California Indians that survived the ordeal of genocide were looked upon as primitive savages that needed to be civilized by white Christians and "sympathetic"
Government officials. In 1890, Indian Boarding Schools were established and infants as young as 3 months old and other minor children were forcefully taken away from their parents and transported to several established
Indian boarding schools for de-culturalizing. Since Indians were not citizens they had no legal right to protest. Schools opened up in Greenville, Plumas County, Ft. Bidwell, Hoopa and other sites in California.
Children were severely beaten for speaking their language with friends and relatives or singing Indian songs and strict discipline was imposed. Academic classes were neglected and the curriculum emphasized vocational
instruction to teach children skills that would benefit the white population. Boys were taught harness making, shoe repair and farming and trained to become soldiers. Girls learned home making and how to work in laundries and
kitchens.By the turn of the century the Indian population had diminished from 300,000 to its low of 15,000 and Indians were no longer perceived as a threat to the domination by the white population or to their plans
for the development of the state. As the Indian population declined the diminishing few became subjects for study by scientists and objects for the charity of philanthropists. After the Modoc war ended several
organizations were formed as "Friends of the Indians" The National Indians Rights Association of 1882 was paralleled by organization of the Sequoya League in 1901 by Charles F. Lummis and other
prominent white Californians. In the early 1920's the Sequoya League was succeeded by the Mission Indian Federation, an organization of whites and Indians dedicated to improving the
status and conditions of southern California Indians.
Meanwhile, in Northern California similar humanitarian work was undertaken by a variety of secular and religious organizations. A Northern
California Indian association purchased a small tract of land for homeless Pomo Indians in 1902. Later Mr. C.E. Kelsey persuaded Congress to appropriate moneys for additional lands for California Indians. Frederick 0.
Collett, a Methodist Minister, worked towards and won citizenship rights for most California Indians in the early 1920s. He also launched a campaign to win compensation for lands that had been promised by the U.S. government
to the Indians in eighteen separate treaties negotiated in 1851 and l852. The Senate responding to pressure from white California settlers who were worried that any land deeded to the Indians might have gold protested the
treaties and they were never ratified by the Senate. The treaties were rediscovered in the Congressional archives in 1905 after action had been deferred for over half a century.
Although the federal government
provided Indian lands in trust and assumed responsibility for their protection, whenever white settlers wanted the land Indians resided on the government was always ready to dispossess the remaining Indian population and move them
to remoter areas where there was no demand for the land. When Northern California Indians from several tribes in Butte and other northern California counties were herded and confined to the Nome-Lackey Reservation
residents in Tehama County protested and Indians were transported to the concentration camp-like environment of Round Valley Indian Reservation in Mendocino County. When the US Supreme Court ordered the removal of
Indians from Warner Springs in Southern California Lummis and others petitioned the United States to establish other lands for the evicted Indians. The protests by Lummis and the dispossessed Indians were not tolerated.
Fifty-seven Indians were indicted for conspiracy against the United States.
Indians were looked to by the nation to fight in World War One and the attitude of the nation grew more tolerant. In 1924 California
Indians were given some citizenship rights but they were still not allowed to purchase alcoholic beverages. The government continued their trust relationship with the Indian people and provided them with basic necessities of
life, job training, protection, and held some lands in trust.
Once Indians were given citizenship in 1954 the federal government eliminated special assistance given to Indians including
the provision of basic life staples, job training, and protection.. The termination of benefits was recommended by the California State Legislature, which was never a friend to the Indians. The cutoff of assistance
amounted to a disaster for both Indians and the State of California; forcing more people on to the welfare rolls and creating desperation leading to larger numbers of Indians either going to prison or dying needlessly.
The last in the series of articles on California Indians will address legislation and include a bibliography.
