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We have many sources that incorporate culturally responsive pedagogy. For example, the Inclusive Bookshelf is a way to incorporate and introduce different cultures in the classroom. These books will be in the classroom's library all year long for students to check out. The bookshelf includes different kinds of cultures that students can connect and relate to. Another source, "Whose Native Land I am on?" allows students to see which Native Tribe used to live in a particular location. Using this source can teach students how to appreciate the land they live on and practice land acknowledgments. To support Spanish-speaking students, there are slides that are in the language so students can comprehend the lesson. Overall, our sources provide information for teachers on how to be culturally responsive; the value of eliminating bias and learning about their own identity.

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These sources make history/social sciences relevant in a K-8 classroom by connecting the history to our modern-day lives.  Our sources allow students to see the foundations of their home state, California. Students will also learn about the past cultures, societies, and how they operated. The culturally responsive resources help educate students about early Spanish California history and Indigenous history. Some sources also show the history in a celebratory manner, allowing students who do associate with the culture to feel seen and respected.

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These resources help support teaching history/social sciences by introducing ways on how to properly teach the subject. The sources include how to make students historical investigators, the power of primary sources, and the value in showing students sources from different perspectives, not just one.

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4.2.1 Discuss the major nations of California Indians, including their geographic distribution, economic activities, legends, and religious beliefs; and describe how they depended on, adapted to, and modified the physical environment by cultivation of land and use of sea resources.

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3. Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in
a historical, scientific, or technical text, including
what happened and why, based on specific
information in the text.

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This book shelf contains an array of books that address many different cultures, such as African America, Hispanic, Asian, and Muslim culture. 

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In this below-sea-level basin, steady drought and record summer heat make Death Valley a land of extremes. Yet, each extreme has a striking contrast. Towering peaks are frosted with winter snow. Rare rainstorms bring vast fields of wildflowers. Lush oases harbor tiny fish and refuge for wildlife and humans. Despite its morbid name, a great diversity of life thrives in Death Valley.

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Death Valley National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

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In this below-sea-level basin, steady drought and record summer heat make Death Valley a land of extremes. Yet, each extreme has a striking contrast. Towering peaks are frosted with winter snow. Rare rainstorms bring vast fields of wildflowers. Lush oases harbor tiny fish and refuge for wildlife and humans.

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Discover the surprising wonders of Joshua Tree National Park

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Deserts - Great Basin National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

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This article was most recently revised and updated by

Colorado Desert, part of the Sonoran Desert, extending southeastward for 164 miles (264 km) from the San Gorgonio Pass in southeastern California, U.S., to the Colorado River delta in northern Mexico. A low-lying arid region, it is bounded by the Pacific coastal ranges (west), the San Bernardino, Cottonwood, Chuckawalla, and Chocolate mountains and the Colorado River (north through east), and the head of the Gulf of California (south). The typical vegetation of the desert is the creosote bush-desert shrub association. Shifting sand dunes lie in the northwest and in the Algodones sand hills in the east. The Salton Sea, a brackish lake, occupies the deepest section of the Salton Trough (Salton Basin), a landform that effectively outlines the Colorado Desert and the neighbouring Yuma Desert of Arizona, U.S., and northwestern Sonora, Mexico. The productive irrigated Coachella and Imperial valleys stretch northwest and southeast from the Salton Sea. Water is supplied to these valleys through canals from the Colorado River, after which the desert was named. Within the desert are several Indian reservations, the Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge, and popular resorts such as Palm Springs.

John P. Rafferty.

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This article was most recently revised and updated by Colorado Desert, part of the Sonoran Desert, extending southeastward for 164 miles (264 km) from the San Gorgonio Pass in southeastern California, U.S., to the Colorado River delta in northern Mexico.

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Mojave preserves a diverse mosaic of ecological habitats and a 10,000 year history of human connection with the desert. Offering extensive opportunities to experience desert landscapes, the preserve promotes understanding and appreciation for the increasingly threatened resources of the Mojave Desert. This remote preserve encourages a sense of discovery and a connection to wild places.

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Mojave National Preserve (U.S. National Park Service)

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Mojave preserves a diverse mosaic of ecological habitats and a 10,000 year history of human connection with the desert. Offering extensive opportunities to experience desert landscapes, the preserve promotes understanding and appreciation for the increasingly threatened resources of the Mojave Desert. This remote preserve encourages a sense of discovery and a connection to wild places.

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Carol Ann Tomlinson

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Intimate Frontiers: Sex, Gender, and Culture in Old California (Histories of the American Frontier)

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Amazon.com: Intimate Frontiers: Sex, Gender, and Culture in Old California (Histories of the American Frontier): 9780826319548: Hurtado, Albert L.: Books

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Written in a fun, friendly tone, students will love reading our California Mountain Region text and learning all the secrets of our changing shore. Children will be clamoring for more exciting California Regional geography with our "kid-size" bites of information. Each of our 4 products-Mountain, Desert, Valley, and Coast-covers climate, geologic history, land forms and other defining features, resources, plant and animal life, adaptations, people, culture, industry, transportation, architecture, and concerns for the future of each region.

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California Mountain Region: For Kids (California Region Series Book 3)

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California Mountain Region: For Kids (California Region Series Book 3) - Kindle edition by Thank a teacher. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading California Mountain Region: For Kids (California Region Series Book 3).

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California MAP

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How people from the Mountain Region live

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How people from the Mountain Region live

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Sierra Nevada Mountains, sometimes referred to as the "Range of Light," is one of the most beautiful single continuous ranges in the United States. Although the Rockies is the longest mountain range in the United States, Sierra Nevada is the longest continuous and unified mountain chain. The mountain chain is located in the Western United States, mainly in California and Nevada, forming America's "western backbone."

The Sierra Nevada stretches 640 kilometers the Great Basin and Central Valley of California.

It hosts the highest peak in the contiguous United States, Mount Whitney, which rises 4,421 meters above sea level. However, only five peaks rise over4.300 meters above sea level. The mountain range was the site of the California Gold Rush in the mid-1800s. The range is home to sequoias, the world's largest tree.

Geography Of The Sierra Nevada

The Sierra Nevada straddles the Western United States, with a large portion covering central and eastern California, with the small Carson Range extending into western Nevada. The Basin and Range Province flank the Sierra Nevada on the east, with the Central Valley of California on the west. The Mojave Desert borders the mountain range on the southeast. The Sierra is 640 kilometers long from north to south, 110 kilometers wide, and occupies an area of approximately 63,100 square kilometers. Besides the giant sequoias, other notable features within the range include Yosemite Valley, Hetch Hetchy Valley, Kern Canyon, Kings Canyon, Lake Tahoe, and several long rivers.

The Sierra Nevada has a magnificent skyline, making it one of the most beautiful physical features in North America. The range's elevation increases gradually eastwards, from 500 meters to over 4,300 meters. The northern portion has slightly lower summits, with peaks reaching a height of 2,130-2,740 meters. The peaks located between Lake Tahoe and Fredonyer Pass have an average elevation of 1,500-2,700 meters. The range rises over 3,900 meters further south, with Mount Lyell in Yosemite National Park as the highest peak at 3,999 meters. It rises over 4,300 meters near Bishop, California, and over 4,400 meters in Lone Pine, with Mount Whitney as the tallest peak, at 4,421 meters.

The Sierra Nevada is part of the American Cordillera and is drained by several rivers discharging into the surrounding water bodies. The Central Valley watershed drains the western slope and feeds into the Pacific Ocean. The San Joaquin River and its tributaries drain the middle third of the west slope and empty into the Suisun Bay at San Francisco. Sacramento River watershed drains the northern third, while Kern, Tule, Kaweah, and Kings Rivers drain the southern third and feed into Tulare Lake. The waters from the eastern slope mainly discharge into the Great Basin, with rivers draining east Sierra comprising Susan, Truckee, Carson, Walker, and Owen Rivers. Most eastern rivers feed into the nearby lakes, including Honey, Pyramid, Walker, and Mono Lakes.

Geology Of The Sierra Nevada

The Sierra Nevada was formed by the uplifting, upfaulting, and tilting of the Earth's block or crust millions of years ago. The block is bounded in the east by a fault zone, along which the mountain range was uplifted. This major fault zone is also responsible for Sierra Nevada's asymmetric shape. The block was uplifted abruptly, with the erosive agents like wind, rain, frost, temperature change, and ice cutting the eastern escarpment. Although the uplifting began millions of years ago, the major events that shaped the Sierra Nevada took place about two million years ago. The events were associated with the crustal extension of the Basin and Range Province. The oldest rocks in the Sierra Nevada are the metasedimentary rocks, which comprise schists, marbles, slates, and hornfels. Granite rocks began forming in the Triassic period and are found mostly on the north and crest's east.

Climate In The Region

Sierra Nevada's proximity to the Pacific Ocean and its mid-latitude location is responsive to the mild mountain climate experienced in the region. California's Mediterranean climate also influences the Sierra Nevada's weather patterns. Winter temperature below -18 degrees Celsius is common in the valleys and rare on the mountain slopes. The summer days are generally dry, with short periods of thunderstorms in the afternoon. The summer temperatures average 6-32 degrees Celsius. Winters are generally cool, with temperatures low enough to sustain the heavy snow.

