What happened to our social safety net?

Those without a dwelling place

Yesterday I said that there was no welfare or other social safety net for widowed or abandoned women in the settlement period,  but that wasn’t quite true.

 In 1855, the Humboldt County Supervisors added a five cent tax for every hundred dollars of property value.  These funds would be used to assist the sick and indigent.  

People wanting the services of a physician needed to be within four miles of the doctor and prove their need.  The Doc was also required to keep a book with the names of the folks he treated and the details. 

By 1857, the supervisors added a caveat that anyone claiming need had to petition their supervisor directly for approval.

As a side note, it is interesting that in a community where the local newspaper gleefully reported that local natives  were “entirely starved out” ,  the county paid $170 to A.S. Baldwin to help Lewis Howard, a “man of color”.   In August of 1857, the county purchased $12.75 worth of clothing for Mr. Howard and in February of 1858, a coffin.

Over the years, the fund was used to pay for room and board, physician services, druggists, as well as funeral expenses and coffins.

Ironically, today we seem much less willing (or able, depending on your views) to care for our sick and indigent.  The New York Times recently reported on California’s budget crisis, and the ensuing cuts to health care and other services for those most in need

While the state’s health insurance program for children, Healthy Families, remains, it was cut by $144 million, meaning thousands of children will probably be on a waiting list for the program ….

In-home services for the elderly and infirm were reduced by several million dollars.

 When I talked about the lack of a safety net yesterday, perhaps I should have been referring to now.

It isn’t flowers, but elk and grizzlies and salmon that have gone…

Elk herd hangin' by Hwy 299

The phone rang this morning about three minutes after my husband left the house.  My son answered and shouted to me, “The elk.”  Ok.  I knew what he meant.

We live just west of Blue Lake and at least once a year the elk come down out of the hills to graze along side the road.  There are at least forty of them, with more than a few big bulls grazing among the many cows.  As I drive up, they lift their towering racks majestically,  and watch me watch them.  They don’t trust me, but aren’t afraid.  It is an amazing thing to see.

According to many newspaper reports and letters written when the whites first arrived in Humboldt County, elk herds were a common sight.  As were grizzlies and rivers so full of fish you could cross the water balanced on their backs. 

 No more.  The Grizzlies are gone, silt clogs the rivers instead of salmon and the sight of an elk herd is a novelty.

From Humboldt Bay, written to San Francisco, May 19, 1850

To the Editors of the Alta California:

…   Most of the country through which we passed was the most beautiful I ever beheld.  Some parts are very heavily timbered with spruce and red wood.  The whole country abounds in wild game of every description.  On my expedition I saw five large fine elks and had a shot at two of them with my pistol.  On yesterday a party of Sonorians killed six elk, the largest weighing 600 lbs.  The more I see of this country the more thoroughly am I convinced that it is destined to become the seat of a large commercial city.  It has every local advantage that a site for a city can possess. The only annoyances we now have are from the Indians.

Setting the stage for legalized slavery In California

1847 Map of Yerba Buena, aka San Francisco

 

As early as 1846, the powers that be in California were setting the stage for legal indenture, or enslavement, of Native Americans. 

 Captain John B. Montgomery was commander of the U.S.S. Portsmouth stationed at Yerba Buena, later known as San Francisco, when he received orders to claim the town for the United States.    Montgomery placed an American flag at the Plaza on July 9, 1846 and worked with Lieutenant Washington Bartlett, a junior officer on the Portsmouth, over the next five months to organize a local government for  San Francisco.

 In September, 1846, Montgomery issued the following proclamation.  On the surface, it appears to guard the Natives against illegal capture and enslavement, and in fact the title of the San Francisco history page where the proclamation is posted is called “End of Indian Slavery in San Francisco”.  But if you read closer, the wording simply transferred control of those natives from non-Americans to Americans by requiring those wanting Indian servants to obtain a contract from an American Justice.      It also requires that all natives “obtain service”, so they had to work for someone or risk “arrest and punishment by labor on the public works”.  

Censoring history doesn’t change it, so I’ll resist

From Kapel; shows extreme isolation of the area

So  I’m sitting here this morning trying to think of something to post instead of the following, but… but I do think it is important to tell the whole story and not edit the ugly parts, as much as I want to on this bright and sunny day.  So… here it is.

