sign in sign up
<<
Home , California Genocide, Ishi, Ishi Wilderness

Ishi and the Indian as Developmental Mass Violence

Robert K. Hitchcock and Charles Flowerday

Abstract

Ishi represents a form of sentimental folk reductionism. But he can be a teaching tool for the California Indian Genocide, also. His mill was where gold was discovered – setting off a frenzied settlement in which Indians were legally enslaved and slaughtered, finally ending a decade after the Emancipation Proclamation. They had already experienced wholesale devastation under Spanish and Mexican colonization. The mission system itself was inhumane and genocidal. It codified enslavement and trafficking of Indians as economically useful and morally purposeful. Mexican administration paid lip service to Indian emancipation but exploited them ruthlessly as peons. The California genocide typifies an expanded understanding of genocide and how it operates in a developmental paradigm. We then turn to a related model of the indigenous experience. Using developmental genocide in a gangland “democracy” and Andrew Woolford’s ontologies of destruction, a 500-year wholesale assault, we champion genocide as generic while including specific modes mediated by economic or civil destruction and challenging the unmediated model – direct mass killing – as the archetypical form. Allied with this, a model mediated by civil war also helps explain genocide in the Americas, including California. Genocide of native peoples operates through a cultural and moral reductionism that allows them to be manipulated (and destroyed) as objects. There are both biological and cultural aspects to this deadly dehumanization.

Introduction

When a lone California Indian was found in the corral of a slaughterhouse near Oroville, California on August 29th, 1911, it came as a huge surprise to those who found him and to the sheriff and deputies who took him into custody and put him in jail. He quickly became the object of interest to townspeople for miles around, some of whom could well have been involved in the destruction of the man’s relatives and ancestors. The story of his ‘discovery’ reached the newspapers in , and was read by two University of California anthropologists, Alfred Kroeber, and T.T. Waterman, who arranged to meet the man and take him into their care. Waterman arrived in Oroville on 31 August 1911 and attempted to communicate with the man, who came to be known as Ishi (the Yana word for ‘man’). A quiet and unassuming individual, Ishi never told anyone his real name. 70 Hitchcock & Flowerday

Eventually, it was established that In some cases, children were taken as the man was a Yahi, a group of California captives. Ishi, for his part, was clearly Indians who were believed at the time a genocide survivor, living virtually to be extinct. The Yahi were a part of a alone after a group of surveyors found larger grouping of Yana Indians. The his hiding place in November 1908. He Yana in the 19th century were hunters was with a small group of four people and gatherers and fishers who resided including his mother, who died soon in the forests, canyons, and highlands of afterwards. His sister and an elderly north-. There original man Ishi were also with were never seen territory covered some 6,000 km2 (2,300 again; only Ishi was able to get away ( mi2), approximately 48 km wide and 112 Kroeber 1961:110-114). Ishi remained on km long, roughly the size of Delaware. his own from 1908 until he arrived in the Yana land stretched from Deer and Mill slaughterhouse corral in August 1911. Creeks near Oroville north to the central The Yahi/Yana population, which Mountains on the eastern may have numbered as many as 3,000 in border of the valley the early 1800s, declined precipitously, (for maps of this area, see Waterman in the case of the Yahi, to about 12 1918:40; T. Kroeber 1961:25; Madley individuals in 1872. Madley (2013:46- 2013:16). The Yahi lived in the southern 47, Table 1) estimates that between portion of the Yana range, the other Yana 800 and 915 Yana and Yahi were killed being divided into southern, central between 1850 and 1871, while only two (known to themselves as Gatai) and immigrants or settlers lost their lives in northern (who referred to themselves the conflicts. We discuss the conflicts and as Garii) (Sapir 1910; Waterman 1918; other issues that affected the well-being Kroeber 1925; Johnson 1978). The Yana of the Yahi in the sections that follow. inhabited regions between the Feather We also address the processes affecting and Pit Rivers in what are now Shasta and the Yahi and Yana in the 20th and 21st Tehama counties in , centuries. while the Yahi were also found in what is now Butte County. The Yana and Yahi Ishi and the Yahi spoke a Hokan language which differed from some of their neighboring groups Ishi himself has been the subject with whom they interacted through of numerous biographies, books, trade and exchange (Sapir and Swadesh conferences, films, and opinion pieces 1960; A. Kroeber 1925; Heizer and T. (A. Kroeber 1912; T. Kroeber 1961; Heizer Kroeber 1979:2). and Kroeber 1979; Burrill 1990, 2001, In this paper we focus specifically 2014; Riffe 1992, 1998; Bergin and Collins on the Yahi, who were subjected to 2000; Kroeber and Kroeber 2003; Starn massacres by vigilantes and settlers 2004, Vizenor 2001; Day 2016). There are between 1848 and 1871 which led to near formal discussions of Ishi that are open extinction of the group. The Yahi, also to the public which are held regularly in known as the Mill Creek Indians (Kroeber Oroville, California, the most recent of 1972), endured repeated attacks aimed which was on 2 November 2019 (www. at extermination of the group as a whole. ishifacts.com, accessed 24 June 2020; 71 Ishi and the California Indian Genocide as Developmental Mass Violence