Precipitation varies by year and ranges from 510 mm in the foothill zone to over 2,400 mm in the range's northern half. Precipitation falls mainly in the form of snow. Precipitation is lowest on the leeward slope, especially the crest of the western slope. The heavy snowpack is the main water source for home use ad electric power generation in California. The range's height and Sierra Escarpment's steepness produces "Sierra Rotor," a wind phenomenon causing the atmosphere to rotate horizontally. Sierra Nevada's complex weather patterns like microbursts and downdrafts have caused several plane crashes. The "Nevada Triangle" has caused about 2,000 plane crashes, making it as dangerous as the "Bermuda Triangle." The Pacific High anticyclone dominating the range's wind pattern is strongest during the summer season.

Plant And Animal Life In The Sierra Nevada

The Sierra Nevada has several biotic zones that support several plants and animal species. These biotic zones include the western foothill, pinyon pine-juniper, lower montane forest, upper montane forest, subalpine zone, and alpine region. The west slope is divided into five vegetation zones. Live oaks, shrubs, and deciduous trees grow on the lower foothills, while the upper foothills contain ponderosa pine, black oaks, and incense cedar. The montane forest is the main commercial timber source and contains red fir, Douglas fir, Jeffrey pine, and the giant sequoia. The subalpine zone hosts the Sierra juniper, lodgepole pine, western white pine, and mountain hemlock, while lichens, mosses, and alpine flowers grow in the Alpine forest. The eastern slope supports plants like bitterbrush, pinon pine, juniper, and aspen.

Several mountain animals live in the Sierra Nevada region, though their numbers have diminished over the last two centuries due to increased human activities. The foothills are home to mule deer and mountain lions. Mountain sheep are mainly common in the southern portion of the range. Black bears and grizzly bears are found throughout the mountain range. Small mammals inhabiting the forest include bobcat, American badger, golden beaver, striped skunk, and the northern flying squirrels. The Sierra Nevada also has plenty of birds, including California horned lark, brewer blackbird, California quail, spotted owl, and mountain chickadee. The streams flowing from the Sierra also contain several fish species, including trout.

Much of the range is a protected area, comprising three national parks- Sequoia, Kings Canyon, and Yosemite. Besides the national parks, there are two national monuments and ten national forests. The protected areas contain twenty-six wilderness areas covering 15% of the range's total area. More than half of the range's land is controlled by the Bureau of Management and the US Forest Service.

Brief History

The Martis people inhabited the northcentral parts of Sierra Nevada as early as 3,000 BCE. The Northern Paiute tribes inhabited the eastern side, while the Sierra Miwok and Mono tribes lived on the western slopes. The southern area was inhabited by Tubatulabal and Kawaiisu tribes. The exploration of Sierra Nevada began around 1827 with the American mission. The first Americans to explore the mountains were led by Jedediah Smith. In 1833, Joseph Reddeford Walker led the Bonneville Expedition in finding a route to California.

Perhaps the California Gold Rush is what made the Sierra Nevada famous. The gold began in 1848 when James Marshall discovered a shiny object at Sutter's Mill. By March 1848, rumors about the gold discovery had spread across San Francisco. President James Polk confirmed the discovery of the precious stone in December 1848. Soon after, hundreds of people from all over the world moved to Gold Country of California to mine the newly discovered gold. By 1853, most gold had been mined from easily accessible areas. Further extraction became more difficult, discouraging miners from exploring other areas. By 1855, over 300,000 people had arrived in California to seek gold. The immigrants outnumbered the Native Americans, forcing some natives to attack the miners. However, most of them were killed and slaughtered.

Ten Highest Peaks

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Sierra Nevada Mountains, sometimes referred to as the "Range of Light," is one of the most beautiful single continuous ranges in the United States. Although the Rockies is the longest mountain range in the United States, Sierra Nevada is the longest continuous and unified mountain chain.

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https://www.scscourt.org/complexcivil/105CV049053/volume1/66008e_AppendixxCx2010_small_partx2.pdf

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Geology of the Eastern San Gabriel Mountains

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California's Coast Ranges: a Mesozoic accretionary wedge complex

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Modern physiography suggests an ancient subduction zone At the latitude of San Francisco, California has three main physiographic provinces. From the Pacific coast on the west to more inland positions in the east, these are: the Coast Ranges, the Great Central Valley, and the Sierra Nevada.

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Sacramento is located in the Central Valley

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Sacramento is located in the Central Valley

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https://www.history.com/news/9-things-you-may-not-know-about-california

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As part of the Compromise of 1850, Congress granted official statehood to California on September 9, 1850. Explore nine surprising facts about California, 165 years after it became the 31st state in the Union.

1. California's name is derived from a bestselling novel.
In 1510, Spanish author Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo penned "Las Sergas de Esplandián" ("The Deeds of Esplandián"), a novel in which Amazon-like warriors who lived on the island of California, a paradise that abounded in gold and precious stones, aided the protagonist Esplandián. The story was so popular that when Spanish explorers under the command of Hernan Cortes landed on what they believed to be an island on the Pacific coast, they named it California after Montalvo's mythical island.

2. Sacramento wasn't California's original state capital.
When California entered the Union in 1850, San Jose served as its initial state capital, but legislators quickly grew dissatisfied with their accommodations and in 1852 accepted an offer to move 60 miles north to Vallejo. To the lawmakers' surprise, however, they arrived in Vallejo to find their new home still under construction. After an unsuccessful week of trying to do business amid the din of construction, California's legislators moved inland to Sacramento to complete their session. After a brief return to Vallejo and a stop in Benicia, the state capital finally settled permanently in Sacramento in 1854.

3. California once declared itself an independent country-for a month.
On June 14, 1846, American settlers in Sonoma rose up against the Mexican authorities who governed the territory and declared the establishment of the independent California Republic. The rebels fashioned a makeshift flag with a lone red star and a crude drawing of a grizzly bear. Unbeknownst to the leaders of what became known as the Bear Flag Revolt, however, the United States had already declared war on Mexico, and when American Commodore John D. Sloat seized Monterey and raised the American flag over the city, the rebels gave up their notion of independence only weeks after it began and declared their allegiance to the United States.

4. The grizzly bear on the California state flag was modeled after one captured by William Randolph Hearst.
In 1889 newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst dispatched one of his journalists, Allen Kelly, to capture him a wild grizzly bear that he could put on display in San Francisco. Although Kelly had no hunting experience, he managed to lead an expedition that netted his boss an elusive grizzly, which had all but disappeared from the state by that time. Hearst named the 1,200-pound animal Monarch and put him on display in San Francisco's Woodward's Gardens. After Monarch died in 1911, his pelt was stuffed and put on display at the California Academy of Sciences. When California decided that same year to honor the Bear Flag Revolt by replicating the rebels' banner, Monarch served as the model for illustrators. The grizzly bear is now extinct in California.

5. Slavery nearly split California in two soon after it achieved statehood.
California entered the Union as a free state under the Compromise of 1850. Pro-slavery Southerners who had moved into the southern half of the state, however, advocated for seceding from California and forming their own state in which slavery would be legal. The secessionists gained the support of Spanish-speaking residents who thought the state's tax and land laws unfair. In 1859, the state legislature passed an act signed by Governor John B. Weller that would have broken off the area of the state south of the 36th parallel as the Territory of Colorado. More than 75 percent of voters in the proposed territory approved the measure. However, Congressional authorization needed for the measure to take effect never came, and the matter faded away with the outbreak of the Civil War.

6. During the Civil War, Californians marched to Texas to fight Confederate rebels.
In 1862, the 1,500 men of the "California Column" who volunteered for the Union cause embarked on a march east to push back Confederate rebels from Texas who had crossed over into the territory of New Mexico. On a 900-mile trek to El Paso, Texas, the Californians skirmished with both Confederate rebels and Apache warriors under the command of Cochise. The advance of the California Column caused the Texans to retreat, and the Union forces occupied towns and forts in west Texas to keep them at bay.

7. California has both the highest and lowest point in the continental United States.
The snowcapped summit of Mount Whitney-the highest peak in the contiguous United States at 14,505 feet-is just under 85 miles away from Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park, the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level.

8. Dead people are no longer welcome in San Francisco.
When land became more precious and concerns about public health increased in San Francisco at the turn of the 20th century, the city outlawed burials. In 1912, San Francisco went a step further and evicted its dead. Many of them were moved to the adjacent municipality of Colma, where today the deceased residents outnumber the living ones by over 1,000 to 1. The rubble of San Francisco's old tombstones is still being used in civic construction projects.

9. Oil built Los Angeles.
A half-century after the discovery of gold and silver caused the population of California to boom, huge oil fields were discovered underneath the small town of Los Angeles in the 1890s. By 1930, a forest of oil derricks dotted the Los Angeles area, and the state was pumping one-quarter of the world's petroleum output. According to the Los Angeles Daily News, there are still more than 3,000 active oil and gas wells in Los Angeles County, many of them operating in the middle of residential neighborhoods and retail developments.

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9 Things You May Not Know About California

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As part of the Compromise of 1850, Congress granted official statehood to California on September 9, 1850. Explore nine surprising facts about California, 165 years after it became the 31st state in the Union. 1. California's name is derived from a bestselling novel.

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Santa Monica Pier 360 Video Walking Tour

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A poetic story about family and the history of Native American peoples, written by Kevin Noble Maillard, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal.