The more I think about it (and read the available info), the more I have to admit that the whites were right about one thing.  The natives did need protection.  The isolation of Humboldt County offered a convenient haven for “unscrupulous whites”, who felt free to act with impunity.  As late as 1857 the county supervisors were still trying to get a jail built and the folks in Orleans were using a tree to hold their prisoners.

Humboldt Times, October 25, 1856-Orleans Jail–Quote from the Sluice Box, describing the Orleans Jail:   ”Erected in 1232, built of live oak—a large oak tree with a staple and chain attached…. “

 

The North Coast was a good place to be if you were a bad guy. The Natives weren’t always the only ones targeted by these thugs, but those on the reservations were easy to find and vulnerable. Nobody cared much if did whatever you wanted (or at least they didn’t stop you)  and if the Natives resisted, you could simply kill them.   And unfortunately, as the following shows, the reservation didn’t necessarily offer the protection promised to the Natives by the government…   I’ve used excerpts of this article before, but the whole thing gives you a better picture of the white men involved.

[As an aside, some of my husband's ancestors are from Kapel....  This could be his great-grandmother who was stabbed.   Also note that in the second article, the rape of the two little girls isn't even mentioned. ]

A quiet (and ineffectual) voice of reason

Ah… done with the little detour about the Royce’s journey to Weaverville and the Relief Parties formed to help the emigrants get to California alive,

 so now I’ll continue the thread on the reservations.

I used to wonder if I had a right to tell these stories.  I’m about as pale as you get and don’t have a single Cherokee Princess anywhere on the family tree.   How, I wondered, could I relate?

Then I realized that these aren’t “Native American” stories.  These are stories about PEOPLE, who happened to be indigenous to this area.  And stories about people, we can all relate to.   I don’t know how many people have been evicted from there homes, but even those likely had more than half a day’s notice.  The survivors of the Indian Island Massacre were told to be packed by sundown and could only take with them what they could carry.  They were then forced to walk to the Klamath Reservation, over sixty miles away. 

Look at your spouse, your children.  Could they walk to Garberville (if you live in NorHum), Eureka (if you live in SoHum), or any other sixty miles carrying everything they could ever need?   (Yeah, that’s what I thought when I looked at my kids).

Problems with the Klamath Reservation didn’t stop ‘em

Mouth of the Klamath

Continued from yesterday’s post.

There were problems with the Klamath location for an Indian reservation, which were pointed out by those outside of Humboldt County. 

New Klamath Reservation–  We had the pleasure a few days since of perusing a private letter from one of the deputies of the Indian agent of the Northern part of the State, dated at the Indian Reserve, near the mouth of the Klamath River.  He thinks the place is a bad selection, and wholly unfit for the purpose intended.  This is [not] the first time this opinion has been expressed in relation to the Klamath Reserve.  The valley, or rather valleys, are narrow, skirting along the river for several miles, separate by spurs of mountains, intersecting the river at various points.  These valley are (unknown word, likely “not” ) adapted to cultivation and game is scarce.  If the Indians have to obtain subsistence by fishing, the Government had better leave them… unmolested.–~Trinity Journal

Response from the Humboldt Times…

Saving a starfish

Baskets were sometimes the only thing of value the Natives had

While walking along the ocean, a man saw thousands of starfish the tide had thrown onto the beach. Unable to return to the water during low tide, the starfish were dying. He observed a young man picking up the starfish one by one and throwing them back into the water.

After watching the seemingly futile effort, the observer said, “There must be thousands of starfish on this beach. You can’t possibly save enough to matter.”

The young man smiled as he continued to pick up another starfish and tossed it back into the ocean. “It matters to this one,” he replied.

                This story is used by CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates)   an organization near and dear to me that provides volunteer advocates for children in foster care.  I’ve included the little story because I  believe the same sentiment can be applied here.  

Where are my heroes?

 

Unknown subjects

There has been much discussion of the treatment of Native Americans during the settlement period, and if present day folks really have a right to judge the settlers for their actions when we can’t truly understand their experience. (Ernie’s Blog  is a good place to read some different perspectives on the topic).

