"We were all migrant workers here": Round valley Indian labor in Northern California, 1850-1929

Western Historical Quarterly

Volumn 37, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 43-63

  Bauer Jr , William J ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 66849138843     PISSN: 00433810     EISSN: 19398603     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/25443283     Document Type: Article

References (125)

1. Kathleen Cook, interview by author, 9 January 2002, Covelo, CA.
2. The federal government recognizes the Yuki, Wailacki, Concow, Nomlacki, Pit River, Pomo, and Redwood as part of the Covelo Indian Community.
3. If community is about social relations and human interactions, rather than specific places, as Thomas Bender, Morris Foster, and John Mack Faragher, among others, argue, then in Round Valley the study of community must emphasize labor. See Thomas Bender, Community and Social Change in America (New Brunswick, NJ, 1978);
4. Morris W. Foster, Being Comanche: A Social History of an American Indian Community (Tucson, AZ, 1991);
5. John Mack Faragher, Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie (New Haven, CT, 1986).
6. Alice Littlefield and Martha Knack, eds., Native Americans and Wage Labor: Ethnohistorical Perspectives (Norman, OK, 1996);
7. Robert B. Campbell, "NewLands, Old Lands: Native American Labor, Agrarian Ideology, and the Progressive-Era State in the Making of the Newlands Reclamation Project, 1902-1926," Pacific Historical Review 71 (May 2002), 203-38
8. and Eric Meeks, "The Tohono O'odham, Wage Labor, and Resistant Adaptation," Western Historical Quarterly 34 (Winter 2003): 469-89.
9. Peter Iverson, When Indians Became Cowboys: Native Peoples and Cattle Ranching in the American West (Norman, OK, 1994), 130.
10. See also, Brian Hosmer, American Indians in the Marketplace: Persistence and Innovation among the Menominees and Metlakatlans, 1870-1920 (Lawrence, KS, 1999).
11. Albert L. Hurtado, Indian Survival on the California Frontier (New Haven, CT, 1988), 165-8
12. and Michael Magliari, "Free Soil, Unfree Labor: Cave Johnson Couts and the Binding of Indian Workers in California, 1850-1867," Pacific Historical Review 73 (August 2004): 387.
13. Peter Iverson, "I May Connect Time," in The American Indian and the Problem of History, ed. Calvin Martin (New York, 1987), 141.
14. While most American Indian labor historians have ignored oral history, an exception is Colleen O'Neill, "The 'Making' of the Navajo Worker: Navajo Households, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Off-Reservation Wage Work, 1948-1960," New Mexico Historical Review 74 (October, 1999): 375-405.
15. Angela Cavender Wilson, "American Indian History or Non-Indian Perceptions of American Indian History?" in Natives and Academics: Researching and Writing about American Indians, ed. Devon A. Mihesuah (Lincoln, NE, 1998), 24.
16. In the same book, see Wilson's "Grandmother to Granddaughter: Generations of Oral History in a Dakota Family," 27-36.
17. Nona Willoughby, "Division of Labor Among the Indians of California," in California Indians II, ed. Robert Heizer (New York, 1974), 207-88.
18. Alfred Kroeber, "California Cultural Provinces," University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 17, no. 2 (1920): 151-69;
19. M. Kat Anderson, Michael G. Barbour, and Valerie Whitworth, "A World of Balance and Plenty: Land, Plants, Animals, and Humans in a Pre-European California,"
20. and William S. Simmons, "Indian Peoples of California," both in Contested Eden: California Before the Gold Rush, ed. Ramón Gutiérrez and Richard Orsi (Berkeley, 1998), 12-47 and 52-6;
21. George Foster, "A Summary of Yuki Culture," Anthropological Records 5, no. 3 (1944): 162-5.
22. The classic statement on hunting and harvesting cultures remains Marshall Sahlins, Stone Age Economics (Chicago, 1972).
23. See also, Martin Baumhoff, "Ecological Determinants of Aboriginal California Populations," University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 49, no. 2 (1963): 189-204.
24. For the Asbills' story, see Frank Asbill and Argle Shawley, The Last of the West (New York, 1975), 17-44.
25. For the experience of Indian indentured workers, see James Rawls, Indians of California: A Changing Image (Norman, OK, 1984), 99-100;
26. Hurtado, Indian Survival, 198-200;
27. Edward Castillo, "Impact of Euro-American Exploration and Settlement," in Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 8, ed. Robert Heizer (Washington, DC, 1978), 108-9.