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Sunsational Storytime | Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story

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Inspired by the many Indigenous-led movements across North America, We Are Water Protectors written by Carole Lindstrom and illustrated by Michaela Goade.

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Where There's A. Williams, There's A Way

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We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom | READ ALOUD | CHILDREN'S BOOK

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A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children (Volume 13) (Contemporary Native American Communities, 13)

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A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children (Volume 13) (Contemporary Native American Communities, 13) [Seale, Doris, Slapin, Beverly, Atleo, Marlene R., Baldwin, Linda L., Beardslee, Lois, Beardslee, Maria, Blaeser, Kimberly, Cloud, Peter Blue, Bruchac, Joseph, Caldwell, Naomi R., C…

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Listen to this! Sacred Native American Chants

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Listen to this! Sacred Native American Chants

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Sacred Indian Chants   The Authentic Sound of North America 2002 Full

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Shamanic Music is connecting nature to ourselves in a peaceful and meditative way. Teachers! Here's proof that Shamanic Music should be played in your classroom-journals.sfu.ca

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CANTO DA FLORESTA | Música Xamânica com Tambor e Flauta Nativa

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This week we will dive into the different Native American tribes that were the first residence of California. We will compare the different tribes with their similarities and differences with how they hunted, adapted to and lived on the variety of Californian terrains.

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4.1 Students demonstrate an understanding of the physical and human geographic features that define places and regions in California.

3. Identify the state capital and describe the various regions of California, including how their characteristics and physical environments (e.g., water, landforms, vegetation, climate) affect human activity.

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Explore the Different areas of California

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Explore the Different areas of California

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Student Objective:
Today I will describe how the areas of California are different. I will be successful by using the states map to identify the capital and the different regions, including discussion of their characteristics and physical features and how they affect daily life. This is important because it will help me understand the history of my state.

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Short Overview of California Indian History

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Short Overview of California Indian History

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California Indian History
OF CALIFORNIA INDIAN HISTORY REGIONAL LIFEWAYS
One manner in which we can seek to understand aboriginal California Indian cultures is to look at the tribes inhabiting similar climatic and ecological zones. What emerges from this approach is a remarkable similarity in material aspects of the many different tribes inhabiting those territories. Generally speaking technologies and materials used to manufacture tools, homes and storage containers show great similarity. Hunting, trapping and fishing technologies also are shared across tribal lines terrain, available water plants and animals affected the density of populations, settlement patterns as each tribe adjusted to its environment.
NORTHWEST
This area would include the Tolowa, Shasta, Karok, Yurok Hupa Whilikut, Chilula, Chimarike and Wiyot tribes. The distinctive northern rainforest environment encouraged these tribes to establish their villages along the many rivers, lagoons and coastal bays that dotted their landscape. While this territory was crisscrossed with thousands of trails, the most efficient form of transportation was the dugout canoe used to travel up and down rivers and cross the wider and deeper ones such as the Klamath. These tribes used the great coast Redwood trees for the manufacture of their boats and houses. Redwoods were cleverly felled by burning at the base and then split with elkhorn wedges. Redwood and sometimes cedar planks were used to construct rectangular gabled homes. Baskets in a variety of designs were manufactured in with the twined technique only. Many of these arts survived into the twentieth century and traditional skills have enjoyed a great renaissance in the past twenty years.

The elaborate ritual life of these tribes featured a World Renewal ceremony held each Fall in the largest villages. Sponsored by the wealthiest men in the communities, the ceremony's purpose was to prevent future natural catastrophes such as earthquakes, floods or failure of acorn crop or a poor salmon run. Supplication to supernatural spirits. Because such disasters directly threaten the community, great attention to detail and the utmost solemnity accompanied such ceremonies. This and other traditional rituals continue to be practiced, despite the grinding poverty that plagues many of these groups.

These tribes were governed by the most wealthy and powerful lineage leaders. The great emphasis on wealth found in these cultures is reflected in the emphasis on private ownership of food resources such as oak groves and fishing areas.
NORTHEAST
This region included the Modoc, Achumawi, and Atsugewi tribes. The western portion of this territory was rich in acorn and Salmon. Further to the East, the climate changes from mountainous to a high desert type of topography. Here food resources were grass seeds, tuber berries along with rabbit and deer.

These Indians found tule to be a useful source of both food (the rootbulb is consumed) and a convenient material when laced together to form floor mats and structure covering. Volcanic mountains in the Western portion of their territory supplied the valuable trade commodity obsidian. The Social-political organization of these peoples was independent but connected to their neighbors by marriage ties. Following contact, the Achumawi and Atsuguewi suffered a tremendous population decline due to vigilante violence and respiratory diseases. The Modocs spectacular 1872 resistance to removal to the Oregon territory was the last heroic military defense of native sovereignty in 19th century California Indian History.

Some surviving Northeast tribesmen received public land allotments around the turn of the century. The XL Rancheria was established for some of these Indians in 1938. Tragically the surviving Modocs were exiled to either Oregon or Oklahoma.
CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
This vast territory includes: Bear River, Mattale, Lassick, Nogatl, Wintun, Yana, Yahi, Maidu, Wintun, Sinkyone, Wailaki, Kato, Yuki, Pomo, Lake Miwok, Wappo, Coast Miwok, Interior Miwok, Wappo, Coast Miwok, Interior Miwok, Monache, Yokuts, Costanoan, Esselen, Salinan and Tubatulabal tribes.

Vast differences exist between the coastal peoples, nearby mountain range territories, from those living in the vast central valleys and on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada. Nevertheless, all of these tribes enjoyed an abundance of acorn and salmon that could be readily obtained in the waterways north of Monterey Bay. Deer, elk, antelope and rabbit were available elsewhere in vast quantities.

In this region basketry reached the height of greatest variety. Perhaps the Pomo basket makers created the most elaborate versions of this art. Both coiled and twine type baskets were produced throughout the region. Fortunately, basket making survived the years of suppression of native arts and culture to once again become one of the most important culturally defining element for Indians in this region.

Common in this area was the semi-subterranean roundhouse where elaborate Kuksu dances were held in the past and continue to this day. These rituals assure the renewal of the world's natural foods both plant and animal. Despite differences, between tribes, these rituals share similar purposes.

Like everywhere else, in California, villages were fiercely independent and governed internally. The abundant food supply allowed for the establishment of villages of up to 1000 individuals, including craft specialists who produced specific objects and goods for a living. In smaller communities, each family produced all that was necessary for survival.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Southern California presents a varied and somewhat unique region of the state. Beginning in the north, tribes found in this area are the Chumash, Alliklik, Kitanemuk, Serrano, Gabrielino Luiseno Cahuilla, and the Kumeyaay. The landmass and climate varied considerably from the windswept offshore Channel Islands that were principally inhabited by Chumash speaking peoples. Communication with their mainland neighbors was by large and graceful planked canoes powered by double paddle ores. These vessels were called "Tomols" and manufactured by a secretive guild of craftsmen. They could carry hundreds of pounds of trade goods and up to a dozen passengers. Like their northern neighbors, the Tactic speaking peoples of San Nicholas and Santa Catalina Islands built planked canoes and actively traded rich marine resources with mainland villages and tribes. Shoreline communities enjoyed the rich animal and faunal life of ocean, bays and wetlands environments. Interior tribes like the Serrano, Luiseno, Cahuilla, and Kumeyaay shared an environment rich in Sonoran life zone featuring vast quantities of rabbit, deer and an abundance of acorn, seeds and native grasses. At the higher elevations Desert Bighorn sheep were hunted.

Villages varied in size from poor desert communities with villages of as little as 100 people to the teaming Chumash villages with over a thousand inhabitants. Conical homes of arroweed, tule or croton were common, while whale bone structures could be found on the coast and nearby Channel Islands. Interior groups manufactured clay storage vessels sometimes decorated with paint. Baskets were everywhere manufactured with unique designs. Catalina Island possessed a soapstone or steatite quarry. This unique stone was soft and could easily be carved with cutting tools and shaped into vessels, pipes and cooking slabs.

Each tribe and community had a chieftain, sometimes females, whose duty it was to organize community events and settle conflicts among their followers. This leader was usually assisted by a crier or assistant, Shaman or Indian doctors were known everywhere and greatly respected. The ritual use of the hallucinogen jimsonweed (Datura meteloides) was primarily in male puberty rituals. Like other California Indian communities, society was divided into three classes, the elite, a middle class and finally a less successful lower class. These robust peoples were among the first to encounter the strangers who would change their world forever.
HISTORY
The Spanish entrada into Alta California was the last great expansions of Spain's vastly over extended empire in North America. Massive Indian revolts among the Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande in the late 17th century provided the Franciscan padres with an argument to establish missions relatively free from colonial settlers. Thus, California and its Spanish Colonization would be different from earlier efforts to simultaneously introduce missionaries and colonists in their world conquest schemes. Organized by the driven Franciscan administrator Junipero Serra and military authorities under Gaspar de Portola, they journeyed to San Diego in 1769 to establish the first of 21 coastal missions.

