On March 14, in preparation for PANA’s Sacramento Delta Pilgrimage, we were honored to have members of the local Native community speak with us about the impact of the Gold Rush on the Native peoples of California. Corinna Gould (Muwekma Ohlone), Zoe Holder (Omaha), and Elder Eileen Baustian (Tlingit) were our teachers, guiding us to see the longer historical pattern and present day issues. We also watched the film Gold, Greed, & Genocide: The Untold Tragedy of the California Gold Rush. Following are some brief notes from the evening, recorded by Rev. Deborah Lee.
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For Asian Americans, the Gold Rush marks the early beginning of Asian immigration in America, with the migration of Chinese miners and laborers. But for the Native peoples of California, the Gold Rush marks a government policy of extermination of the Native population, the destruction of their environment and the loss of their land. We must acknowledge that no matter under what circumstances our Asian ancestors came here, they were still visitors on this land. It is so important to hear this history, to strive to make connections in a deeper way, and to understand the relationship between this Native history and the history of the early immigrant laborers from China and the Philippines.Pre-Gold Rush:
The devastating impact on Native peoples of Californian had already begun with the Spanish Mission System. The Spanish came up from Mexico using ancient Native roads, such as Highway 101, and set up 21 missions from1769-1823. Their larger goal was not religious conversion, but the militarization of California as a Spanish territory through establishment of forts and presidios alongside the Missions. These Missions were built by Native slave labor. (This aspect is often left out of California grade school study of the Missions.)
The Missions supported the military occupation by providing food, supplies and manufacturing for the soldiers. Soldiers guarded the missions.
Native peoples came to missions because they were rounded up, or their villages had been destroyed so they had no choice but to go to the missions for survival. There they were forced to convert to Christianity and not allowed to speak their own language.
There were many runaways and organized Native slave rebellions at the missions. Mission Dolores and Mission San Jose were sites of guerilla slave rebellions. Some missions were burned down.
There were 60,000 recorded deaths in the Missions of disease, post-traumatic stress syndrome and broken hearts. In 1821, following Mexico’s independence from Spain, Mexico took over and in 1836 ended the mission system. By Mexican law mission Indians were supposed to get parcels of mission land, but they did not.
After the end of the mission system, many became agricultural laborers and went to rancherias. Because it was dangerous to be Native, many survived by becoming “Mexican.” The traditions and ceremonies that have survived till today were practiced in secret.
California as part of the U.S.:
In 1850, California became part of the United States. The U.S. government had already learned from its extermination practice of Native peoples across the continent and applied it to violently gain control of resource-rich California.
During the Gold Rush years, the Native population declined from 150,000 to 31,000 due to starvation, forced removal, deliberate killings by white townspeople or private militia paid by state of California. The State of California was paying $5 per head and $.25 per scalp to anyone who could show such proof of having killed a Native. As a result, there were many massacres. For example, in Eureka 1860, women and children of the Wiyot tribe were massacred. Other examples were Kelseyville and Mt. Shasta.
Though California entered the Union as a non-slave state, the 1852 Enslavement Laws made it legal to enslave Native peoples. If you were found loitering, a white person could take you to court and you would become their indentured servant. Native people could not represent themselves in court. Survivors of the massacres and genocidal policy were enslaved. 4,000 Native children were bought and sold as slaves, serving as laborers in mines or ranches, and as sex slaves. Others were moved onto concentration camps or reservations.
The Gold Rush brought on terrible devastation of the land: clear-cut logging, excavation of the earth in the mining process, tons of waste flowed down into streams dropping 12 billion tons of silt. Mercury was used to extract fold from ore. To this day we live with the impact of mercury contaminated rivers and bays. Many elders and fishermen died of mercury poisoning, their livelihood and their diet destroyed.
Today:
Many tribes still to this day are denied legal recognition. Ohlone tribes are currently seeking federal recognition. Without federal recognition, they have no rights to their ancestors' remains and bones, for example those that have been dug up in constructing the Bay Street Emeryville shopping mall in Emeryville, or in housing developments. UC Berkeley and SFSU hold thousands of Native remains in boxes.
Corinna Gould is one of the founders of the Shellmound Walk, a pilgrimage which takes place annually in the weeks before Thanksgiving, bringing public awareness to the more than 475 sacred Native Shellmounds where native peoples were buried around the Bay area which have been paved over, and built upon. She says, “We believe that the land was given to us to take care of. The Shellmound Walk connects us to the land. We must know who are ancestors were and be the voice of the ancestors so we can move forward. Even if that means praying in the parking lot. Those who have come here since have no connection to the land.”
Some facts about Native Americans:
- 95% of native population was killed since the arrival of Europeans.
- There are 18 treaties between the U.S. and California Native tribes which were never ratified in California. These treaties were "lost" until 1905; the U.S. Government eventually paid California Natives 41 cents per acre for some of their land.
- It was not until 1924 that Native peoples could become citizens.
- And only in 1978 could they practice their freedom of religion under the American Indian Religious Freedom Act.
- They have the highest per capita to join armed forces.
- 70% live in the cities.
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