A recent comment/request for information by Ric, a blog visitor in Washington, has prompted me to look through old records.
The following entry in Norton’s book listing indentured Native Americans struck me as particularly poignant.
In October of 1860, Leon Chevret (whose name graces a road in Blue Lake) registered an indenture for George, who was eight years old at the time, and “Bought 18 months previously by L.C. from C. Clarke of Mattole for $30”
To be fair, George may have been an orphan. And Chevret may very well have indentured George to keep him from being exiled to the Klamath reservation (see post one, two , & three for more on the topic)
But Indenture was no perfect answer.
And no matter how you look at it, a human being in Humboldt County was purchased for $30.
Posted by Lynette M 