Despite romantic portraits of California missions, they were essentially coercive religious, labor camps organized primarily to benefit the colonizers. The overall plan was to first militarily intimidate the local Indians with armed Spanish soldiers who always accompanied the Franciscans in their missionary efforts. At the same time, the newcomers introduced domestic stock animals that gobbled up native foods and undermined the free or "gentile" tribe's efforts to remain economically independent. A well-established pattern of bribes, intimidation and the expected onslaught of European diseases insured experienced missionaries that eventually desperate parents of sick and dying children and many elders would prompt frightened Indian families to seek assistance from the newcomers who seemed to be immune to the horrible diseases that overwhelmed Indians. The missions were authorized by the crown to "convert" the Indians in a ten-year period. Thereafter they were supposed to surrender their control over the mission's livestock, fields, orchards and building to the Indians. But the padres never achieved this goal and the lands and wealth was stolen from the Indians.

Epidemic diseases proved to be the most significant factor in colonial efforts to overcome native resistance. Soon after the arrival of Spanish colonists, new diseases appeared among the tribes in close proximity Spanish missions. Scientific study of demographic trends during this period indicate the Indians of the America's did not possess any natural immunities to introduced European diseases. Maladies such as smallpox, syphilis, diphtheria and even children's' ailments such as chickenpox and measles caused untold suffering and death among Indians near the Spanish centers of population. Even before the outbreak of epidemics, a general population decline was recorded that can be attributed to the unhygienic environment of colonial population centers. A series of murderous epidemic diseases swept over the terrified mission Indian populations. Beginning in 1777 a voracious epidemic likely associated with a water born bacterial infection devastated Santa Clara Valley Costanoan children. Again, children were the primary victims of a second epidemic of pneumonia and diphtheria expended from Monterey to Los Angeles was recorded in 1802. By far the worst of these terrifying epidemics began in 1806 and killed thousands of Indian children and adults. It has been identified as measles and attacked Indian populations from San Francisco to the central coast settlement of Santa Barbara. Sadly, the missionary practice of forcibly separating Indian children from their parents and incarcerating children from the age of six in filthy and disease-ridden gender barracks most likely increased the suffering and death of above mentioned epidemics. Excessive manual labor demands of the missionaries and poor nutrition probably contributed to the Indians inability to resist such infections. Less easily measured damage to mission Indian tribes occurred as they vainly struggled to understand the biological tragedy that was overwhelming them. Faith in their traditional shaman suffered when native efforts were ineffective in stemming the tide of misery, suffering and death that life in the missions resulted in. With monotonous regularity, missionaries and other colonial officials reported upon the massive death and poor health of their Indian laborers. Pioneering demographer Sherburne F. Cook conducted exhaustive studies and concluded that perhaps as much as 60% of the population decline of mission Indians was due to introduced diseases.
NATIVE RESISTANCE
The unrelenting labor demands, forced separation of children from their parents and un-ending physical coercion that characterized the life of Indians under padre's authority resulted in several well documented forms of Indian resistance. Within the missions, the so-called "converts" continued to surreptitiously worship their old deities as well as conduct native dances and rituals in secret. By far the most frequent form of mission Indian resistance was fugativism. While thousands of the 81,586 baptized Indians temporarily fled their missions, more than one out of 24 successfully escaped the plantation like mission labor camps. Many Mission Indians viewed the padres as powerful witches who could only be neutralized by assassination. Consequently, several assassinations occurred. At Mission San Miguel in the year of 1801 three padres were poisoned, one of whom died as a result. Four years later another San Miguel Yokut male attempted to stone a padre to death. In 1804 a San Diego padre was poisoned by his personal cook. Costanoan Indians at Mission Santa Cruz, in 1812, killed a padre for introducing a new instrument of torture which he unwisely announced he planned to use on some luckless neophytes awaiting a beating. Few contemporaries Americans know of the widespread armed revolts precipitated by Mission Indians against colonial authorities. The Kumeyaay of San Diego launched two serious military assaults against the missionaries and their military escorts within five weeks of their arrival in 1769. Desperate to stop an ugly pattern of sexual assaults, the Kumeyaay utterly destroyed Mission San Diego and killed the local padre in 1775. Quechan and Mohave Indians along the Colorado River to the east destroyed two missions, killed four missionaries and numerous other colonists in a spectacular uprising in 1781. This last rebellion permanently denied the only overland route into Alta California from Northern New Spain (Mexico) to Spanish authorities. Military efforts to reopen the road and punish the Indians were met with utter failure. The last great mission Indian revolt occurred in 1824 when disenchanted Chumash Indians violently overthrew mission control at Santa Barbara, Santa Ynez and La Purisima. Santa Barbara was sacked and abandoned while Santa Ynez Chumash torched 3/4 of the buildings before fleeing. Defiant Chumash at La Purisima in fact seized that mission and fought a pitched battle with colonial troops while a significant number of other Chumash escaped deep into the interior of the Southern San Joaquin Valley. After 1810 a growing number of guerrilla bands evolved in the interior when fugitive mission Indians allied with interior tribes and villages. Mounted on horses and using modern weapons, they began raiding mission livestock and fighting colonial military forces.

The impact of the mission system on the many coastal tribes was devastating. Missionaries required tribes to abandon their aboriginal territories and live in filthy, disease ridden and crowded labor camps. Massive herds on introduced stock animals and new seed crops soon crowded out aboriginal game animals and native plants. Feral hogs ate tons of raw acorns, depriving even the non-missionized tribes in the interior of a significant amount of aboriginal protein. Murderous waves of epidemic diseases swept over the terrified Mission Indian tribes resulting in massive suffering and death for thousands of native men, women and children. The short life expectancy of mission Indians prompted missionaries to vigorously pursue runaways and coerce interior tribes into supplying more and more laborers for the padres. Missionary activities therefore thoroughly disrupted not only coastal tribes, but their demand for healthy laborers seriously impacted adjacent interior tribes. Finally, by 1836 the Mexican Republic forcibly stripped the padres of the power to coerce labor from the Indians and the mission rapidly collapsed. About 100,000 or nearly a third of the aboriginal population of California died as a direct consequence of the missions of California.

Despite the devastating population decline suffered by tribes in whose territories missions had been established, many managed to maintain tribal cohesion. After 1800, most mission populations were a hodgepodge of different tribes speaking a multiplicity of languages. Because many Indians refused to learn or feigned ignorance of the Spanish language, missionaries appointed labor overseers from each tribe to direct work crews. Such practical policies kept tribesmen from losing culturally distinct identity. Further evidence of cultural persistence was the practice of tribes maintaining separate housing in multi-tribal Indian villages built next to the missions. Finally, many former mission Indians continued to speak their native languages and provide researchers with detailed ethnographic and linguistic data well into the 20th century.
INDIANS AND THE MEXICAN REPUBLIC
In 1823 the Spanish Flag was replaced by that of the Mexican Republic. Little immediate change in personal or Indian policy occurred. However, the independence government was decidedly anti-clerical and the growing body of colonial leaders deeply resented the monopoly of Indian lands and the unpaid Indian labor enjoyed by the Franciscans. While no land grants to the colonists had occurred under Spanish rule, some 25 grazing permits or concessions had been issued to colonial citizens. This was the beginning of the dispossession of tribal lands by colonial authorities. The vast plantation like missions claimed about 1/6 of the present territory of the state. But legal title to these lands were assigned to the Spanish crown. The missions were only supposed to last 10 years, after which the developed estates were to be distributed to surviving mission Indians. It was assumed that the Indians would evolve into hardworking, tax paying citizens of Mexico. But the missionaries kept coming up with excuses why they should not surrender the rich pastoral and agrarian empire they had erected with the lands, resources and hard labor of mission Indians. The Mexican Republic's 1824 constitution declared Indians to be citizens with rights to both vote and hold public office. Despite this liberal declaration, Indians throughout the republic continued to be treated as slaves.
COLLAPSE OF THE MISSION SYSTEM
In actual practice, the new government gave 51 land grants to its colonial citizens between 1824 and 1834. These lands actually belonged to various tribes then incarcerated in nearby missions. These actions just increased the lust for more Indian lands by a growing body of colonial ranchers. There followed a growing chorus of demands that the missionaries surrender their monopoly on Indian labor and "free" the Indians. The sincerity those sentiments should be seriously doubted. The power of this class prevailed and between 1834-36 the government revoked the power of the Franciscans to extract labor from the Indians and inaugurated a plan to distribute mission lands. Venal public officials in charge of the distribution granted the most valuable lands to themselves and their relatives. The secularization processes, it was called, was so restrictive that few ex-mission Indians were eligible for the distributed lands. More significant still, the majority of surviving mission Indians were not native to the areas of coastal missions. Most neophytes at this time had been forced to relocate from their tribal domains and promptly returned to them following their liberation.

Many of these returned exiles were faced with difficult tasks of reconstructing their decimated communities in the wake of crippling population declines. Furthermore, their tribal lands had become transformed by the introduction of vast herds of horses, cattle, sheep, goats and hogs that destroyed the native flora, the primary source of native diet. Wild game animals were likewise driven off by these new animals. What developed from this new condition was the emergence of guerrilla Indian bands made-up of former fugitive mission Indians and interior tribesmen from villages devastated by official and unofficial Mexican paramilitary attacks and slave hunting raids. Eventually a significant number of these interior groups joined together to form new conglomerate tribes. These innovative and resilient tribes quickly converted the anti-mission activities of their members into systematic efforts to re-assert their sovereignty by widespread and highly organized campaigns against Mexican ranchers and government authority in general.