28. Rawls, Indians of California, 93.
29. S.P. Storms to George Henley, 20 June 1856, frame 474, roll 35, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824-1881, National Archives Microfilm no. 234 [hereafter M234].
30. See also, George Harwood Phillips, "Bringing Them Under Subjection": California's Tejón Indian Reservation and Beyond, 1852-1864 (Lincoln, NE, 2004).
31. Alfred Kroeber, The Handbook of California Indians (1925; reprint, New York, 1976), 152.
32. Deposition of J.W. Burgess, 28 July 1860, folder 468, collection F2753, Indian War Papers, California State Library, Sacramento, CA [hereafter IWP].
33. For the removal of the Nisenans and Atseguwis (also known as the Nevadas and the Hat Creeks, respectively) to Round Valley, see T.J. Henley to J.W. Denver, 28 September 1857, frame 1278, roll 35, M234.
34. Alta (San Francisco) California, 29 May 1858, frames 825-6, roll 36, M234.
35. Examination of S.P. Storms, 11 August 1858, frames 297-301, roll 36, M234.
36. Jack D. Forbes, Native Americans of California and Nevada (Healdsburg, CA, 1968), 65; Castillo and "Impact of Euro-American," 111.
37. William Vandever to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 31 April 1875, box 47, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Special Cases, 1821-1907 [hereafter SC], RG 75, National Archives and Records Administration, Archives I, Washington, DC [hereafter NARA-I].
38. Report of Labor at Nome Cult Valley, 21 July to 10 August 1856, frames 612-5, roll 35, M234;
39. Alta California, 29 May 1858, frames 825-6, roll 36, M234;
40. J. McDuffie to A.B. Greenwood, 14 September 1859, frame 526, roll 37, M234.
41. Augustus Tassin, "Chronicles of Camp Wright: Part II," Overland Monthly 10 (August, 1887): 179.
42. Arthur Deposition, 28 February 1860. For attacks on Round Valley Indians, see Lynwood Carranco and Estle Beard, Genocide and Vendetta: The Round Valley Wars of Northern California (Norman, OK, 1984), 84-100.
43. S.P. Storms to T.J. Henley, 23 November 1858, frame 987, roll 36, M234.
44. Vincent Geiger to A.B. Greenwood, 20 August 1859, frames 545-7, roll 37, M234.
45. June Lozinto, interview by Les Lincoln, April 1990, Covelo, CA, Round Valley Oral History Project [hereafter RVOHP], Round Valley Public Library, Covelo, CA.
46. "Condition of the Indian Tribes," Report of the Joint Special Committee, Appointed under Joint Resolution of March 3, 1865, with an Appendix (Washington, DC, 1867), 506.
47. Isaac Shannon Deposition, 28 July 1860, folder 467, collection F2753, IWP.
48. Laurence Battailes Deposition, 28 February 1860, folder 462, collection F2753, IWP.
49. Agnes Duncan and Leland Fulwider, interview by Les Lincoln, 22 June 1990, RVOHP.
50. Ernestine Ray, interview by Les Lincoln, April 1990, RVOHP.
51. For the Southwest, see James F. Brooks, Captives & Cousins: Slavery, Kinship, and Community in the Southwest Borderlands (Chapel Hill, 2002).
52. For the South, see John W. Blassingame, The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South, rev. ed. (New York, 1979).
53. Elijah Potter, "Partial Transcript of Historical Events of Round Valley," Round Valley folder, Held-Poage Memorial Home and Research Library, Ukiah, CA [hereafter Held-Poage Home].
54. Tassin, "Chronicles of Camp Wright," 174-5;
55. Capt. C.D. Douglas to R.C. Drum, 26 July 1863 in The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington, DC, 1897), vol. 50, part 1, 231;
56. George Hanson to William Dole, 22 August 1863, frame 297, roll 39, M234.
57. Lynwood Carranco and Estle Beard call this event the "last Yuki conspiracy," in Genocide and Vendetta, 124.
58. For Howard Lamar's analysis, see "From Bondage to Contract: Ethnic Labor in the American West," in The Countryside in the Age of Capitalist Transformation: Essays in the Social History of Rural America, ed. Steven Hahn and Jonathan Prude (Chapel Hill, 1985), 294.
59. For negotiation, see Ira Berlin, Philip D. Morgan, eds., Cultivation and Culture: Labor and the Shaping of Slave Life in the Americas (Charlottesville, VA, 1993), 1-45.
60. For slave revolts and amelioration, see Eugene Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made (New York, 1976), 596.