Richard Burrill, personal communication, While not the focus of this paper, 2020). Sometimes incorrectly termed ‘the Ishi had extensive dealings with last wild Indian’ Ishi definitely became anthropologists, linguists, museum an icon and an important symbol of workers, and medical personnel. Many beleaguered indigeneity in the brief time of these interactions could be construed between coming to public attention in as positive. He lived in the museum of 1911 and his death on 25 . the University of California, then in San It is important to note that Ishi was Francisco. He became good friends with both a victim and a survivor of genocidal Thomas Talbot Waterman, Alfred Louis massacres aimed at the destruction of his Kroeber, Edward W. Gifford, and Saxton people on the basis of who they were. He T. Pope (T. Kroeber 1961:148-154). He also was born in 18541 and raised as a hunter- became a good friend of Juan Dolores, gatherer, living on wild natural resources. a Papago Indian with whom he shared For much of his life, he was essentially quarters in the museum (156-160). He on the run and in hiding along with his had many other dealings with university mother, Yè tschulti, and other relatives staff and members of the public. He and friends who had survived the Three went shopping, usually on his own, on Knolls Massacre in 1865. Together, they Seventh Avenue, between Golden Gate might have numbered between 30 and Park and Judah Street, where he became 45 individuals (T. Kroeber 1961:239). Ishi friendly with many of the shopkeepers and his relatives and friends survived and merchants (162-164). He enjoyed in part by avoiding conflict as much as teaching people some of his skills, possible with the settlers, ranchers, and such as archery, arrow-making and the others who came into or resided in Yahi manufacture of arrowheads. He showed land. Saxton Pope how he used bows and He and his campmates did not arrows to in Golden Gate Park. In May engage in the theft of livestock or 1914 he was part of a 14-day expedition directly confront white residents of the to his home territory of Deer Creek, Deer Creek and Mount Lassen areas, which included his two anthropologist preferring instead to hide away in the friends, Saxton Pope and his son, and steep canyons in the region. There is a Mr. Apperson, a local resident of the evidence, both oral and archaeological, area. In many ways, it was a difficult that the Yahi sometimes visited remote trip for Ishi to make, in part because he cabins and procured items such as viewed it as a return to ‘the land of the clothing, metal tools, nails, and other dead’ (206, 208-217). items for their use, which they kept in From a contemporary perspective, their camps (Waterman 1918; Johnson Ishi can be seen in some ways as having 2003). Other Yahi, however, were known been exploited for his knowledge and to have been involved in livestock theft experience. He became a ward of the and attacks on other tribes and a few government and of the University of settlers (T. Kroeber 1961:60-61). California. When offered the chance to

1. Some authors have his birth date as 1860 or 1861 72 Hitchcock & Flowerday

return to Deer Creek or to a reservation new legislature, argued, “That a war where he could be with other Indians, of extermination will continue to be however, he told the Indian Agent waged between the races, until the G.E. Kelsey, that he wanted to remain Indian race becomes extinct’ (Burnett where he was at the museum with his 1851:15; Castillo 2010:15). An idea friends (T. Kroeber 1961:217-218). After behind Governor Burnett’s speech his death, Ishi’s body was subjected to was to transform what in essence an autopsy against his wishes, and his were vigilantes into state-sponsored brain was removed, later to be sent to the ‘ranger-militiamen’ (Madley 2016:187). Smithsonian Institution in Washington, On 7 August 1853, the Yreka Mountain DC. This led to enormous controversy Herald called for state-sponsored total that engulfed the Anthropology annihilation of all northern California Department at the University of Indians (Madley 2016:221). The same California at Berkeley and raised serious newspaper said later that month, ‘Let questions about the ethics of treatment extermination be our motto” Yreka of Indigenous people (Scheper-Hughes Mountain Herald 27 August 1853). 2001, 2003; Starn 2004). Ishi has been It was clear that the sentiment commemorated in numerous ways, among white residents of northern including the naming of a wilderness area California was extermination with what after him, the , a 41,339- later was to be termed ‘genocidal intent’ acre (167 km2 ) area in Lassen National (Madley 2016:236). ‘Indian hunting’ Forest in northern California. There are became a common practice of numerous at least two monuments honoring Ishi, white communities. As was pointed one of them on the Oro Quincy Highway out by some military commanders (e.g. in Oroville, and the other above Black Captain Henry M. Judah), this was Rock on a ridge separating Deer Creek not war but an effort to destroy entire and Mill Creek in a spot called ‘the Indian communities (Madley 2016:237- Narrows.’ 238). Much of the killing was done by state-sponsored who were Genocide of the Yahi and Yana well-armed and unwilling to negotiate with the Indians with whom they came The application of the term genocide in contact. In some cases, the military to what happened to California Indians provided arms to volunteer companies has not been without controversy. In the who then went out and killed hundreds 19th century, the term genocide was not of northern California Indians. used; instead, the term extermination Prior to the Gold Rush that began was employed. As Cahuilia-Luiseno with the discovery of gold by James author Edward D. Castillo noted in W. Marshall at Sutter’s Mill on 24 his Short Overview of California Indian January 1848, the U.S. military had been History, posted on the State of California involved in the purposeful destruction of Native American Heritage Commission California Indians, including Yana and website (www.mahc.ca.gov, accessed 5 . This was seen in in the case of the June 2020), the first California Governor, actions of Colonel John C. Frémont and Phillip Burnett, in his address to the his scout and their men who 73 Ishi and the California Indian Genocide as Developmental Mass Violence

