Since the first arrival of European settlers in the east, repeated tragedies across the North American continent sculpted life as we know it today. The visions of “Manifest Destiny” by early white emigrants from east-to-west brought with them a desire to prosper in the “California dream” of land ownership and precious metal riches. The trails west were treacherous in terrain and dangerous with threat of Native Americans lurking in the shadows. The irony during this time was the ethnocentricity; if one white man’s life was taken by an Indian, then the entire tribe had to be hunted and exterminated. The path west over Lassen trail combined the four tribes of the Yana Indians with the invading white miners, ranchers, and settlers into now, Tehama County. This unwelcome encounter would prove to be an unfortunate, cataclysmic destruction of the Yana people.
North American ancestral Yana peoples settled along the western range of the central Sierra Nevada region in Northern California between 2000 and 1000 BC. Yana lands were rich with rocky canyons, flowing streams, rugged hillsides, and tranquil meadows. The Yana consisted of four main tribes: The Northern Yana, the Central Yana, the Southern Yana and the Yahi located further southeast. The Yana relied heavily on group efforts for hunting/gathering of plentiful game and sustenance; deer, elk, salmon, fruits, acorns and roots. It is estimated that by the early 1800’s, the Yana’s total population was 1500 to 3000. The Yana were peaceful people, yet sometimes were at war with their neighbors to the southeast; the Maidu.
As the endless parade of wagons descended upon sacred lands into Northern California; the settlers brought with them disease that the natives had no antibodies for. They also brought with them a propensity for murder. The travelers tricked the natives with shiny objects, smiling, encouraging them to approach. When they did (the natives), they were shot at point blank range, or stabbed, or beaten. Many travelers enjoyed a nice meal, and then went out to hunt Indians or searched for Indian women and children to rape. As Theodora Kroeber states “The 1850’s were hard years for the Yana…their numbers dwindled, what with the wholesale practice of indenturing and kidnapping, and a heavy toll from venereal disease” (Kroeber Pg. 60).
For a few years after the miners came through Yana lands, there were extensive moments of peace. It wasn’t until the mid 1850’s that chaos ensued which lasted well into the 60’s. Food became scarce as game was depleted. Tribes were reduced in numbers resulting in a loss of a cooperative effort in hunting and gathering. The Yana people were forced into stealing for survival. The new settlers built ranches and held cattle and other livestock. Indian raids of food stuffs and livestock continued to upset the ranchers. Many Yana Indians were captured and kidnapped into slave labor. When a cow was found full of arrows, an Indian attack was organized and reparations were due. Many slaves were murdered and hung in trees as to send a message. The Yana retaliated and began killing random whites that they had encountered with bow and arrow.Kroeber says that “in June of 1862, a ‘citizen’s’ meeting was held in a ranch ho
use at the Forks of Butte to air grievances against the Mill Creeks (Yahi) and to make further plans toward their extermination” (Kroeber Pg 68). The vigilantes organized and planned a series of military style campaigns. It is around this time of 1860 to 1862 that a Yahi child was born; this child would grow up to be the legendary Native American known as Ishi. Organized efforts to militarize and assassinate the Yana people continued to escalate. Scores of Indian scalps draped horse saddles and ranch house trees of the white hunters. It was considered during this time that “a good Indian was a dead Indian.” As many as five documented massacres of the Yana people illustrate the brutally vicious attacks on unsuspecting men, women, and children in what is known now as Tehama County. But, none were as unthinkable as the Kingsley Cave massacre.A group of vaqueros herding cattle in Yana lands came upon a fresh trail of blood. The trail was followed which led to the carcass of a dead steer with portions of flesh removed. The vaqueros returned the next day with a pack of dogs to help locate the person(s) responsible for killing the steer. The dogs led the men into a dark cave. In this cave the men found “more than thirty Yahi including young children and babies, well supplied with food, even to fresh and dried meat. They were helpless against the four armed men who forthwith killed them all” (Kroeber pg 84). The men began shooting at the unarmed Indians with shotguns. “Norman Kingsley…changed guns during the slaughter…for a revolver, because the rifle ‘tore them up so bad,’ particularly the babies” (Kroeber pg 85).
The Kingsley Cave massacre would presumably end the existence of the Yana people in Northern California. After annihilation from disease and the relentless pursuit of domination from white settlers would forever change the landscape of the Yana land. Ranchers would raise cattle without loss from native pressure. Homes were not burglarized by starving Indians. For all intents and purposes the Indians were all dead. Until one day forty years later, a Yahi man walks out of the bush and into the city of Oroville (1911).Works Cited
Kroeber, Theodora. Ishi In Two Worlds. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California:
University of California Press, 1961.
www.mpfpmc.org/index_files?Page2099.htm
www.norcalblogs.com/yahi/
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