61. For northern California's economy see, Carranco and Beard, Genocide and Vendetta, 185, 196-7;
62. Michael Tomlan, Tinged with Gold: Hop Culture in the United States (Athens, GA, 1982), 28-30. For hop acres, see Hops folder, miscellaneous newspaper clippings, Held-Poage Home.
63. B.C. Whiting to Ely S. Parker, 21 April 1871, frames 351, 353, roll 44, M234.
64. Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1880 (Washington, DC, 1881) [hereafter ARCIA], 8.
65. The story of Round Valley's land problems is too extensive to discuss here. See Virginia Miller, "The Yuki: Culture Contact to Allotment," (PhD diss., University of California, Davis, 1973), 282-304.
66. B.C. Whiting to Ely S. Parker, 21 April 1871, frame 351, roll 44, M234.
67. Carl Purdy, My Life & My Times (Fort Bragg, CA, 1976), 62-3.
68. "Conditions of Certain Indians in California," Senate: Reports, 48th Cong., 2nd Sess. (1884-1885), serial no. 1522, 101.
69. Castillo, "Impact of Euro-American Exploration," 114.
70. Henry Sheldon to Ezra Hayt, [hereafter Sheldon, Hayt] 8 February 1878, frames 670-1, roll 50, M234
71. and Sheldon to Hayt, 21 January 1879, frames 738-9, roll 51, M234.
72. J.B. Mcintosh to Ely S. Parker, 29 July 1869, frame 137, roll 42, M234.
73. J.L. Burchard to Edward P. Smith, [Hereafter Burchard, E. Smith] 23 January 1875, frames 55-6, roll 47, M234.
74. Sheldon to Hayt, 20 March 1879, frame 793, roll 51, M234.
75. For a description of the Ghost Dance in California see Cora Du Bois, "The 1870 Ghost Dance," Anthropological Records 3, no. 1 (1939): 39-114, 132.
76. See also, Greg Sarris, "Telling Dreams and Keeping Secrets: The Bole Maru as American Indian Religious Resistance," American Indian Culture and Research Journal 16, no. 1 (1992): 73-6.
77. Du Bois, "The 1870 Ghost Dance," 105.
78. Burchard to John Q. Smith, 18 November 1876, frame 534, roll 48, M234.
79. See also, Burchard to E. Smith, located in M234, from the following dates: 29 August 1873, frames 97-8, roll 45, 30 August 1873, frame 101, roll 45, 23 February 1875, frames 118-9, roll 47, 30 September 1876, frame 412, roll 48.
80. Cash Book, 1875-1895, box 105, RG 75, Records of the Round Valley Agency, Receipts and Disbursements, National Archives and Records Administration, San Bruno, CA, [hereafter NARA-SB].
81. See Sheldon to Hayt on 11 April 1878, frames 714-5, roll 50, M234; 9 June 1879, box 47, RG 75, NARA-I; 15 July 1879, letter book: 6-11-79 to 2-28-82, box 1, Agent-CIA Correspondence, RG 75, NARA-SB; 15 July 1879, frames 843-4, roll 51, M234.
82. "Conditions of Certain Indians in California," 98.
83. Burchard to E. Smith, 4 December 1874, SC 43, NARA-I.
84. Inspection of Round Valley Agency by Robert Gardner, 24 December 1887, roll 43, National Archives Microfilm 1070.
85. For discussions of the allotment policy, see Frederick Hoxie, A Final Promise: The Campaign to Assimilate the Indians, 1880-1920 (1984; reprint, Lincoln, NE, 2001), 70-81
86. and Francis Paul Prucha, The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indian, abr. ed. (Lincoln, NE, 1986), 224-8.
87. "Lands in Severalty to the Indians on the Round Valley Indian Reservation in California," House of Representatives: Executive Documents, 49th Cong., 1st Sess., serial no. 21, 8-9.
88. Speeches Made by Indians at Round Valley Indian Agency, 21 February 1891, box 48, SC, NARA-I.
89. For allotment in Round Valley see ARCIA (Washington, DC) for the following years: 1891, 50; 1892, 77; 1893, 131-2; 1894, 21; 1895, 136; 1896, 131-2; 1897, 121; 1898, 138; William Winder to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 27 June 1894, box 49, SC, NARA-I.
90. Miscellaneous newspaper clippings, Hops folder, Held-Poage House.
91. Norman Whipple, interview by author, 30 June 2004.
92. W.W. McConihe to Cato Sells, 22 October 1916, folder 11377-1916, box 3, Central Classified Files, 1907-1939, [hereafter CCF] RG 75, NARA-I.