destroyed a village on the Sacramento the 19th century, a significant proportion River with artillery and rifle fire and of the of Indigenous peoples then rushed into the village with sabers, occurred during the course of colonial pistols, axes and butcher knives. Indians and settler expansion into frontier zones. who tried to escape were cut down by The term genocide refers first of mounted soldiers with tomahawks. all to purposeful physical destruction Estimates of victims ranged from 150 to of a defined group. Fein (1990:24) sees over 700, with perhaps 300 killed in the genocide as “sustained purposeful action pursuit. The Sacramento River military by a perpetrator to physically destroy massacre foreshadowed ‘what would a collectivity and social reproduction become a common rationalization for of group members.” She also says that such atrocities, the notion of pedagogic these actions are carried out regardless killing’ (Madley 2016:48). The idea of the surrender or lack of threat offered behind this concept was, according to by the victims. A key aspect in many Thomas E. Breckenridge, a member of of the definitions of genocide is intent the expedition writing at the time, that (Jones 2006:20-22, 353). It is important killing Indigenous Californians would to note that genocide is by no means teach survivors not to challenge whites a simple or unified phenomenon. (Breckenridge 1846). The Frémont Genocide frequently, but not always, Expedition set the pattern for the involves systematic efforts to destroy Anglo-American approach to California collectivities, many of which are Indians, which involved either killing minorities. them or removing them, placing them From a critical review of the rapidly on reservations or rancherias where growing literature on Indigenous they could be controlled. This approach peoples’ genocides most writers use a differed from that pursued by Mexico in fairly broad definition of the concept the mission system in California, which of genocide. While some analysts see was built in part on the exploitation genocide as a set of acts committed with of Indian labor but was aimed more the intent to destroy groups in whole at conversion and exploitation than it or in part, as defined by the United was on the purposeful destruction of Nations Convention on the Prevention California Indians (Castillo 2010). and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide Genocides of Indigenous people in (United Nations 1951) others extend the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries occurred the concept to include such actions in a number of different contexts (Jones as intentional prevention of ethnic 2006:67-94; Kiernan 2007; Hitchcock and groups from practicing their traditional Koperski 2008; Rensink 2009, 2011; Ostler customs, forced resettlement; denial of 2020). These contexts range from ones in access to food relief, health assistance, which there is competition over land and and development funds, and purposeful natural resources to multiethnic settings destruction of the habitats utilized by with socioeconomic stratification, Indigenous peoples, sometimes termed power differentials, and pronounced ecocide (Clavero 2008; Crook and Short differences among the various groups. 2014). In the past, including in California in The United Nations’ Convention on 74 Hitchcock & Flowerday

the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime slaves. and the spread of sexually of Genocide (Article II) defines genocide transmitted diseases (STDs) among as follows: native women caused both severe In the present Convention: genocide physical and psychological trauma and means any of the following acts affected female reproduction. committed with intent to destroy, in Behind these horrific acts was an whole or in part, a national, ethnical, intense racial hatred, what today is racial, or religious group, as such: termed ‘systematic .’ Crimes against Indians were carried out with (a) Killing members of the group; impunity; there were rarely efforts to (b) Causing serious bodily or mental fine or jail perpetrators for their actions. harm to members of the group Two significant works on California (c) Deliberately inflicting on the Indian genocide came out in the 21st group conditions of life calculated century, Brendan Lindsay’s Murder to bring about its physical State: California’s Native American destruction in whole or in part; Genocide 1846-1873 (2012) and Benjamin (d) Imposing measures indeed to Madley’s An American Genocide: The prevent birth within the group; and the California Indian (e) Forcibly transferring children Catastrophe, 1846 to 1873 (2016). Lindsay of the group to another group (2012) and Madley (2016) both see the (United Nations 1951). motivations for the killings as pre- existing racism and fear of ‘the other,’ In California, miners, ranchers, farmers, exacerbated by the complicity of the and business people who entered from state not only in allowing genocidal outside of the state, especially after acts but in rewarding them in some 1848, engaged in all of the acts that cases. Also important was the not- were outlined in the United Nations so-benign neglect of the media, faith- Convention on the Prevention and based institutions, and members of the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide public in failing to call into question (United Nations 1951). The primary more vocally the genocidal acts and strategy that was employed was misbehavior of fellow Californians. physical destruction, often at the hands There were exceptions, of course, such of volunteers and militias. Madley as the editorial opinions of the Daily (2016) estimates that California’s Indian newspaper on 11 March population declined from some 150,000 1850, which argued ‘We hope and to 30,000 between 1846 and 1870 (p. trust that the U.S. troops in California 3). The genocidal processes included will prevent further violence’ (Madley outright massacres and murders, 2016:125-127). removals of people from their ancestral The California Indian Genocide homelands and confinement to small remained unclassified as a genocide reservations, where substantial numbers until the comprehensive scope of the died of disease and starvation, and mass violence came to the fore (Lindsay the taking of children away from their 2012; Madley 2016). Fenelon and families, some of whom were used as Trafzer (2014:13) explain it as follows: 75 Ishi and the California Indian Genocide as Developmental Mass Violence

