Conflict at Monterey: Indian Horse Raiding, 1820-1850'
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Conflict at Monterey: Indian Horse Raiding, 1820-1850' SYLVIA M. BROADBENT URING the Spanish-Mexican occupa Miwok were at least involved in the raiding. D tion of Monterey, California, the This matter will be discussed later. relationships of Indians with the whites un Monterey was by no means the center of derwent a sharp transition from peaceful, these raids, which were general throughout hospitable acceptance to outright hostility. the area that could be reached from the San To accomphsh this transition, a remarkable Joaquin Valley, wherever Cahfornio^ ranche- change in a brief period of time had to take ros had settled and kept horses. In fact, place in Indian culture. Within forty or fifty Monterey was on the periphery of Tulare years, the Indians changed from a relatively attacks and probably never felt the maximum peaceful hunting and gathering population to effects. However, even there these raids were efficient and troublesome horse-raiding guer- troublesome enough to worry the Mexican riHas or as Cook (1943a:35) described them, authorities. Monterey was chosen as the focus "fast, shifty, and quite clever cavalrymen." of this study because, being both the capital The Indians involved in suchguerriHa raids and the principal port of the province, the were not those actually from the environs of record there is more complete. Most foreign Monterey (the Rumsen, a Costanoan group). voyagers to Cahfornia stopped at Monterey, There is no account of any hostile activity on and many left descriptions of the port and their part; they were fairly quickly and accounts of the state of affairs there. In effectively absorbed into Mission San Carlos. addition, there are the accounts of the pro The Indian raiders were those of the Central vincial governmental authorities, and those of Valley or Valle de los Tulares, usually referred such residents as Thomas C. Larkin, the to by writers of the period as Tulare Indians. American consul, and others. This term probably has no direct tribal significance, but means simply that the In HISTORICAL BACKGROUND dians came from the direction of the Tulare valley. They may have been Yokuts, who Sebastian Vizcaino is generahy regarded as inhabited the whole of the San Joaquin the first European to reach the site that was Valley proper, except for the northem end. to become Monterey, although it is probable They may have been Plains Miwok, who that Cabrillo and Cermeno also visited it inhabited the northem end of the valley, or briefly in 1542 and 1595, respectively. How Sierra Miwok of the westem slopes of the ever, despite Vizcaino's glowing descriptions Sierra Nevada, or they may have come from of the port and the affability of its Indians, all three groups. The evidence suggests that no attempt was made to colonize Upper CONFLICT AT MONTEREY 87 Indian horseman on the plain between the San Joaquin and King's River. From Lt. R. S. Williamson's "Report of Explorations in California for Railroad Routes to Connect with the Routes Near the 3Sth and 32d Parallels of North Latitude" (1853). Sketch by Charles Koppel. Lithographed by A. Hoen & Co., Baltimore. California until 1769, when an abortive ex move into Cahfomia, though never in very pedition was sent under Gaspar de Portola large numbers. The soldiers of the presidios and Junipero Serra to find Monterey again often married neophyte women or brought and establish there a mission and a presidio. It wives from Mexico, and were given grants of was a fuh year before the efforts to relocate land. A few American settlers began to arrive, and colonize Monterey were successful. A and there were also quite a large number of mission, San Carlos Borromeo de Monterey, sailors who deserted from foreign ships and was founded, together with a presidio for the settled in the country. The economy of these protection of the mission and the port. The settlers was based largely on cattle. Immense mission was moved to the Carmel Valley the herds roamed almost wild over the ranges. next year. These formed the basis of the hide and tahow Once the mission and presidio were estab trade with Boston, pioneered by the firm of lished and settled, the Spanish occupation of Bryant and Sturgis. This trade flourished in California was well and tmly begun. Monterey the 1820s and 1830s and is excellently was the capital, and for a long time the described in Dana's Two Years Before the principal port. Further missions were estab Mast and Robmson's Life in California. lished; they started bringing in converts, and Mexican independence had some repercus began to grow. Famihes of settlers began to sions even on the backwater province of 88 THE JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA ANTHROPOLOGY Califomia. For the Indians, the biggest event They brought with them an attitude of the Mexican period was the secularization towards Indians which was fundamentally of the missions by