Beyond Basketry: Native American Memorialization and the California Gold Rush

California Indian Memorialialization: Museum Exhibitions

After the arrival of the Spanish and the imposition of the Mission system in the 17th-century, the California Indian population dropped from approximately 310,000 to 100,000 in less than 100 years (OPH). After the Mexican defeat of the Spanish in 1891, Mexico issued land grants to Mexicano's and naturalized citizens, such as Swiss immigrant John Sutter, who received 49,000 acres and established a fort built with Indian labor (OPH, NPS). Sutter's example is perfectly in keeping with the treatment the Indians faced under Mexican rule; but when California was seceded to the United States by Mexico under the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, things became decidedly worse.

Memorials to and exhibits about the California Indians heavily focus on their existence prior to colonization (Dartt-Newton), a narrative built around a utopic existence where they lived off of and in harmony with the land, isolated from and uncomplicated by external strife. Attention is paid to the catastrophic effect of Spanish inflicted atrocities, but typically skim lightly from the end of the Missions to the modern day - if that (Dartt-Newton).

Displays showcase the following - examples pulled from the State Indian Museum, established in 1940 and updated in 1986, are nearly identical across the state:

• Basketry
• Ceramic vessels
• Land and resource management
• Hunting and gathering practices
• Cooking - especially that of acorns
• Clothing and ceremonial dress
• Ceremonial and spiritual practices
• Architecture
• Trade

Indian Slavery and John Sutter

The Gold Rush forever changed the history of California. Bringing immigrants from around the world, the white population skyrocketed from around 15,000 to around 300,000 within a few years thanks to the influx of prospectors and those aiming to make a profit or find an uncontested place to settle (Starr). Towns and cities sprang up, and agriculture and farmsteads were established to support the need for food and goods (Magliari). White settlers turned to the remaining California Indians to fill the need for labor. Used largely for ranch or domestic work, the Indians were relegated to slave status, largely thanks to the Indian Act of 1850, which established laws to govern the natives (OPH). These laws were highly reminiscent of the Antebellum Black Codes of the North, criminalizing the act of existence and sentencing those who broke it to indentured servitude in a white household. Vagrancy and lack of employment were among the criminalized behaviors, and the law also remanded native children to white caretakers (OPH). The law in no way provided protections for the Indians, and also instituted the creation of reservations. As cheap labor became more readily available with the continued influx of immigrants, and the Indians with confined to poorly maintained reservations where thousands died from starvation, lack of shelter or clean water, disease (Magliari).

The embodiment of this system is undeniably John Sutter, considered one of the great pioneers in California history. After securing his 49,000 acre land grant from Mexico, Sutter - using Indian labor - built a fort designed as plantation house, homestead, and trading post or waystation for arriving pioneers (Magliari). Sutter made deals with the Indian tribes in his immediate vicinity, the Miwok and Maidu, exchanging goods and land for labor. When this was not enough, Sutter turned to less than scrupulous means, kidnapping women and children to serve as domestic work and killing or enslaving able bodied men. Using their labor, Sutter practiced agriculture and ranching, providing little shelter or sustenance - even feeding them from troughs. Southerners visiting remarked on the likeness to Southern slave plantations. (Starr)

Sutter's Fort is now an immensely popular state park in Old Town Sacramento, a small riverside section of the state capital where visitors can walk along wooden walkways, the railroad history museum, and Sutter's Fort State Park. After Sutter's death, the dilapidated fort was partially rebuild as a memorial, and during the 20th century, it was expanded upon to create a replica of the fort as it once stood (Sutter's Fort). At this state park, visitors can experience living history through exhibits and reenactors (Sutter's Fort). The park is devoted to showcasing life as it was during the beginnings of the state, but little space is reserved to include the California Indians that lived and died working for Sutter. In the last decade, an effort has been made to rectify this in some small way, and new exhibition panels offer a harsher, more realistic representation of that history.

California Indian Memorialization: An Unmarked Field

California Historical Landmark Number 900 may as well not exist. Marking the spot where the Nisipowinian people - a subset of the Maidu tribe - lived, the site is located outside of the reconstructed fort in Sutter's Fort SHP, this unmarked field has no plaque, memorial, or evidence of those who lived or are buried there. Save for the inclusion of the site - at the end of the archery range, with an incorrect spelling of the tribe name - as a registered California State Historical Landmark, one would never know that this was a site of historical interest or prior civilization. (Schmidt)