Like other colonizers, the United Chalk and Jonassohn (1990) classify States sought total domination of genocides according to the motives Native Americans, and federal and behind them. They distinguish four state officials allowed pioneers to types of genocide: (1) to eliminate a real murder, rape, kidnap, steal, and or potential threat, (2) to spread terror destroy Native Americans, creating among real or potential enemies, (3) systems for superordinating settlers, to acquire economic wealth, and (4) to soldiers, and government implement a belief, theory, or ideology (p. officials to subordinate Indians, 29-32). In California, it can be argued, all thereby developing caste-like social four motives were behind the actions of systems fully alienating Indigenes, the perpetrators. Vigilante violence was usually on their own lands (p. 13, sometimes done in reprisal for actions emphasis in original). taken by Indians such as the murder of their employers, as occurred, for They go on to say, ‘These rationalizations example in the case of two ranchers who provided the basis for the denial, had Indian slaves and workers on their dismissal, and distortion of genocide in ranch who they mistreated in numerous America, most specifically in California, ways, Charles Stone and Andrew Kelsey, because of six major reasons: near Clear Lake, California in December 1849. Vigilante groups were formed (a) the difficult analysis of genocide to seek out those responsible, but they in California because of the lack of ended up killing hundreds of precedent; and men, women and children (b) general denial among scholars, (Madley 2016:114-116). The actions were historians, and sociopolitical aimed at eliminating opponents and at forces; terrorizing the Indians into subservience (c) an inability to establish (see Chalk and Jonassohn 1990:29, 36-37; intentionality (critical to proving Madley 2016:120-127). Even if they did genocide); not wipe out entire groups, the killing (d) inapplicability of contemporary of expert hunter-gatherers removed models; much needed labor in Indian groups, (e) lack of temporal sequencing who were both loved ones and family between systems (e.g., missions members, contributing to subsistence to U.S. Indian policy); and procurement difficulties and starvation (f) failure to take responsibility by (Madley 2016:125). descendants and beneficiaries Smith (1987) sees genocide as an of genocidal policies (similar to aspect of (1) war, and (2) development, throughout the United States and he notes that in the past it appeared generally) (p. 13, emphasis in a variety of contexts, including original). conquest, , and colonial domination (p. 23-25). Smith Clearly, the California Indian genocides distinguishes five different types of stand out, in part because of their genocide, one of which he also calls complexity and because of their scope. utilitarian genocide. This kind of 76 Hitchcock & Flowerday

genocide, according to Smith occurred in the face of colonial violence and settler especially in the sixteenth- to nineteenth- encroachment. century period when colonial societies The between came in contact with :ndigenous peoples January 1848 and 1864 brought some in the Americas, Australia, Tasmania, 300,000 people from all over the world and Africa (1987:23). Genocides were into northern California (Rawls 1976; perpetrated, as Smith puts it, “out of cold Johnson 1978:362; Shaler 2020). The calculation of gain, and, in some cases, presence of large numbers of outsiders as sadistic pleasure” (1987:23). The basic led to greater conflicts over resources objectives of 19th century genocides of and the expansion of tensions between Indigenous peoples were, according to immigrants and Indigenous people. Smith, Indian land, resources, and labor Miners, with little experience in dealing (1987:25). In Smith’s view, genocidal with Indigenous people, pushed for actions against Indigenous peoples are removals or extermination. Some of them, not simply accidental or unpremeditated however, depended on Indian labor in the events but are acts done purposely to gold fields and for supplying them with achieve economic objectives. food such as deer, acorns, and salmon. An equivalent category to the Population pressure on the northern utilitarian genocide discussed by Smith California resource base exacerbated (1987) and that of genocide aimed at the difficulties of Indigenous people acquiring economic wealth suggested by in sustaining themselves economically Chalk and Jonassohn (1990:29) is what (Madley 2016:70-71, 100). Placer mining Fein (1984:8-9) refers to as developmental activities resulted in environmental genocide. This kind of genocide generally impacts ranging from toxins such as is preceded by the movement of mercury in streams and rivers to the individuals, governmental organizations sedimentation of water courses that in the and bureaucratic institutions into frontier past had supported sizable populations zones where Indigenous groups resided of fish and other resources (Madley and earned their livelihoods. Admittedly, 2013:21). Oral histories of northern there was significant variation in the California Indians contain stories about ways in which encroaching individuals immigrants purposely destroying oak and agencies dealt with resident groups. trees in order to reduce the availability In some cases, the outsiders attempted to of acorns, a staple food of many northern negotiate with local people; in other cases, and central California Indigenous people they took their land and resources away (Hitchcock). Purposeful destruction of from them without their permission; and high-value Indian resources, combined in still other cases they tried to annihilate with the fouling of streams, rivers, and them (Fein 1984:8). Resident Indians, lakes with toxins from mining activities, for their part, responded in a variety of can be seen as ecocide. ways: some of them actively resisted the There are at least four types of data incursions, others sought to negotiate, on genocides of California Indians: (1) and still others retreated into remote, reports and admissions of perpetrators, inaccessible areas. Most importantly, (2) bystander or observer reports, some of California Indians adapted and endured them documented in media sources, (3) 77 Ishi and the California Indian Genocide as Developmental Mass Violence