Vastly overestimating their power, Mexican authorities authorized an additional 762 land grants by 1847. In reality, the effectiveness of Indian stock raiders increased dramatically when American and Canadian fur trappers provided a lucrative market for purloined horses by the mid 1830's. Interior Mexican ranches were increasingly abandoned in the face of economic ruin by native stock raiding activities. Even Johann A. Sutter was reduced to begging the Mexican government to buy his fort following a mauling at the hands of Miwok Indians near the Calaveras in June of 1846.

Despite these successes, a series of murderous epidemics in the twilight years of the Mexican era severely reduced the interior population. For instance, in 1833 an American party of fur trappers introduced a murderous scourge of malaria into the Sacramento and San Joaquin River drainages. While traversing the epicenter of the plague, J. J. Warner reported,
"From the head of the Sacramento to the great bend and slough of the San Joaquin we did not see more than six or eight live Indians; while large numbers of their skulls and dead bodies were seen under almost every shade tree near the water, where the uninhabited and deserted villages had been converted into graveyards."
In this tragedy, more than 20,000 Central Valley Miwok, Yokuts, Wintun, and Maidu Indians perished. A new outbreak of small pox devastated Coast Miwok, Pomo, Wappo, and Wintun tribes. Approximately 2000 died in this 1837 epidemic originating from Fort Ross. By 1840 these and other murderous maladies had so thoroughly saturated the Indian population of Mexican California that diseases became endemic.

Mexican forced labor and violence at the hands of the militia and paramilitary slave hunting parties account for a significant amount of the population decline suffered by California Indians. On the eve of the American take-over the aboriginal population of approximately 310,000 had been reduced to about 150,000. This gut wrenching 50% decline had occurred in just 77 years. The implications for survivors is largely a mute tale of suffering and grieving over the loss of a stunning number of children, parents and elders. What came next was worse still.
THE AMERICAN INVASION
Alta California the poorly managed and badly neglected stepchild of Mexico was rapidly overwhelmed by a combination of aggressive Indian raids and the arrival of United States Army, Navy and Marine forces in the summer of 1846. Despite a seemingly irrational murderous attack on Sacramento River Maidu Indian villages by U.S. Army forces under the command of John C. Fremont, the majority of California Indians involved in that struggle aided the Americans as scouts, warrior-soldiers and wranglers.

When Mexican resistance collapsed in January of 1847, thereafter Indian Affairs was administered by a succession of military governors. Stock raiding Indians in the interior recommenced their depredations when they learned Indian slavers such as Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and Johann A. Sutter had been appointed as Indian sub-agents. Military government's policy was to suppress stock raiding and furthermore imposed draconian restrictions on the free movement of Indians and required Indians to carry certificates of employment.
THE GOLD RUSH
The discovery of gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada at a sawmill construction site developed by Indian Agent Johann Sutter, ushered in one of the darkest episodes of dispossession widespread sexual assault and mass murder against the native people of California. Sutter immediately negotiated a treaty with the chief of the Coloma Nisenan Tribe which would have given a three-year lease to lands surrounding the gold discovery site. During those negotiations, the chief prophetically warned Sutter that the yellow metal he so eagerly sought was, "very bad medicine. It belonged to a demon who devoured all who searched for it". Eventually the military governor refused to endorse Sutter's self-serving actions.

Within a year a hoard of 100,000 adventurers from all over the world descended upon the native peoples of California with catastrophic results. The entire state was scoured by gold seekers. Thinly spread government officials were overwhelmed by this unprecedented deluge of immigrants and all effective authority collapsed. Military authorities could not prevent widespread desertion of soldiers and chaos reigned.

A virtual reign of terror enveloped tribesmen the mining districts. Wanton killings and violence against Indians resisting miners developed into a deadly pattern. An Oustemah Nisenan female named Betsy later recalled,
"A life of ease and peace was interrupted when I was a little girl by the arrival of the whitemen. Each day the population increased and the Indians feared the invaders and great consternation prevailed .... as gold excitement advanced, we were moved again and again, each time in haste. Indian children.... when taken into town would blacken their faces with dirt so the newcomers would not steal them...."
Numerous vigilante type paramilitary troops were established whose principal occupation seems to have been to kill Indians and kidnap their children. Groups such as the Humboldt Home Guard, the Eel River Minutemen and the Placer Blades among others terrorized local Indians and caused the premier 19th century historian Hubert Howe Bancroft to describe them as follows.
"The California valley cannot grace her annals with a single Indian war bordering on respectability. It can, however, boast a hundred or two of as brutal butchering, on the part of our honest miners and brave pioneers, as any area of equal extent in our republic......"
The handiwork of these well-armed death squads combined with the widespread random killing of Indians by individual miners resulted in the death of 100,000 Indians in the first two years of the gold rush. A staggering loss of two thirds of the population. Nothing in American Indian history is even remotely comparable to this massive orgy of theft and mass murder. Stunned survivors now perhaps numbering fewer than 70,000 teetered near the brink of total annihilation.

The newcomers sometimes met organized Indian resistance. In 1850 a Cupeno chief named Antonio Garra Sr. organized local Southern California Indians to resist an illegal tax imposed upon San Diego Indians by the county sheriff. Sporadic attacks upon both Americans and some Mexicans by Garra's followers resulted in a massive crackdown on Indian communities. Soon a rival Cahuilla chief captured Garra and turned him over to the authorities who promptly hung him and several of his followers. In 1851 several mountain Miwok tribes offered armed resistance to the hoard of miners overrunning their territory. When one tribe destroyed a trading-post owned by an American who kept at least 12 Indian "wives" a paramilitary militia was formed and aggressively attacked Indians throughout the southern mines area. Eventually this group calling itself the "Mariposa Battalion" breached the unknown granite fortress of the valley of Yosemite. A ruthless campaign against the Yosemite Indians resulted in the capture of their Chief Teneya and a temporary exile to the San Joaquin River "Indian Farm".

In reality, these Indian campaigns were motivated by rapacious greed of the miners to gain Indian lands and provide political capital for ambitious office seekers. Sadly, both the state and federal government eventually reimbursed the vast majority of these paramilitary forays for expenses incurred. This is indeed a dreary story of subsidized murder on a scale unequaled in all of this country's Indian wars.
TREATY MAKING AND TREATY REJECTION
In 1849 Washington sent two special emissaries to California to report on the nature of Mexico's recognition of Indian land titles in California. Neither spoke to a single Indian and eventually produced an ambiguous and inaccurate report to the great disadvantage of the Indians. Upon this misinformation, and in an attempt to stem the unprecedented chaos and mass murder of the gold miner's confrontation with the California Indians, Congress authorized three federal officials to make treaties with the California Indians. Their purpose was to extinguish Indian land titles and provide the Indians with territories that would be protected from encroachment by non-Indians. They were given just $25,000 to accomplish this monumental task. Soon after their arrival in San Francisco in January of 1851, the enormous size of territory prompted the commissioners to split up and negotiate treaties on their own. The reports and correspondence of the treaty commissioners clearly demonstrate that the suspicious and reluctant Indians who could be persuaded to attend the treaty meetings were only vaguely aware of its purpose. This can be attributed to the frequent problems of translators who often had to translate several Indian dialects into Spanish and again into English. Few if any of the Indians could understand English. The random manner in which the commissioners organized the meetings resulted in the majority of tribes not participating. Despite these crippling drawbacks, the treaty process proceeded until January 5th of 1852. In all, eighteen treaties were negotiated. The treaties agreed to set aside certain tracts of land for the signatory tribes. They additionally promised the assistance of farmers, school teachers, blacksmiths, stock animals, seeds and agricultural equipment, cloth and much more. In return, the signatory tribes promised to forever quitclaim to the United States their lands. Just what specific lands being surrendered were not specified. Anthropologists in the 20th century could only identify 67 tribes, 45 village names and 14 alternative spellings of tribal names. Eighteen groups were unidentifiable. Despite the obvious fact that not all California Indian tribes had been consulted or contacted they too would be bound by the negotiations. Nevertheless, the federal government promised to reserve 7,466,000 acres of land to the dispossessed Indians,

An immediate outcry from an enraged public followed the completion of the commissioner's task. It was revealed that the commissioners had overspent their budget by a half a million dollars in the incredibly inflated economy of gold rush California. Local newspapers orchestrated an abusive campaign and local politicians echoed the fears of their compassionate electorate that the treaty reserves might contain something valuable, like gold. Most Americans simply wanted the Indians removed to some other territory or state. California's newly elected state senators provided the final blow. On July 8, 1852, the Senate in executive session refused to ratify the treaties. They were filed with an injunction of secrecy that was finally removed in 1905!

Meanwhile, Congress had created a commission to validate land tittles in California. The commission was required by law to both inform the Indians that it would be necessary to file claims for their lands and report upon the nature of these claims. Because no one bothered to inform the Indians of these requirements, no claims were submitted. Through this neat trick, the federal government "legally" avoided the normally lengthy and duplicitous negotiations over land sessions.

The practical result was the complete dispossession of the Indians in the eyes of the government. Despite this chicanery, several tribes would violently and later legally contest these frauds to defend their territory, homes and families.

