California Native American History

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California Native American History
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Origins- Native Point of View

• Tribal Creation Stories
• We have been here since time immemorial
• The first people on this land were the animal
  people
• Our people were created from the earth
• All stories give us a connection to the land we
  are from

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Origins- Anthro Point of View

• Anthropological View
• People came across the Bering Land Bridge and
  settled across the Americas
• People have only settled here for the past 15,000
  yrs
• Creation stories are myths and legend

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Pre European Contact

• Population up to 1,000,000 people
• Over 500 bands/tribes
• People occupied every corner of the state
• Cultures and languages as different as English
  and Chinese

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European Contact
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Missions

• 21 Catholic Missions from San Diego to Sonoma
• Constructed with the forced labor of California
  Indians
• Were unable to practice their traditions and
  ceremonies.
• Average lifespan of an Indian taken to a mission
  was less than 10 years.
• By the late 1820s over 100,000 Indians died as a
  direct result of the missions.

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Gold Rush

• Gold discovered at Sutters Mill in Coloma
  1848
• Californias non-Indian population grew by over
  100,000 by 1850.
• Settlers began stealing women and children for
  laborers.

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• 1849- Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
• 1850- California admitted as a State
• 1850- Act for the Government and Protection of
  Indians
• 1850- 1852 18 Treaties reserving 8,619,000 acres
  as Indian land (unratified)
• State funded militias and bounties against
  Indians
• Disease

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Reservations and Rancherias

• Reservations may not be in a tribes aboriginal
  territory.
• Southern CA tribes receive Reservations in late
  1800s.
• Not all tribes received Reservations

• Dispossession of tribal lands
• Rancherias were created for homeless tribes
• Not all landless tribes received Rancherias
• Tribes that did not receive land may not be
  recognized by the federal government as a Tribe

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Dawes Act- 1887

• Objective was to assimilate tribes
• Allotted tribal members with individual parcels
  of reservation land
• Remaining parcels were sold to non-Indians
• Resulted in the loss of thousands of acres of
  reservation land
• Eroded traditional cultural values and life ways

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Termination

• Rancheria Termination Act of 1958 terminated 39
  Rancherias
• Government effort to assimilate Indians
• Much of the lands were sold
• 26 Rancherias have been restored since the early
  1980s (not an easy battle).

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Contemporary California Indians

• Tribes are proud of their cultural and ethnic
  identity
• Tribes are protecting their cultural places
• Tribes still have their ceremonies, their songs,
  and their traditions
• Tribes are re-telling history

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American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978

• After over 300 years of religious persecution
  tribes are able to practice their traditional
  religions without fear.
• U.S. federal laws interfered with the traditional
  religious practices of many American Indians
• The purpose is to preserve and protect Native
  American religions

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Tribal Governance
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Tribal Government- 1934

• Passage of the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA)
• Many contemporary tribes adopted IRA
  Constitutions
• Worked to reduce the privatization of tribes
  common holdings

• Eroded many forms of traditional tribal
  governance
• Some tribes that were not previously recognized
  organized under the IRA

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Todays Tribes

• 109 Federally Recognized and about 50
  Unrecognized or Unacknowledged tribes
• Reservations and Rancherias may not be in a
  Tribes ancestral territory.

• Business Enterprises
• Government entities
• Cultural entities

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Tribal Council

• Sovereign government (Federally recognized
  tribes)
• Jurisdiction over reservation land
• Elected officials
• May follow more traditional forms of government,
  ie hereditary leadership, or specific customs,
  rules, and laws
• Tribal Council members may have fulltime jobs

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Questions?