testimonies of victims and oral histories, Several observations can be made about and (4) forensic evidence (Madley this table. First, the perpetrators of 2016:10). All four of these types of data the violence against central California were employed in the following analysis Indians ranged from individual of genocides, massacres, mass killings, settlers, ranchers, and miners to self- and murders of Yana and Yahi. Yana appointed vigilante groups and the U.S. and Yahi customs are such that names military. Particularly disturbing were of the dead are not used, and there are the vigilantes who carried out killings, few, if any, formal records of Yana and torture, and kidnappings of Indian Yahi memories of how they were treated. adults and children. The California Nevertheless, it is possible to provide a state legislature provided financial tabular record of some of the genocides and moral support to “Indian-hunting and human rights violations against campaigns,” especially after 1851 northern and central California Indians (Madley 2013:20-21). The legislature (see Table 1). also underwrote the costs of weapons

Table 1. Genocidal Massacres of Native Californians

Location Date Victims Perpetrators Reference(s)

Sacramento March 1846 and U.S. Military Breckenridge River, Yana unit under (1846); California Colonel John Lindsay C. Frémont (2012:94- 95); Madley (2016:45-48, 363)

Sutter’s Mill, March 1849 Nisenan. Settlers and Madley California Miwok militias (2016:428)

Clear Lake 15 May 1850 Pomo Settlers and Lindsay Island, ranchers; U.S. (2012:248); California Army unit Garsha (2015); Madley (2016:40, 228- 243, 431) 78 Hitchcock & Flowerday

Bridge Gulch, 23 April 1852 Wintu settlers Madley California (2016:206-207)

Yontocket Spring 1853 Settlers, Norton Ranch, miners and (1979:54-56) California a 33-man company

Round Valley, 1856 – 1859 Yuki Settlers, Carranco and California (battles and vigilantes, and Estle (1998); shootings) mercenaries Baumgardner (2006); Madley (2008, 2016:256-266)

Eureka, 26 February Settlers and Madley California 1860 townspeople (2016:209, 220- 224, 231-232)

Three Knolls, August 13-14, Yahi Settlers Anderson Mill Creek, 1865 (1909:71-81); California T. Kroeber (1961:79-82); Madley (2013)

Dry Creek Early 1866 Yahi Settlers Waterman (1918:39); T. Kroeber (1961:82-88);

Kingsley April 1871 Yahi/Yana Settlers Waterman Cave, Mill (1918:71) ; Creek Riffe (1992) Headwaters

For additional information on the treatment of California Indians, see Madley (2016:363-550, Appendices 1-7) 79 Ishi and the California Indian Genocide as Developmental Mass Violence

and ammunition for militias (Madley of extermination efforts, there was a 2016:199-200). Immigrants who passed difference between the U.S. Army and through the Mount Lassen area began the vigilantes: the army tended to kill killing Yana in 1848. The attacks and smaller numbers of Indians and take massacres picked up in the mid-1850s, more captives, while the vigilantes, some of them recorded by Indigenous militias, and civilians tended to ‘be authors including Byron Nelson (1978), more genocidal: shooting, beheading, Jack Norton (1979) and Edward Castillo burning, enslaving, and scalping most (2010). The Yahi and Yana sought refuge of those Indians they attacked’ (Madley in the highlands and canyonlands of 2016:224). The Yreka Mountain Herald northern and central California, and argued on 26 December 1853, “We can their remoteness provided them with never rest in security until the redskins a degree of protection, at least until are treated like the other beasts of the the numbers of settlers, ranchers, and forests.” Dehumanization, decimation, farmers expanded in the mid-1860s. and denigration were the order of the As noted earlier, the Yana and Yahi day in the 1850s. Indians were shot down preferred to avoid conflicts with other without provocation and their bodies groups, so attacks on settlers and mutilated by the vigilantes. Indian livestock thefts relatively uncommon. property was confiscated and kept by This did not mean that the perpetrators the perpetrators of the massacres. of the massacres (e.g. Anderson 1909) Militia General William L. Kibbe’s did not use retaliation as a justification units carried out the Militia for their actions. Expedition from July to December 1859, claiming that they had killed well over Developmental Genocide 200 people and had captured 1,200. Some of them were Yana, who the What transpired with the Yana and media, including on Yahi can be seen as a concrete example 16 December 1859 declared were ‘nearly of mass developmental genocide. exterminated’ (Madley 2016:271-276). Campaigns against the Yana and The actions of militias and military units Yahi were both state- sanctioned and and individual volunteers were decried carried out by vigilantes who had no by such organizations as the Northern connection whatsoever with the state. California Indian Association (Lindsay The expeditions undertaken against 2012:349) and by the media in many of the Yana and Yahi were aimed at both the towns in northern California. extermination and forced removals to Things began to change during reservations and rancherias, one example the Civil War from 1861 to 1865, with being the Round Valley Reservation in a reduction in funds and weapons Mendocino County. High mortality rates for the U.S. Army and vigilantes, and occurred both during forced marches to rising public consciousness about the reservations and during the occupation mistreatment of Indians, which led to of the areas set aside for Indians, some more frequent criticism of what was due to stress, starvation, and disease happening in northern California. Two (Madley 2013:31, 2016:257-261). In terms California state senators asked, ‘Shall 80 Hitchcock & Flowerday