From the native viewpoint, signatories of the treaties had agreed to move to specific locations promised in the treaties. Yet such attempts often met with violent attacks by miners and others opposed to the very existence of Indians. Non-treaty groups simply endured the madness and race hatred of those waging a merciless war against them. Most tribes did their best to withdraw from all contact with the mayhem overwhelming them.
A HARSH STATE GOVERNMENT
The formation of the state government proved to be an official instrument of the oppressive mentality of the miner's militia. In Governor McDougall first address to the legislature he promised, "a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races until the Indian race becomes extinct......." Despite guarantees in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Indians were denied state citizenship, voting rights and more important still, the right to testify in court. These acts effectively removed all legal redress for native peoples and left them to the mercy of anyone who chose to sexual assault, kidnap even murder them. Despite entering the union as a free state in 1850, the California legislature rapidly enacted a series of laws legalizing Indian slavery. One of the laws sanctioned an indenture system similar to Mexican peonage in widespread practice throughout California prior to 1850. All levels of state, county and local governments participated in this ugly practice that evolved into a heartless policy of killing Indian parents and kidnapping and indenturing the victim's children. Indian youth could be enslaved by the cruel act to the age of 30 for males and 25 for females. This barbarous law was finally repealed four years after President Lincoln's emancipation proclamation in 1863.

The federal government finally decided to establish an Indian policy in California in 1854 when Edward F. Beale was appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs for California. Beale quickly established a prototype Indian preserve within the boundaries of the Army's military reserve in the Southern San Joaquin Valley, called Fort Tejon. The site was chosen because of the continuing problem of local horse raiding by Southern California Indians. Yokut, Gabrielino and Kitanemuk tribesmen were gathered together on this barren 50,000-acre parcel call San Sebastian. Beale's instruction from Washington authorized him to establish four additional reserves with a $250,000 budget. Apparently, Beale squandered his entire allocation on less than 200 Indians at San Sebastian. This action becomes comprehensible only when it is known that within a decade, Beale wound up owning much of that short-lived reserve. His behavior in office set the standard for decades of widespread corruption and incompetence that distinguishes the Bureau of Indian Affairs in California and elsewhere. Following Beale's removal from office in 1856, Col. T.J. Henely established Indian Reserves on the Klamath River, Nome Lackee near Colusa, Nome Cult (Round Valley) and the Mendocino Reserve at the mouth of the Noyo River on the coast. The latter two were both located in Mendocino County.

These hastily organized communities provided little in the way of support or even minimal refuge for native peoples cajoled to move there. These unsurveyed reserves lacked game, suitable agricultural lands and water. They soon became overrun with white squatters who systematically corrupted the Indians and introduced an epidemic of venereal diseases. More unsatisfactory still, were Indian Farms located on lands rented from newcomers now holding legal title to said lands. The Fresno and Kings River Indian Farms were established in the south-eastern San Joaquin Valley along the rivers of the same name. Federal records clearly show these farms provided only a handful of Indians homes, the majority completely lacked cultivation, but they did provide paychecks for the superintendent's friends and political cronies. The majority of these early reserves and Indian Farms were abandoned in the 1860's due to the state's Indian slavery codes that allowed all able-bodied males, females and even children to be indentured to white citizens. A great many reservation residents could not participate in the agricultural and ranching programs because their labor "belonged" to private state citizens. Frequently, federal and Indian agents themselves indentured his wards for personal enrichment. Government records for this period show that fewer than 3000 of the less than 70,000 surviving California Indians received recognition let alone provisions for reservations. South of the Tehachapi Mountains California Indians remained totally ignored by Washington. So what were the vast majority of Indians doing during this period?
LATE 19TH CENTURY ADAPTATION AND RESISTANCE
The vast majority of California Indians struggled to survive without government aid or recognition. Many on the verge of actual starvation dispersed throughout their territories and sought to support themselves through agriculture and ranch labor for the new "owners" of California. This was a traditional pattern of behavior when drought and other natural catastrophes struck. Deprived of land and their life sustaining resources, they were left with no other options. With a few notable exceptions, the mass murder of the Gold Rush era diminished, as Indian victims became scarce and survivors learned to avoid Americans whenever possible. The great hardships of this adaptation were made bearable with the development of a messianic cult movement called the Ghost Dance of 1870. In part triggered by the introduction of Christian missionary activities, this new religious movement was pan-tribal in nature and obviously a response to the massive population decline. The movement promised the return of dead relatives and the disappearance of the oppressors. It was most desperately embraced by those tribes who had most recently suffered great population declines. Despite lasting only a few years, it was fundamental in revitalizing intra-tribal religious integration. In short, it provided hope for the nearly hopeless situation Indian found themselves confronted with.

The last organized violent reaction to dispossession and federal Indian policy erupted between 1860-1872. The first was a series of Indian wars in Northwestern California. Here Yurok, Karok, Hupa and other tribes fought the increasingly paranoid and aggressive Americans who routinely murdered them, stole their children and burned their villages. Jack Norton, a Hupa historian characterized the situation as a "deranged frontier". Attempts to disarm Indians and continued kidnapping for sexual slavery quickly led to violent resistance. In 1858, the militia established a fort in the Hupa Valley to make war on the Wilkut and Chilula tribes. Many members of those tribes had been captured and deported to the Mendocino Reservation. Frustrated by the stiff resistance of interior groups, the militia found it easier to murder nearby inoffensive peaceful and non-hostile Indians. The notorious Indian Island massacre in Humboldt Bay was the bitter fruit of that race hatred. Eventually some Hupa Indians agreed to assist the soldiers in hunting their hostile neighbors. Despite this defection, several bands of Hupa joined the hostiles and effectively resisted until 1864 when they surrendered. This led to the establishment of the Hupa Valley Reservation in August of 1864.

Because both state and federal authorities seriously underestimated the number of surviving California Indians, plans to remove all Indians to the handful of reservations already established, proved impractical. Several attempts to place multiple tribes on single reservations frequently resulted in violence, mass murder and war. The Modoc war of 1872 was caused by such a policy that insisted the Modocs be deported out of California to the Klamath Reservation in Oregon. Driven twice from that reserve, a third attempt to deport the Modocs back to Klamath resulted in a stunning war in 1872. The Indian service removed the Konkow Indians of Chico and the Atsugewi of Shasta County to the Round Valley Reservation in 1862. Squatters overrunning the Reservation descended upon these unfortunate tribesmen and murdered 45 of them. The mob justified its actions by claiming the Indians might steal food from the squatters. Survivors fled in terror back to Chico, only to be again removed to Round Valley sometime afterwards. The BIA showed little interest in assisting such tribes. Those lucky enough to have reservations established in the aboriginal territories were understandably reluctant to share the scant advantages they enjoyed with newly arrived emigre tribes. Also true was the fact that no tribes desired to be relocated outside of their aboriginal territories. After all, each tribe's creation story emphasized the sacred nature of its own particular landscape. Tradition emphasized territorially and to stray from it required one to steal food resources from neighboring tribes. Non-Indians could not fathom the intensity and depth of the Indians spiritual attachment to their territories.

A steady population decline accompanied by widespread reports of destitution and hunger haunted those tribes without reserved lands. Despite hardship encountered, survival demanded innovation and adaptation. Being driven to the edge of extinction, Indians demonstrated again and again a strong will to survive. That determination notwithstanding, the widespread kidnapping, slavery and violence took a frightful toll on tribesmen and their cultures. Leadership lineages became scattered and displaced. Many ceremonies could no longer be held because access to sacred places was now denied. Cultural mandates to feed ceremonial guests could no longer be achieved by those who otherwise were able to hold public rituals. Finally, Christian missionaries gained control at many reservations under President Grant's Peace Policy of 1869. These folks were determined to destroy Indian culture and aboriginal belief systems that undergirded it.

The California superintendency attracted a succession of special investigators caused by constant reports of corruption that reached Washington. Special reports conducted in 1858, 1867 and 1883 clearly and thoroughly document the corruption and inefficiency plaguing government programs for Indians. President Grant's Peace Policy of 1869 inaugurated an era of acculturation under duress. Policy makers in the government declared the only path of salvation for surviving Indians would be Christianization, along with the adaptation of private ownership of' property. Once these twin goals were realized, Indians would be rewarded with citizenship and take their place among the lower classes with other non-whites in American society. Reservation agents insisted their residents join churches and cease practicing the old ways. The General Allotment Act of 1887 forcibly divided reservation tribal lands, doling out small parcels to individual Indians and their families. If the allotee built a house, engaged in farming or ranching, sent his children to government Indian schools and renounced his tribal allegiance and otherwise pleased the agent, he would (after 25 years) receive title to his land and citizenship. Unlike tribal lands, these parcels would become taxable. The program was inaugurated in California in 1893. By 1930 approximately 2,300 allotments had been carved out of the tiny communal tribal reservation lands. Traditional Indians opposed the detribalizing goals of allotment. The uneven and unequal distribution of allotments was used by Indian agents to keep tribal populations divided and politically impotent. Nevertheless, considerable tribal resistance and pan-tribal organizing developed in opposition to allotment. The program ground to a halt in 1930 due to Indian opposition and failure of BIA to complete the necessary paperwork. The law was repealed in 1934. Thousands of acres of California Indian lands and millions of acres nationally were lost to this destructive and ill-conceived policy.
PAN-INDIAN GROUPS, LANDLESS INDIANS AND RANCHERIAS
Several hundred individual land allotments were distributed to California Indians from public lands found principally in northern California. Often times these were isolated havens from hostile neighbors. Many were assigned to clusters of individuals who were related by kinship and are likely core tribal members who otherwise hand no lands. The tribal communities often held traditional ceremonies and participated in those of their more fortunate reservation Indians.

