In Memory of an Indian boy

Shasta Cemetery

In the Inquest Record, Lucy is quoted as expressing fear over the well-being of her children.  She had good reason.

During the “Indian Wars” of the 1850s and 1860s in Humboldt County, Indian children were quite vulnerable.  Many were purchased or taken as pets or servants, but even then, they weren’t fully protected.

1861, June 22, Humboldt Times-Outrageous—An Indian boy, in the service of Mr. Swain, Elk river, aged about fifteen years, was murdered while at work in the garden of his employer on Wednesday.  He was shot through the body with a rifle ball and died almost instantly.  The boy had lived with Mr. Swain, we are told, for several years; indeed, had been brought up by him almost from infancy, and is said by the neighbors to have been a good servant and an unoffensive lad.   Although this deed was committed in the daytime and but a short distance from the house, it is not known who was the perpetrator; but whoever it was we trust he may be known and have justice meted out to him.  A man who will kill an Indian boy in this manner, without adequate cause, but merely because he belongs to that race of human beings, is not exalted above the savage.  It is cowardly acts like this that casts a foul stain upon the reputation of this county, and paralyzes the efforts of those who endeavor to secure aid from Government to protect the lives and property of her citizens from the attacks of hostile bands in the mountains.

Samoa, a POW Camp in 1862

  

Samoa Peninsula, taken from Kneeland

 

The other day a friend talked about going surfing on the Samoa peninsula.  I forgot to tell him it used to be a prisoner-of-war camp. 

It was at the height of the Indian wars.  The soldiers had built a corral at Fort Humboldt to contain the Indian “prisoners”, but that hadn’t gone well.

 HEADQUARTERS HUMBOLDT MILITARY DISTRICT,
Fort Humboldt, June 8, 1862.

MAJOR: I have the honor to report…that the limited number of troops at this post renders it impossible to detail a sufficient guard (in addition to that required over the many general prisoners in the very weak guard-house) to safely deep the large body of Indians now here and constantly accumulating. This fact, together with the frequent complains from the Indians that white men, soldiers, and others, were nightly having intercourse with the squaws (a knowledge of which prevented many Indians at large from coming in), rendered it in my judgment necessary to take measures to suppress this evil, and at the same time secure the safe custody of the Indian prisoners. Accordingly I ordered the construction of a circular corral, now completed, eighty feet in diameter and ten feet high, to be built of two-inch plank twelve feet in length, standing upright, and two feet in the ground. The cost will not probably exceed $150, and the plank will be perfectly available for others purposes in the future. I trust my action in this matter may be approved by the general commanding, as it seemed absolutely required in view of the facts above stated, and of the facility with which all these Indians, collected at so much expense by the Government, could at any hour of the night break for the dense forest 100 yards distant, and in five minutes thereafter be beyond pursuit.

I have the honor to remain, your most obedient servant,

JAS. N. OLNEY,

And while the corral may have been built, in part, to protect the female “prisoners”, the Natives held there began dying in alarming numbers.