the Indians be exterminated, or shall adversity. Rejecting the discourses on they be protected’ (Madley 2016:284). extinction (see Brantlinger 2003), they During the Civil War there began to be worked closely with other northern more intense scrutiny and criticism of California Indians, including Wintu what was happening with California and (Pit River Indians) in Indians, particularly their enslavement promoting a social, cultural, political, and confinement to poorly managed and economic resurgence that is nearly reservations and rancheria, which saw unmatched in Indian Country. In widespread starvation and high disease 1923 the Yana joined the Wintu and rates in California in 1862 and 1863. Achomawi on Redding Rancheria where Yana in northern California retreated they engaged in a variety of activities further into the mountains but prepared aimed at promoting the well-being of the themselves for a defensive guerilla three peoples. The federal government operation to protect themselves from terminated the Redding Rancheria in the vigilantes. In fact, there were few, if 1959 during the era when it was seeking any, attacks on settlers but the vigilante to reduce the number of Indian groups attacks intensified in 1865-66, including who were recognized, and therefore in the Three Knolls massacre which took a position to receive Department of the the lives of many of Ishi’s kinsfolk and Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and led to his disappearance into the remote Indian Health Service support. The assets areas of Deer and Mill Creek. of the Redding Rancheria were sold, but It is important to note that during the three tribes retained some of the land this period there were some efforts by where they lived through individuals ranchers and farmers to protect Yana who had purchased or been allocated workers from the vigilantes (Madley plots by the government in the past. The 2016:325-326). One of the last massacres early 1980s were taken up with regaining of Yana occurred in 1871 at Kingsley federal recognition, which the three tribes Cave near the headwaters of Mill Creek. managed to do in 1985 after a complex set After that, there were only sporadic of legal and other actions. Once they got reports of Yana by settlers and ranchers federal recognition again, the Wintu, Pit until the 20th century, when Ishi and his River, and Yana went about formulating family were found by surveyors in 1908 a constitution, which was completed in at their hideout known as Grizzly Bear’s 1989. They set up the Redding Rancheria Hiding Place. Economic Development Corporation in 1993. Redding Rancheria is recognized as Conclusions a national leader in the development of its people in their traditional homelands. The Yana, like other California They have built up a successful business Indians whose numbers had been operation. The Rancheria invests heavily reduced substantially by violence from in economic development, education, as many as 3,000 people prior to 1847 health services, water, roads, and (T. Kroeber 1961:15) to as few as 30 in community support programs including 1885 (Waterman 1918:40), have shown mother tongue language programs in the enormous resilience in the face of severe schools. 81 Ishi and the California Indian Genocide as Developmental Mass Violence

Redding Rancheria’s Win-River It is no longer possible to deny the Resort and Casino is highly successful California Indian genocide, especially and is known for its positive, supportive when there is so much detailed management, excellent working documentation of what occurred. On conditions, and well-paid staff. The June 18, 2019 Redding Rancheria is a major contributor issued a formal apology to Shasta County’s economic growth to the Indian peoples of California, through regular payment of property calling what happened to them a and other taxes and distributions of genocide (Cowan 2019). In the process, benefits from the business operations. he called for the creation of a Truth and The casino is the largest employer in the Healing Council aimed at reporting on county. Working relations with Redding, the historical relationships between the the closest city, are excellent and are state and its Indigenous people. The reminiscent of the Fox-Mesquaki relations 200,000 Californian Indians and their with nearby Tama, Iowa. A superb video neighbors and friends all look forward was made of the efforts of the Wintu, Pit to the day when native people’s rights River, and Yana in 2013. Titled “With the are on an equal footing with those of all Strength of our Ancestors – the Story of people. Redding Rancheria,” it is on the Redding Rancheria website (Redding Rancheria). Acknowledgments Development, which is often seen by Indigenous peoples as Support of the research on this paper is problematic because it is usually aimed based was provided by grants from the at modernization, assimilation, and University of New Mexico, Michigan economic but not social growth, is State University, and the University of now seen by the Yana, who number Nebraska-Lincoln. One of us (Hitchcock) some 200 on Redding Rancheria, as wishes to express his appreciation to something that is positive. The mass Shelly Davis-King for taking him to developmental violence that they had Deer Creek to visit some of the places faced in the 19th century is definitely where Ishi and his relatives and friends remembered but not discussed openly lived. We thank the editors of the with outsiders by the Yana. They have Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, endured and maintained their customs, an anonymous reviewer, Richard Burrill, beliefs, and cultural traditions. While and Melinda Kelly for their valuable Ishi was described as ‘the last Yahi’ comments, criticisms, and insights. We and evidence of tribal extinction, Ishi, also extend our deepest gratitude to our his father, Yètati, who died in 1857, his northern California Indian consultants mother, Yè tschulti, who died in 1908, for sharing stories about their histories, and Ishi, who died in 2011, had relatives experiences, and memories. and friends who survived the massacres and who told their stories to about what References they experienced to Yana and Pulga and white Californians in the 20th Anderson, Robert Allen. 1909. Fighting and 21st centuries. the Mill Creeks: Being a Personal Ac- 82 Hitchcock & Flowerday

