California+Scalping


 * California Scalping **

California became part of the United States in 1848 which eventually led to the finding of gold which posed many horrendous problems for the Native Americans living here. The natives already living on the land were supposed to be given rights as an American citizen, but this never happened. People soon saw the prosperous land and gold there could make them money and thousands of settlers moved in within the next few years. Most came between 1845 and 1855 and many were hoping to strike it rich.

Once gold was discovered, people wanted to obtain as much land as possible to mine on. This often included land that belonged to the native tribes but this did not stop the white men. Some were simply marched off their land while others were sent to concentration camps or reservations. Some natives were even enslaved and massacred by the settlers. By 1851 California government put out $1 million to pay for scalping missions. This meant actually murdering an innocent native and cutting their scalp off to prove that you killed them. Why would the government support this? It was most likely due to the wants of the settlers who essentially made the state what it had become. The government was so worried about expansion and development of the country that they forgot to take care of the actual native people. In one account in 1849, white miners found five of their men were missing and immediately blamed local natives. They formed a small militia and killed 20 natives while capturing 80 more. When they tried to escape, they killed all 80 of the prisoners.

For those that found other places to live and didn’t get murdered, life was still not easy at all. All of their fishing spots were now full of debris from mining and logging operations which was one of their main food sources. Animals were also driven away from places to allow for settling and mining which caused many of the surviving natives to perish from malnourishment and starvation. Furthermore, the new settlers again brought unfamiliar diseases to the people here and caused many more deaths from simple diseases that they were not immune from like the white men. In one decade, the population of Native Americans in California plummeted from 150,000 to just 50,000.



Citations:

Oswalt, Wendell H. //This Land Was Theirs, A Study Of Native North Americans//. 9th ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, USA, 2008. Print

//California Superlatives// (blackboard)