Southern California Indians were finally provided with recognition when several parcels of their former tribal domains were set aside by executive order beginning in 1873 with the establishment of the Tule River Indian Reservation. Fourteen Southern California Indian Reservations were set aside by executive orders beginning in 1891 and amended in 1898. Unfortunately, Indians in both Orange and Los Angeles counties were excluded from land distributions due in part to the value of coastal real estate. Nevertheless, small tribes from this area participated in pan-Indian organizations.

Reduced to severe destitution the majority of Indians struggled to support their families as landless laborers. Only 6,536 Indians were recognized and living on reservations about the turn of the century. Every Indian who survived to see the dawn of the 20th century had witnessed great suffering and the irreplaceable loss of numerous grandparents, mothers, fathers and children. Some lineages disappeared altogether. The nadir had been reached. Demographer S.F, Cook determined the California Indian population declined to fewer than 16,000 individuals in 1900. This figure represents a gut wrenching descent from over 300,000 into a vortex of massive death in just 131 years of colonization! These staggering losses prompted non-Indians of good will to assist Indian tribes in efforts to secure lands for the still numerous landless Indians.

Several Indian reform groups blossomed before and after the turn of the century. One of their earliest successes was a long legal effort to prevent the Cupa Indians from being dispossessed of their ancestral village of Warner's Hot Springs. While losing the legal case Cupa Indians and their allies managed to secure lands on the nearby Pala Indian Reservation in San Diego County. More important for the majority of landless Indians were the efforts of the Northern California Indian Association that goaded the BIA into enumerating landless Indians in 1905. The result of the survey and political pressure from Indians and their friends resulted in federal actions creating 36 new reservations and Rancherias in 16 Northern California counties. Rancherias were very small parcels of land aimed at provided homesites only for small bands of landless Indians. They are all located in Northern California. Unfortunately, the BIA's investigator failed to visit 12 other counties, thus ignoring the luckless Indians in those areas. Between 1933 and 1941 Congress authorized the enlargement of several Southern California reservations by 6492 acres. No rancherias or homesites were made available for landless Southern California Indians.

Important developments occurred as a result of political activism on the part of both tribes and pan-Indian organizations from 1921 to the present. Beginning with the early efforts of the Indian Board of Cooperation, numerous California Indians self-help organizations and tribes pushed for a lawsuit over the failure of the United States to compensate the Indians of California for the loss of their aboriginal lands. Congress relented and passed the Jurisdictional Act of 1928. This legislation allowed the Indians to sue the federal government and use the state Attorney general's office to represent them. Lacking control of their legal representative a controversial settlement was finally achieved in 1944. $17,053,941.98 was offered for the failure of the government to deliver the 18 reservations promised in treaty negotiations of 1851-2. Incredibly, the government decided to deduct all of its "costs" of providing reservations, supplies and even the salaries of corrupt and do-nothing Indians agents native peoples had endured for nearly a century. After an-other long battle, little more than 5 million dollars were finally distributed on a per-capita basis to 36,095 California Indians in 1951. A paltry $150. was distributed to surviving Indians. This parsimonious and unfair settlement prompted California Indians to seek further legal redress.

The efforts of California Indians to sue the federal government under the Jurisdictional Act of 1928 resulted in the creation of the federal Indian Claims Commission in 1946. This federal body allowed Indian groups to press for compensation to tribes over the theft of their lands in the 19th century. By August of 1951, twenty-three separate petitions had been filed by attorneys on behalf of tribes in California. After 20 years of tortuous maneuvering all separate claims were consolidated into a single case. A compromise settlement of $29,100,000 was offered for 64,425,000 acres of acres of tribal territory. After deduction of attorney's fees ($12,609,000) and the addition of interest and about half a million left over from the first settlement the payment worked out to an offer of 47 cents per acre! The purchase of public domain lands in California in 1850 was never less than $1.50 per acre. This outrageous offer offended many Indians who had pinned their hopes on a settlement that would provide seed money for desperately needed economic development. Despite bitter opposition by many of the original claimants, the federal government prepared a census of eligible Indians in preparation for an anticipated judgment. The BIA organized a series of meetings to convince the litigants to accept the settlement. Eventually a majority of the groups agreed, except the Pit River tribe. They offered strong, vociferous and persistent opposition. However, through questionable balloting, the government declared they had accepted the offer in 1964. Nearly 65,000 California Indians were deemed eligible to share in the settlement. Payments of little more than $600 per person was distributed in 1968. What is of great significance here is the fact that the entire claims activities were conducted outside of normal court proceedings protected by the constitution. Thus, Indians are the only class of citizens in the United States who are denied constitutional protection of their lands by extra-constitutional means.
TERMINATION
During the divisive and controversial land claims battle the BIA began to submit plans to end all services to California Indians and transfer all authority over federal Indian reservations to the State. This new policy, called Termination, was put into motion in 1951. Special agents were sent to prepare for the end of federal jurisdiction over tribal lands. At first the state was enthusiastic over the prospect of increasing its tax base with the anticipation of the privatization of federal trust properties. Termination became law in California under authority of the Rancheria Act of 1958. This statute allowed tribes to vote on a plan to divide communal tribal property into parcels to be distributed to its members. Distributees would receive title to their lands and be free to sell it and be obliged to pay property tax from that time forward. The BIA targeted the smallest, least organized and most isolated tribes to persuade them to accept this plan for cultural and tribal suicide. Government personnel promised acceptance would result in freedom and economic independence. They further made elaborate promises to upgrade squalid housing, pave roads, build bridges, construct water projects and even provide college scholarships in return for a vote to terminate. Between 1958 and 1970 twenty-three rancherias and reservations were terminated. Chronically high unemployment rates, low educational achievement and sometimes emergency medical needs soon forced many to make loans on, or sell their lands. Worse still, many BIA services like health, education were abruptly ended for all Indians in the state. Like the earlier allotment policy, the implementation of termination set in motion a series of events that ultimately divested small tribes of 10,037 acres of land, disrupted tribal institutions and traditions and ultimately left these tribes more desperate, and impoverished than ever. Termination failed miserably to improve the socioeconomic or political power of the California Indians.

The occupation of Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay, by nearly 100 American Indian College students in the fall of 1969 ushered in a new era of Indian affairs. A new generation of young, energetic and highly educated California Indians emerged during this period. Highly skeptical of the government they were committed to protecting tribal sovereignty. More important still, they found great value in tribal traditions. They encouraged traditional ceremonies, language retention and sought to remove impediments to the exercise of tribal religious practices. These developments paralleled a new generation of tribal leaders who would dynamically defend tribal rights. These activities made three things apparent; many California Indians were still landless, terminated tribes had been swindled, and some tribes had never been recognized by the federal government. However, reservation, landless and unrecognized tribesmen all shared lives of desperate poverty and little hope for employment or economic development.

In recognition of the growing sophistication of California Indians, the state legislature created the, Native American Heritage Commission in 1978. This all Indian commission works as a liaison between state, federal and tribal governments. It has been successful in protecting Indian burials, sacred places and providing access to government lands to harvest native plants for ceremonial practices and basketmaking.

To date 17 rancherias and reservations have reversed the disastrous termination process. Other tribes are currently pursuing legal avenues to reverse their termination status. Unrecognized tribes have vigorously pursued acknowledgment processes whose requirements are so impossibly demanding that many large tribes in Arizona and New Mexico could not today meet such standards of cultural continuity. Nevertheless, the Acagchemem of San Juan Capistrano the Muwekma of the San Francisco Bay area, and the Coast Miwok of Marin County are close to federal recognition and acquiring a trust land base.

Government developed economic development plans have a history of nearly a century of total failure. Currently more than thirty reservations and rancherias have established gaming businesses on their lands. Some are highly successful while other are not. Some public opposition to these activities seems to center around the fear that Indians may be cheated by their business partners. Such fears smack of paternalism and ignore the reality that few if any valuable resources can be found on Indian lands. Few private investors have come forward to work with Indian tribes outside of the gaming industry. With few choices, wise reservation leadership view gaming as an interim step toward greater economic independence. The Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians are the best example of how that dream can be achieved.

The amazing adaptive capabilities of California Indians has demonstrated the resiliency and genius of these much misunderstood and hardworking tribes can achieve under the most unfavorable of circumstances. We know, and our friends and counter parts in local and national governmental agencies must understand that only through the exercise of our tribal sovereignty can we successfully take our rightful place in our prosperous and free nation. We enter the next century filled with optimism.

Professor Edward D. Castillo
Cahuilia-Luiseno

(Permission to reproduce without written consent of the author is forbidden)

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OF CALIFORNIA INDIAN HISTORY REGIONAL LIFEWAYS One manner in which we can seek to understand aboriginal California Indian cultures is to look at the tribes inhabiting similar climatic and ecological zones. What emerges from this approach is a remarkable similarity in material aspects of the many different tribes inhabiting those territories.