count of Campaigns Against Indians Cowan, Jane. 2019. ‘It’s Called Geno- in the Northern Sierras. Whitefish, cide’: Newsom Apologizes to the Montana: Kessinger Publishing. State’s Native Americans. New York Baumgardner, Frank H. 2005. Killing for Times, 19 June 2019. Land in Early California: Indian Blood Crook, Martin and Damien Short. 2014. at Round Valley. Tucson: Algora Pub- Marx, Lemkin and the genocide–ecocide lishing. nexus. The International Journal of Brantlinger, Patrick. 2003. Dark Vanish- Human Rights 18(3):298-319. ings: Discourse on the Extinction of Day, Mark. 2016. “Ishi’s Life: A Califor- Primitive Races, 1800-1930. Cornell: nia Genocide Primer.” Indian Coun- Cornell University Press. try Today (NewsMaven.com, March Breckenridge, Thomas E. 1846. Memoirs. 25). Retrieved Oct. 30, 2019 Folder 2, no. 52. St. Louis: State His- Fein, Helen. 1984. “Scenarios of Geno- torical Society of Missouri. cide: Models of Genocide and Crit- Burnett, Phillip. 1851. Governor’s Mes- ical Responses” Pp. 3-31 in Toward sage. California: California Legisla- the Understanding and Prevention of ture Genocide: Proceedings of the Interna- Burrill, Richard. 1990. Ishi: America’s Last tional Conference on and Stone Age Indian. Chico: The Anthro Genocide, edited by Israel W. Charny. Company. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. Burrill, Richard. 2001. Ishi Rediscovered. Fein, Helen. 1990. “Genocide: A Socio- Barron’s Art Guides, Chico: The An- logical Perspective.” Current Sociolo- thro Company. gy 38(1):1‑126. Burrill, Richard. 2014. Ishi’s Return Home. Fenelon, James V. and Clifford Ed. Chico: The Anthro Company. Trafzer. 2014. “From Colonialism Burrill, Richard. 2020. Personal Commu- to Denial of California Genocide to nication. Misrepresentations: Special Issue on Carranco, Lynwood and Estle Beard. Indigenous Struggles in the Amer- 1981. Genocide and Vendetta: The icas.” American Behavioral Scientist Round Valley Wars of Northern Cali- 58(1):3-29. fornia. Norman: University of Okla- Garsha, Jeremiah J. 2015. “‘Reclamation homa Press. Road’: A Microhistory of Massacre Castillo, Edward D. 2010. Short Over- Memory in Clear Lake, California.” view of California Indian History. Sac- and Prevention: An ramento: State of California Native International Journal 9(2):61-75. American Heritage Commission. Heizer, Robert and . Chalk, Frank and Kurt Jonassohn. 1990. 1979. Ishi: The Last Yahi: A Documen- The History and Sociology of Genocide: tary History. Berkeley: University of Analyses and Case Studies. New Ha- California Press. ven: Yale University Press. Hitchcock, Robert K. 1970-present. Field Clavero, Bartolome. 2008. Genocide and Notes. , 1933-2007: How to Make, Hitchcock, Robert K. and Thomas Ko- Unmake and Remake Law with Words. perski 2008. “Genocides of Indig- Milan: Giuffre. enous Peoples” Pp. 577-617 in The 83 Ishi and the California Indian Genocide as Developmental Mass Violence

