert with other families and clans. The socializing aspect of these gatherings was nearly as beneficial to group cohesion and spiritual growth as was the nutritious oak nuts they acquired in profusion. While the women, for the most part, harvested nature's bounty, young Ellai went looking for excitement which usually involved prowling around to pester the numerous young girls that were aiding their mothers. While tracking one fetching ten year old Nongatl girl he found attractive, he discovered that a fifteen-foot high rock nestled strategically among a copse of Sugar pine trees offered a promising place for the eleven year old to spy on the object of his affection. A skilled climber, he had started to scale the promontory when he came face to face with a competitor attempting to claim the same vantage point. While Lasik was big for his age this stranger was built like a young black bear, with huge shoulders and massive forearms, standing several inches taller than the startled Ellai. "As the sun watches, who are you and what are you doing climbing my rock?" Ellai scowled, his eyes narrowing.
His opponent was a Mountain Wintun named Whispering Pine, also eleven years old. The latter grimaced at Ellai, wordlessly closing on him, until the bruiser was nose to forehead with the smaller Wailakki. He sneered, "Your rock, huh. You've got a big mouth for a squirrel with small teeth. Maybe, you ought to stick to chewin' pebbles, not stones. How does a buck-toothed chipmunk like you come to own a rock that belongs to my clan?"
Ellai swallowed hard, assessing the Wintun's robust musculature and tried a different tact. Without backing down, he lowered his voice, sotto voce, saying, "What I meant, big boy, was, since you and I are after the same game, why don't we join forces in claiming this rock, if we intend to keep this outpost saved just for a squatting bear and a clever fox."
Whispering Pine continued to glower at Ellai but he understood that he was being offered "an olive branch", a sensible proposal to become allies to keep competitors away. "All right cousin, keep talking, but tell me your name and clan."
The tension eased and the two tough guys backed away. "My name is Ellai; I'm a 'North-Speaker'. So, what do your enemies call you behind your back?"
Whispering Pine began to bellow with laughter like the little bull he resembled. "For a sneaky weasel, you amuse me ... but, I like your courage ... I'll bet you fight like a wolverine when you're cornered." Ellai brushed imaginary dirt from his arm.
He replied smugly, "I'm never cornered, being too fast afoot to catch. Now, if we're going to be on the same side, I must have your name, 'bruiser', or 'ugly bear' won't do."
"I'm a Mountain Wintun, Whispering Pine, whose father is Headman of our village."
"Well, good for your father. Now listen, if we climb to the top, we can get an eyeful of pretty girls hard at work on their knees, maybe, with their cute little bums facing us."
The Pine clapped his new friend on the shoulder. "I like you, Ellai; I like all troublemakers like me ... especially, those who are dedicated bum-watchers." With their course of action established, the two young ruffians climbed to the top of the granite slab and spent the rest of the afternoon leering at the girls who were blithely picking acorns, unaware that secreted in a copse of trees, two boys were studying girls posed in a compromising position, taking great care to pick out the most alluring angel, just what might be expected from pre-teenage Indian boys. Two mountain cats had just bonded.
For the most part, the natives of Northern California behaved as peaceful and cooperative neighbors when they interacted, mainly because the region provided such a bounty of food that there was little to argue about nor a need to establish exclusive territories.
But, as human beings who possessed emotions, greed occasionally caused the tribes and clans to confront each other with war-like intentions. Whispering Pine and Ellai sat eating around a great communal fire one night. Present were representatives of tribes from the Coastal Range west to the sea — Wailakki, Sinkyone, Whilkut, the Yuki-nom, the Hoopa, Karuk and Yurok from up north and even included two Pomo Indians who lived near the north shore of San Francisco Bay. The topic under discussion was the simmering feud between the Yuki and Cahto clans.
After the confrontation was discussed for two hours, a Pomo, Tall-as-Summer-Corn, spoke, staring into the blazing fire. "There's another quarrel that has been threatening the peace south of here. I was trading for clamshell beads with the Ohlone people last summer."
(They lived in the Santa Cruz area, southwest of San Francisco Bay.) The Pomo trader added, grimly, "Two villages nearly engaged in full-scale warfare over grievances each side had built up over time. 'The easterners are trespassers,' one man announced, 'They take our geese and ducks, never bring gifts when they visit, pick our acorns and now one man has raped a local woman!' This call for revenge stirred up the people of the aggrieved village. In spite of the respective Headmen attempting to quell the anger growing on both sides, a western speaker argued for a 'line battle' ... to 'teach those eastern devils a lesson'. This angered the other village and within six days, in the meadow that separated the two villages, two forces faced each other. Several truculent speakers from both sides demanded that blood be spilt. Each side shook its bows and insulted the other line. Each side was, also, careful to allow the opposition to see its weapons and preparations, for the battle was not so much about killing as a test of wills. But, this was a provocative event that could unleash violence if matters continued to spiral out-of-control."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Indian Tears Along the Mad River by Rick Ruja. Copyright © 2016 Rick Ruja. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgment, vii,An Admonition, ix,
Preface, xi,
Introduction, xix,
Chapter One: In The Beginning, 1,
Chapter Two: The First White Men, 13,
Chapter Three: The Ozarkans, 32,
Chapter Four: The Origin Of The "Natural Bridge" Massacre, 43,
Chapter Five: Lassik Asserts Leadership, 47,
Chapter Six: Summer 1852, 61,
Chapter Seven: Fall 1852, 69,
Chapter Eight: A Town Burns, The Countryside Follows, 76,
Chapter Nine: A War To The Knives, 102,
Chapter Ten: The New World, 147,
Chapter Eleven: Life Along The East Fork, 159,
Chapter Twelve: "Head 'Em Up, Move 'Em Out", 195,
Chapter Thirteen: The Demise Of Blackjack Ketchum, 228,
Chapter Fourteen: College, 272,
Chapter Fifteen: The World Of Learning, 297,
Chapter Sixteen: The Truth Will Set You Free, 340,
Chapter Seventeen: Along The Red Road, 402,
Epilogue, 435,
Afterword, 441,
Glossary Of Terms, 445,
Footnotes, 449,
Bibliography, 451,