California Indian History
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DIRECTIONS INSTITUTE
California Indian History |
California Indian History Narrative 1769-1980 |
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The ancestors of the Hokan or possibly the Yukians may have been the first inhabitants of California. The Encinitas Culture appeared 5500 BC in the San Diego area. The Campbell Culture appeared around Santa Barbara 3000 BC. The Hotchkiss culture in Central California began about 500BC. The Takic Uto-Aztecans arrived in their aboriginal southern California territories and the Penutians arrived in the central valley in the century before the time of Christ. The Athapaskans were the last to arrive, sometime around AD 900. |
| California was the most densely populated of the United States at the time of European arrival with a population of approximately 150,000 (1.5 persons per square mile). This was in spite of the fact that all of the California tribes were hunter/gatherers except for the farmers along the Colorado River. The dense population was the product of the relatively peaceful nature of the California tribes and the bountiful supply of fish, game, and edible vegetation, and natural boundaries created by the relatively irregular terrain. |
| About 135,000 native Californians died in the 100 year holocaust after the arrival of the Europeans. Spanish missions, Mexican feudal land barons, and especially the settlers and miners of the gold rush brought the genocide and disease. |
| A large number of unrecognized Native Americans live in California today. There is a large urban Indian population in California, particularly Los Angeles, of people who have migrated from other areas of the United States. |
| Today, there are 107 reservations and rancherias in California and a additional 40 groups who have applied for federal recognition. |
| YEAR | HISTORY |
| 1539 | Francisco de Ulloa explored coast |
| 1540 | Yuma visited by Hernando de Alarcón |
| 1542 | Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo discovered San Diego harbor |
| 1577 | Sir Francis Drake explored coast, claimed California for Britain |
| 1602 | Sebastian Viscaino arrived at Monterey |
| 1701 | Colorado River tribes visited by Father Kino |
| 1769 | Portola overland expedition into southern territory, San Francisco Bay discovered by Sgt. Jose de Ortega, San Diego mission and presidio established |
| 1770 | Carmel mission established |
| 1771 | San Gabriel mission founded |
| 1772 | Mission San Luis Obispo established |
| 1774 | Juan Bautista de Anza overland expedition into southern territory |
| 1776 | San Francisco mission and presidio established; Diegueños attacked San Diego mission, killed several; San Juan Capistrano mission established |
| 1781 | Yumas closed land route to Whites, killed 34 Spaniards including Garcés |
| 1782 | Missions San Buenaventura established |
| 1785 | Gabrielino revolt under medicine woman Toypurina |
| 1786 | Mission Santa Barbara established |
| 1791 | Santa Cruz mission established |
| 1793 | Capt. Vancouver visited Trinidad Bay, may have caused cholera epidemic |
| 1797 | Missions San Jose, San Juan Bautista, and San Fernando established |
| 1798 | Mission San Luis Rey established |
| 1800 | Costanoan uprising at San Jose mission |
| 1802 | Pneumonia and diphtheria epidemics in missions |
| 1806 | Measles epidemic in missions |
| 1809 | Russians began exploitation of Pomo |
| 1811 | Serrano lead revolt against missions |
| 1819 | 27 Miwok killed by Sanchez |
| 1821 | Most of tribes south of Sacramento River indentured to feudal Mexican barons |
| 1824 | Feeble La Purisma revolt by Chumash; Mojave attacked Jedediah Smith expedition killing several |
| 1826 | 40 Miwok killed by Sanchez |
| 1827 | North penetrated by Hudson Bay Company traders |
| 1828 | Jedediah Smith entered central state |
| 1833 | Northern state malaria epidemic, 21 Pomos massacred by Father Mercado |
| 1834 | 200 Wappo killed by Vallejo |
| 1838 | Northwest smallpox epidemic killed 3,000 |
| 1839 | 200 Miwok massacred by Amador and Mesa, John Sutter established New Helvetia |
| 1840 | Smallpox epidemic in southern territory killed 2,400 |
| 1841 | Pomos drove Russians out of their territory |
| 1845 | Luiseño attacked by Cahuilla recruited by Mexico for war with U.S., up to 100 killed |
| 1846 | Bear Flag Revolt by American settlers, U. S. troops occupied state |
| 1848 | Central state pandemic; gold discovered |
| 1849 | Gold rush, miners begin to encroach into Indian territories, violence ensued |
| 1850 | Cahuilla, Cocopa, and Yuma revolted over property tax imposition; group of Chilula massacred by Lassik; Miwok attacked miners under Chief Tenaya; Capt. Lyon massacred 135 Pomo; Shasta villages burned, occupants shot; measles and cholera epidemics in northwest |
| 1851 | Mariposa Indian War, huge numbers of Indians slaughtered in gold country; California statehood |
| 1852 | Karuk villages burned by Whites |
| 1855 | Most reservations established |
| 1858 | Ft. Gaston established in response to Hupa resistance to White influx, Mojave and Yuma conducted disastrous raid against Maricopa into Arizona |
| 1859 | Mojave defeated by Naval Lt. Beale |
| 1861 | 120 Wailaki killed at Horse Canyon trying to steal horses |
| 1862 | Squatters massacred 45 at Round Valley |
| 1863 | Smallpox epidemic in south, 35 Kawaiisu massacred by Capt. McLaughlin; 32 Maidu died in forced march to Round Valley; soldiers massacred up to 40 Tubatulabl at Kernville |
| 1865 | Colorado River Reservation established; Yahi (Yanan Tribes) slaughtered by settlers |
| 1867 | Chemehuevi defeated by Mojave, fled to desert |
| 1869 | Hupas granted Hoopa Valley, White settlers exterminated large number at Round Valley; prophet Wodziwob of Walker Lake Northern Paiute created Ghost Dance, practiced by most northern California tribes within two years, transcontinental rail road completed |
| 1870 | Chief Kintpuash (Captain Jack) led militant Modoc group back to ancestral ands in California |
| 1871 | Chimariko tribe slaughtered by miners |
| 1872 | Modoc War, tribe retreated to lava beds for months, defeated, chief and 5 others hanged |
| 1884 | Supreme Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment did not automatically make Indians citizens of the United States |
| 1893 | Yuma forced into auctioning much of land |
| 1911 | Society of American Indians founded; Native American Church established |
| 1921 | Achomawi, Shasta smallpox epidemic killed 200 |
| 1923 | John Collier organized the American Indian Defense Association |
| 1924 | Indian Citizenship Act, Indians given right to vote |
| 1934 | As part of New Deal, the Indian Reorganization Act was passed as a result of the efforts of John Collier |
| 1953 | House Concurrent Resolution 108, Termination Act |
| 1965 | Act of Congress declared use of peyote by Native American Church exempt from Federal drug enforcement |
| 1969 | Civil Rights Act gave Indians basic protection of any citizen |
| 1969 | American Indian Movement (AIM) occupied Alcatraz Island |
| 1970 | Richard Nixon declared HCR 108 "morally and legally unacceptable" and called for its repeal |
| 1978 | 25,000 acres restored to Yuma reversing 1893 action |
| 1998 | Proposition 5 ensured California Indians rights to have gaming enterprises on the reservations and rancherias; California AB 1953 established California Indian History Day as the last Friday in September |
California Indian History http://ceres.ca.gov/nahc/califindian.html
California's Native People - The Formative Period http://www.cabrillo.cc.ca.us/~crsmith/anth6_formative.html
The Indian Tribes of North America - California Extract http://www.hiddenhistory.com/PAGE3/swsts/calif-1.HTM