Historiography of Genocide, edited by Madley, Benjamin. 2016. An American Dan Stone. London: Palgrave. Genocide: The United States and the Johnson, Jerald Jay. 1978. “Yana.” Pp. California Indian Catastrophe, 1846- 361-369 in Handbook of North Amer- 1873. New Haven and London: Yale ican Indians. Vol. 8: California, edited University Press. by William C. Sturtevant. Washing- Nelson, Jr., Byron. 1978. Our Home Forev- ton, DC: Smithsonian Institution. er: The Indians of Northern Cali- Kiernan, Ben. 2007. Blood and Soil: A fornia. Salt Lake City: Hupa Tribe. World History of Genocide and Exter- Norton, Jack. 1979. Genocide in North- mination. New Haven and London: western California: When Our Worlds Yale University Press. Cried. San Francisco, CA: American Kroeber, Alfred L. 1912. Ishi, the Last Ab- Historians Press. origine. Pp. 304-306 in The World’s Ostler, Jeffrey. 2020. Surviving Genocide: Work, July 2012. Native Nations and the United States Kroeber, Alfred L. 1925. “Handbook of from the American Revolution to Bleed- the Indians of California”. Bureau ing Kansas. New Haven and London: of American Ethnology, Bulletin 78. Yale University Press. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Insti- Rawls, James J. 1976. “Gold Diggers: In- tution. dian Miners in the California Gold Kroeber, Karl and Clifton Kroeber, 2003. Rush.” California Historical Quarterly Ishi in Three Centuries. Lincoln: Uni- 55(1):28-55. versity of Nebraska Press. Redding Rancheria. 2013. “With the Kroeber, Theodora 1961. Ishi in Two Strength of our Ancestors – the Story of Worlds. Berkeley: University of Cali- Redding Rancheria.” Video documenta- fornia Press. ry. Retrieved on June 5 2020 at www. Lindsay, Brendan C. 2012. Murder State: redding-rancheria.com. California’s Native American Genocide Rensink, Brenden. 2009. “The Sand 1846-1873. Lincoln: University of Creek Phenomenon: The Complex- California Press. ity and Difficulty of Undertaking Lynwood, Carranco and Estle Beard. 1981. a Comparative Study of Genocide Genocide and Vendetta: The Round Val- Vis-à-vis the Northern American ley Wars of Northern California. Berke- West.” Genocide Studies and Preven- ley: University of Oklahoma Press. tion 4(1):9-27. Madley, Benjamin. 2008. “California’s Rensink, Brenden. 2011. “Genocide of Yuki Indians: Defining Genocide in Native Americans: Historical Facts Native American History.” Western and Historiographic Debates” Pp. Historical Quarterly 39(3):303-332. 15-36 in Genocide of Indigenous Peo- Madley, Benjamin. 2013. “The Genocide ples, edited by Samuel Totten and of California’s Indians.” Pp. 17-53 in Robert K. Hitchcock. New Bruns- Centuries of Genocide: Essays and Eye- wick, New Jersey: Transaction Pub- witness Accounts, edited by Samuel lishers. Totten and William S. Parson. Fourth Riffe, Jed. 1992. Ishi: The Last Yahi. Docu- Edition. New York and London: mentary. Berkeley: Jed Riffe Films. Routledge. Riffe, Jed. 1998. Bear’s Hiding Place: Ishi’s 84 Hitchcock & Flowerday

Last Refuge. Documentary. Berkeley: Vizenor, Gerald. 2001. “Ishi Obscura.” Jed Riffe Films. Hastings Environmental Law Journal Sapir, Edward. 1910. “Yana Texts.” Uni- 17(3):299-305. versity of California Publications in Waterman, T.T. 1917. “Ishi, the Last American Archaeology and Ethnolo- Yahi Indian.” Southern Workman gy 9(1). 46(10):528-537. Sapir, Edward and Morris Swadesh. Waterman, T.T. 1918. “The Yana Indi- 1960. “Yana Dictionary.” University ans.” American Archaeology and Eth- of California Publications in Linguis- nology 13(2):35-102. tics, Volume 22. edited by Mary R. Haas. Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. 2001. “Ishi’s Brain, Ishi’s Ashes.” Anthropology Today 17(1):12-18. Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. 2003. “Ishi’s Brain, Ishi’s Ashes: Reflections on Anthropology and Genocide” Pp. 99-131 in Ishi in Three Centuries, ed- ited by Karl Kroeber and Clifton Kroeber. Lincoln: University of Ne- braska Press. Shaler, Andrew. 2020. “Indigenous peo- ples and the California gold rush: labour, violence and contention in the formation of a settler colonial state.” Postcolonial Studies 23(1):79- 98. Smith, Roger W. 1987. “Human Destruc- tiveness and Politics: The Twenti- eth Century as an Age of Genocide” Pp. 21-38 in Genocide and the Modern Age: Etiology and Case Studies of Mass Death, edied by Isidor Walliman and Michael N. Dobkowski. New York: Greenwood Press. Starn, Orin. 2004. Ishi’s Brain: In Search of America’s Last “Wild” Indian. New York: W.W. Norton. United Nations. 1951. “General As- sembly Resolution 260A(iii) of De- cember 9, 1948.” United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Geno- cide. New York: United Nations. 85 Ishi and the California Indian Genocide as Developmental Mass Violence

About the Authors

Robert K. Hitchcock is currently a professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. He is also an adjunct professor of Geography at Michigan State University. Much of his work is on the human rights of Indigenous people and refugees, particularly those in Africa, the Middle East, and North America. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Kalahari Peoples Fund (KPF), a non-profit 501©3 organization that assists disadvantaged people in southern Africa. Hitchcock’s most recent book is People, Parks, and Power: The Ethics of Conservation- related Resettlement (with Maria Sapignoli, Springer, 2020).

Charles Flowerday is head of C. Flowerday Communications. He has been the editor for the School of Natural Resources, Universi- ty of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL). He holds master’s in anthropology and journalism from UNL; a master’s in psychology and religion from Union Theological in New York; and a bachelor’s in English from Princeton. He is co-editor of An Atlas of the Sand Hills, a ref- erence volume on the natural history of the Nebraska Sand Hills; editor of Flat Water: A History of Nebraska and Its Water, a reference work of environmental history; and co-editor of Selected Readings in Anthropology of Religion.