I have been following the discussion with the unspoken conviction that there were good people here during the settlement period.  People that recognized the inhumanity of the treatment of the natives and did what they could to help.  When I first found Carpenter’s article, Among the Diggers of Thirty Years Ago,

published in the Overland Monthly,  by Bret Harte,  I thought I’d found a progressive thinker and I was thankful that someone had provided us with such a vivid  and sympathetic picture of the settlement period and the experience of children kidnapped and indentured. 

Among the Diggers

   

 

  

Another "quail" by Grace Carpenter-Hudson, Helen's daughter

This is the third part of a three part series containing excerpts of an article, Among the Diggers of Thirty Years Ago,  written by Helen Carpenter, a resident of Mendocino County during the settlement period.

 

 

 

 

 It is interesting to note the  Carpenter’s article was published in the Overland Monthly—  in 1893, by our own Bret Harte .

 Click HERE for Part 1

  and HERE for Part 2 …

 … On one of Cap’s trips down from his stock ranch, he stopped for the night at a farmhouse. Three Indian boys accompanied him, and although the weather was cold, they had no clothing except shirts, miner’s sizes at that, although the boys were little higher than a chair. Cap told quite a pathetic little tale of the death of their parents, and friends of the boys wanted him to raise them, etc, etc., all of which was not disputed by the boys, as they could neither speak nor understand one word of English ; but they knew how to eat, and the farmer’s wife fairly stuffed them before making them comfortable for the night in the kitchen, before a large open fireplace. In an adjoining shed hung half a beef, and those little fellows put in a good part of the night cooking and eating such scraps as they could haggle off with a dull case knife; and then before it was fairly daylight they captured a lot of young chickens, thinking no doubt they were grouse. Timely interference saved the chickens, to the disappointment of the boys.

Of course, the Indians had names, but no amount of persuasion could induce them to disclose any. If asked “What is your name?” the stereotyped answer was, “No name.” ” O, yes, you have a name. What is it in Injun ?”

” No name.”

When slavery was the better alternative

This next part of Carpenter’s story brings up an important issue.  Indenture amounted to legal slavery, but it appears that even some Natives pursued this option over being imprisoned on a reservation.  Reservations were notoriously dangerous places, where Natives were dependent on incompetent and downright abusive Indian agents for food, shelter and protection.  Ironically, they also became collecting spots for Indian traders.   The concentration of Natives on a reservation made it easier for men to gather children and young squaws without the trouble of hunting them down.  Natives who attempted to leave the “protection” of the reservation were sometimes shot, even if they were starving and in search of food.

I believe there were quite a few settlers that offered asylum to the Natives through indenture.  It was a scary time to be Indian, and for some, falling under white protection, even if as a slave, may have been their only hope.

Continued from 8/31/09 post

 

… About this time the Department of Indian Affairs ordered all Indians living in their tribal relations to the reservation. Many of them had been there, and not liking the treatment they received, preferred rations of acorns a part of the time and starvation afterwards to going under Uncle Sam’s protection.

An attempt was made to force them to the reservation, but they fled to the hills and did not return until the officers were at a safe distance. The local story runs that then a learned judge of Cal- pella in his blandest tones tried persuasion. ” Now, boys,” he said, addressing them, ” I have been here among you a long time, and you all know I am ami- cus humani generis, or I wouldn’t be talking to you today; and I am thoroughly convinced that it would be to the interest of every one of you to go sine. mom. Of course you would be kept sumptibus publicis, and if everything didn’t go adgustus, it certainly is the great desideratum. We do not intend to force you to go nolens volens, but as I have tried to make you understand, it most assuredly is commune boiium.”

O, why did n’t he say ” nix cum rouse,” and give them a certain time in which to guess the puzzle ! [Lynette’s note… this is completely lost on me… anyone that can explain this is encouraged to try]

Before the second appearance of the officers, determined to enforce the governmental order, many of the Indians took advantage of the State law, and obtained guardians,— whole families being bound to one person. The rest again sought shelter in the mountains. Conspicuous among the latter were Captain John and family.