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Plan a Virtual Fieldtrip at the Oakland Museum of Natural History

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Plan a Virtual Fieldtrip at the Oakland Museum of Natural History

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See artifacts and learn about how Native American's created, lived and worked in California

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Education | Oakland Museum of California

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Food and Medicine used by Native Americans

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Food and Medicine used by Native Americans

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California Coast - via Pacific Coast Hwy & 101

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Research to Build and Present Knowledge:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.9
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

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A journey through Sacramento California the city and the great outdoors

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A look at the city of Sacramento, and how to best enjoy it's thriving river system and agri-tourism Presenter - Ben Maclaine www.benmaclaine.com See here for full article and more information http://www.discoveramerica.com/usa/travel-journals/sacramento-outdoors-aus.aspx

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Exploring First Californian Artifacts at the Bowers Museum

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Exploring First Californian Artifacts at the Bowers Museum

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Take a school field trip to the Bowers Museum and explore artifacts from Native Americans who lived in the variety of regions of California. Compare the different tools needed to hunt based on the terrain they inhabited.

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This installation showcases the Bowers' extensive permanent collection of Native American art and artifacts in stone, shell, plant fiber (through spectacular basketry) and feathers.

These primary resources help tell the story of the culture of Native Californians. Although groups from all regions of California are represented in the exhibit, special attention is placed on local groups that inhabited the coastal regions of Southern California. The Boeing Company funded the teacher resources guide that accompanies this exhibit. This guide is available to teachers who schedule a tour.

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This installation showcases the Bowers' extensive permanent collection of Native American art and artifacts in stone, shell, plant fiber (through spectacular basketry) and feathers. These primary resources help tell the story of the culture of Native Californians.

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Check out this Digital Atlas of Native Americans

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Check out this Digital Atlas of Native Americans

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Digital Atlas of California Native Americans

DISCLAIMER. PLEASE READ BEFORE CONTINUING: The Digital Atlas of California Native Americans (Atlas) is for educational and display purposes only. The geographical information displayed in the Atlas is not for use in determining locations of cultures, boundaries or people for recognition, consultation or any other legal or policy purpose. The resources displayed in the Atlas remain the property of their owners as cited. All resources are found in the public domain or displayed with the owner's permission.

Welcome to the Digital Atlas of California Native Americans. Created at the California Department of Parks & Recreation with generous financial support from the DRAM Antitrust Settlement, this web application (web app) displays a collection of map layers related to the history and cultural heritage of Native Americans in California. The map layers include:

Cultural Base Map: the 60 traditional cultural regions of California, with links to a directory of affiliated Tribes and Tribal Atlas pages

Historical Lakes & Wetlands: California's lakes and wetlands as depicted in an 1866 survey, prior to major water control and diversion projects

Natural Resources: Natural resources traditionally used in different regions of the state

Estimated Population in 1769: Estimated population by region before colonization

Trails: Approximate routes of trails used before colonization

Trade Relations: Trade relationships that existed before colonization

Missions: Locations of missions established during Spanish colonization

Spanish & Mexican Land Grants: Land appropriated and privatized during Spanish and Mexican colonization

Treaty Lands: Reservations and cessions as negotiated between Tribes and federal agents in early days of U.S. colonization

An American Genocide: Incidents of genocide as documented by historian Benjamin Madley in his 2016 book An American Genocide

Bounty Lands: Lands granted by the U.S. government to militiamen who participated in campaigns against Native Americans

Reservations & Allotments: Reservations and public domain allotments (PDA) in the 21st century

The map layers may be turned on and off using the layers button near the upper left corner of the web app:

Location of map layers button in upper-left menu (circled in yellow).

Most map layers are interactive; users may click on the map for more information. Examples (click on image to open app):

Example 1: Pop-up information on trade relations, with trails and cultural base map also visible

Example 2: Pop-up shows regional population in 1769

Example 3: Pop-up shows date, grantor and grantee of Spanish land grant

Example 4: Pop-up shows information on treaty lands, including links to original document and transcript

Background map sources: Esri, HERE, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, Bureau of Land Management, EPA, NPS
Credits & References Link to web app

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DISCLAIMER. PLEASE READ BEFORE CONTINUING: The Digital Atlas of California Native Americans (Atlas) is for educational and display purposes only. The geographical information displayed in the Atlas is not for use in determining locations of cultures, boundaries or people for recognition, consultation or any other legal or policy purpose.

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¿Qu‚?... Todo sobre los indios (Spanish Edition)

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Amazon.com: ¿Qu‚?... Todo sobre los indios (Spanish Edition): 9788484232285: Weinhold, Angela: Libros

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What Native land am I on? Students find out which Native land they currently live on.

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What Native land am I on? Students find out which Native land they currently live on.

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Mapping

We strive to map Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages across the world in a way that goes beyond colonial ways of thinking in order to better represent how Indigenous people want to see themselves.

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Native Land is a resource to learn more about Indigenous territories, languages, lands, and ways of life. We welcome you to our site.

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Seeing Mt. Whitney

Many who visit these parks are interested in seeing Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the "lower 48" states. However, Mt. Whitney is on the far eastern boundary of these parks. A chain of mountains that runs north/south through the center of Sequoia National Park called the Great Western Divide blocks views of Mt. Whitney from park roads. The best place from which to see Mt. Whitney is the Interagency Visitor Center on Highway 395, just south of the town of Lone Pine on the east side of the Sierra.

Climbing Mt. Whitney

Mt. Whitney lies on the boundary of Sequoia National Park and Inyo National Forest. Most people who climb Mt. Whitney start from the east side of the Sierra and remain in Inyo National Forest throughout their hike.

Because it is the most frequently climbed mountain peak in the Sierra Nevada, a permit system is in place to minimize the impact of day-hikers on the Mt. Whitney backcountry. All hikers entering the Mt. Whitney zone, including day-hikers, are required to obtain a permit.

If you begin at Whitney Portal, in Inyo National Forest on the east side of the Sierra Nevada, you should apply for a Mt. Whitney permit from Inyo National Forest. Contact the Mt. Whitney Ranger District, PO Box 8, Lone Pine, CA 93545, 760-876-6200, for additional information about this trailhead.

If you begin in Sequoia National Park and approach Mt. Whitney from the west by travelling across the Sierra Nevada range, you should apply for a wilderness permit from Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks.

Trail Routes

The shortest and most popular route to climb Mt. Whitney is a 10.7 mile (17.1 km) trail from Whitney Portal, 13 miles (21 km) west of the town of Lone Pine on the east side of the Sierra. Ice axes and crampons are needed in spring and early summer, but technical climbing equipment is not usually necessary between mid-July and early October. The elevation at the trailhead is 8360' (2550 meters). The elevation at the summit is 14,494' (4418 meters).

There are other routes besides Whitney Portal that lead to Mt. Whitney. They begin at less heavily-used trailheads, but require a much longer hike to reach the summit. The High Sierra Trail leaves from Giant Forest on the west side of Sequoia National Park, and is about 60 miles (100 km) one-way. It takes a minimum of 6 days (one way) or 10 days (round trip) to complete. The Sequoia Parks Conservancy's bookstore offers books and maps for planning hikes to Mt. Whitney and elsewhere in the Sequoia and Kings Canyon areas.

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Seeing and Climbing Mt. Whitney - Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks (U.S. National Park Service)

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Many who visit these parks are interested in seeing Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the "lower 48" states. However, Mt. Whitney is on the far eastern boundary of these parks. A chain of mountains that runs north/south through the center of Sequoia National Park called the Great Western Divide blocks views of Mt.

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What to Do During Your Visit to the Golden Gate Bridge

Visiting the world famous Golden Gate Bridge is a unique experience for everyone. Whether you hike, walk, bike, shop, take a guided tour, or just sit back and take it all in, there is something for everyone.

The Bridge's Welcome Center offers merchandise and historical information. Open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., the Welcome Center is the first on-site center dedicated to telling the stories of the Golden Gate Bridge. The Center welcomes visitors, provides orientation and information services, houses exhibits, and offers high-quality commemorative and interpretive merchandise, and also showcases the original 12-foot stainless steel Bridge "test tower" used in 1933. Be sure to also check out the Golden Gate Parks Conservancy online store for one-of-a-kind gifts and collectibles. Contact the Welcome Center at 415-426-5220 or customerservice@goldengatebridgestore.org.

Onsite Exhibits

Learn about the history, science, and engineering of the Bridge's construction through interactive and stationery exhibits. Wander through the Plaza just outside the Welcome Center and follow the pathway into an old bunker that houses some of the exhibits.

For a virtual version of these exhibits, go to the Exhibits section of our website.

Free Walking Tours

If you're interested in the history of the Golden Gate Bridge, twice-weekly (Thursdays and Sundays) free walking Bridge tours are offered by San Francisco City Guides, a non-profit organization associated with the San Francisco Public Library. For more information and a schedule of their walks, visit the San Francisco City Guides website.

Equator Coffee now at the Round House

The Round House is now Equator Coffee. Enjoy a steaming cup of coffee with beautiful views!

Hike and Explore

Both ends of the Bridge touch the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Enjoy picturesque trails and vista points in one of the world's largest national parks in an urban area. Visit the Parks Conservancy website or National Park Service-GGNRA website to begin your adventure.

Also, be sure to check out the new Golden Gate and Pacific Overlooks near the Bridge.

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Visiting the world famous Golden Gate Bridge is a unique experience for everyone. Whether you hike, walk, bike, shop, take a guided tour, or just sit back and take it all in, there is something for everyone. The Bridge's Welcome Center offers merchandise and historical information. Open daily from 9:00 a.m.

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Redwoods in 360:  Get to Know An Old-Growth Forest