decree of Governor Figue- different from the Spanish one. Both may be roa in 1834. The Franciscans had to tum the observed throughout the histories of Anglo- missions over to secular priests, and their American and Spanish colonization in the affairs were to be handled by govemment New World. The Spaniard tended to see the officials. In effect, the officials simply appro Indian as a potentially valuable vassal, worth priated the missions and their extensive lands, protecting if only to be exploited and mled and allowed the buildings to fah into min. over. This attitude is reflected in document The Indian neophytes were supposed to be after document concerning the governing of freed from the tyranny of the padres, and the Indians, beginning with the New Laws of become independent Mexican citizens. Many 1542. The Anglo-Americans, however, had of them returned to their aboriginal life, some gone into the New World to get land, not joining tribes which were stih unconverted in people. The consistent trend in the eastern the interior. Many, however, remained near United States was one of settling as farmers the Californio settlements, and became per and laborers rather than as mlers of con sonal servants to Californio families or vaque- quered peoples. This involved the movement ros on the ranches. of larger numbers of people. The Indians In the 1840s, Americans began to show an already there were not regarded as vassals, an increasing interest in Cahfornia. More Ameri important exploitable resource; they were can settlers began to arrive. In 1842, a simply in the way, occupying space that the misunderstanding led Commodore Thomas Americans wanted for themselves. Many In dians were simply killed by the Americans on ap Catesby-Jones, of the U. S. Navy, to raise any pretext or none at all. Besides sheer the American flag over the Monterey Custom homocide, however, there were other more House and "conquer" the town. He soon subtle effects on the Indian population which reahzed his mistake and gave the town back. Cook (I943b:92) has discussed. He stated, "it In 1846, however, the American conquest is apparent that impact of settlement from began in earnest. The country was in turmoil the United States was three times as severe as with the activities of Fremont and the Bear that of pre-American colonization." Flag Revolt at Sonoma. In 1848 Cahfomia was ceded to the United States. In the same year gold was discovered by THE HISTORY OF Marshall on the American River. The Gold CONFLICT AT MONTEREY Rush was on, and within months thousands of immigrants arrived at the gold fields. The As the missions were established, the effect for the Indians was little short of Spanish began to draw the nearby Indians disastrous. They had been driven farther and into them, at first by peaceful means such as farther into the interior, first by the mission offering them gifts and other inducements. As settlement of the coastal strip, and then by easily accessible Indians became scarcer, ex the establishment of ranchos further inland. peditions were sent into the Central Valley to At this point, the only secure and peaceful bring in more converts, frequently by force. place where the Indians could live was the Many Indians did not like mission life. It Sierras. And the Sierras were precisely where meant a complete disruption of every aspect the swarms of gold-seeking immigrants of their life, from social organization to diet. converged. The Spanish pattern of work was completely CONFLICT AT MONTEREY 89 new to them, and they had great difficulty (1891:110) reported that in 1831 two Indians adjusting to it. were shot at Monterey presidio for cattle- The reaction of the dissatisfied Mission stealing. He did not mdicate whether these Indians, however, was not direct violence or were local Indians or captured raiders. revolt. They simply tried to mn away. As From 1836—two years after seculariza Cook (1943a:31) remarked, mstead of at tion—on, the record is more complete. In that tempting to remove the disturbing part of year, Ruschenberger visited Monterey from their environment, they removed themselves October 24 to October 30. With regard to the from the environment. However, running Indians, Ruschenberger (1838:507) stated: away was often not a satisfactory solution. "They plunder the farms of the colonists of The Califomios were not content to let them horses, which they eat in preference to beef, go. They sent expeditions after the escaped though horned cattle are more abundant neophytes, who often took refuge with " Belcher (1843:116), who visited Mon friendly tribes m the Tulares. The whites terey from the second to the sixth of Decem descended on the rancherias of the host ber, 1837, stated: "[The Cahfornios are] tribes, and besides carrying off the escapees, harassed on all sides by Indians, who are now often did a great deal of damage, and killed stripping them of their horses, without which and kidnapped many other Indians as a their cattle are not to be preserved .