93. Hoxie, A Final Promise, xix.
94. W.W. McConihe to Enoch Pollard, 4 October 1918, folder 270, box 62, Records of the Round Valley Agency, 1858-1930, Administrative Files, 1908-1924 [hereafter AF], RG 75, NARA-SB.
95. See, for instance, Application of Lawson Anderson for the Enrollment of Horace Anderson in the Indian School at Riverside, CA, 20 December 1917
96. Anderson, Horace folder, Records of the Sherman Indian Institute, Student Case Files [hereafter SCF], RG 75, NARA-Laguna Niguel [hereafter NARA-LN].
97. See the assorted record cards in Meyers, Edward folder, SCF, NARA-LN.
98. For outing program, see pay records of Lewis Wright, Robert Hanover, Clarence Wilburn and Sidney Pete, all in folder: 1918-1919, box 1, Sherman Institute, Records of Student Outings, Time/Pay Worksheets, 1917-1929, RG 75, NARA-LN;
99. Pay Receipts for Minnie Graves, 1912, Graves, Minnie folder, SCF, NARA-LN; Nora Turner to F.M. Conser, 21 June 1913, Duncan, Myrtle, folder, SCF, NARA-LN.
100. Report of Harwood Hall, 22 February 1910, folder 17230.0-1910, box 63, CCF, NARA-I.
101. E.P. Thompson, "Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism," Past and Present 38 (December 1967): 56-97.
102. American Indian labor historians, though, have made an effort to discuss the similarities between old and new worlds of work. See, for instance, Campbell, "NewLands, Old Lands," 212-3.
103. Cook interview.
104. Al Want, Mendocino County Remembered: An Oral History, 2 vols., ed. Bruce Levene, (Ukiah, CA, 1976), 2: 258.
105. For the reservation school calendar, see ARCIA for 1895, 137 and ARCIA for 1899, 176.
106. Harry Liston to William Jones, 21 February 1900; Harry Liston to Francis Leupp, 1 April 1901, both in letter book: 8-14-99 to 2-13-02, box 2, Agent-CIA Correspondence, RG 75, NARA-SB.
107. Horace Johnson to Francis Leupp, 12 February 1909 and U.L. Clardy to Francis Leupp, 18 May 1909, both in letter book 3, Receipts and Disbursements, 1907-1914, box 83, RG 75, Records of the Round Valley Agency, 1858-1930, NARA-SB.
108. L. Fulwider, interview by Acklan Willits, 23 April 1990, RVOHP.
109. L. Fulwider interview; Lorraine McLane, interview by author, 19 March 2002 [manuscript in author's possession];
110. Cook interview; Anita Rome, interview by author, 21 June 2002 [manuscript in author's possession].
111. June Britton, interview by author, 19 March 2002 [manuscript in author's possession] and Rome interview.
112. L. Fulwider interview.
113. Randolph Lincoln, interview by Les Lincoln, 9 April 1990, RVOHP.
114. Doran Lincoln, interview by Acklan Willits, 25 April 1990, RVOHP.
115. Ivan Albers to Charles Burke, 18 August 1923, folder 52422-1923, box 63, CCF, NARA-I.
116. E.A. Hutchison to Cato Sells, 8 July 1915, Laborer folder, box 44, AF, RG 75, NARA-SB.
117. Robert Rosenzweig suggests that the worker class participated in "boisterous" Fourth of July celebrations to articulate a distinct working-class culture. See Eight Hours for What We Will: Workers and Leisure in an Industrial City, 1870-1920 (New York, 1983).
118. Alfred Kroeber to W.W. McConihe, 22 June 1922, Round Valley Reservation folder, box 127, Records of the Department of Anthropology, BANC MSS CU-23, Bancroft Library, University of California-Berkeley [hereafter CU-23].
119. W.W. McConihe to Alfred Kroeber, 3 July 1922, Round Valley Reservation folder, box 127, CU-23.
120. Covelo (CA) Review, 28 June 1905; Annual Report for 1916, Annual Report for 1917, Annual Report for 1918, and Annual Report for 1922 all on roll 119, National Archives microfilm M1011.
121. Want, Mendocino County, 2: 258.
122. For rodeos in Round Valley, see Covelo Review, 28 June 1905;
123. William Robertson, Mendocino County Remembered, 2: 147;
124. L. Fulwider interview; D. Lincoln interview; Victoria Frazier, Mendocino County Remembered, 1: 160.
125. For discussions of Indians participating in rodeos in the Southwest and Great Plains, see Iverson, When Indians Became Cowboys and Allison Fuss Mellis, Riding Buffaloes and Broncos: Rodeo and Native Traditions in the Northern Great Plains (Norman, OK, 2003).