Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1853-04-15
THE INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA.

We find in the National IntelIigencer, a long
report from Lieutenant Beae, superintendent of
Indian Affairs 10 California, which exhibits n
practsed towards the Iodans of the gold region,
by the miners and other frontier Inhabitants of
the State. He says the United States laws and
policy with respect to the Indians have been
neglected or vonted in California. They were
driven away from their homes, and deprived of
ofthe whites, and when they come back to procure
food, they are often killed. 1t thus became me-
cessary for the government agents to furnish
them with food. For this purpose large numbers
Object cattle were purchased agreeable to treaty
stipuations, but it appears that the agent who
made the contracts for these beeves conducted the
transactions loosely that he did not know
whether the Indians ever received any Of the
the beef although it was paid for by govern
ment
In some cases. it was shown that beet was paid
for which the Indians received at ALL
The contracts we're so made that the agent shared
the profits with the contractor. A very small
portion of the beef only went to the Indians, the
Indian trader who was also contractor and who
converted the greater part of it to his own USE
Other agents We're equally corrupt. Lieutenant
Beale's report says that the drafts drawn for
cattle not yet delivered were for 210O head of
which 700 were by agent Wozencraft, and 400
head by sub agent johnson. These pecua-
tions have reduced the Indians to nearly STAR
wing condition, as they have means of subsis.
tence. Added to this many of them are caught
like r9ttla and OhlioaH RI xuitl,
sation being turned off to starye, and die when
the work season is over. Mr.. Deale gives the
particulars of one instance occurring only Is
miles from San Francisco, surrounded by settlers
and their stock, in which 70 Indians were found
at rancho sick and destitute of food and clothes.
When the agent found them there had been / 3
deaths from starvation at camp. These In
dams were captured by Californans, who made
a business of selling them as workmen at so
much per head. They were the survivors of
band who we're worked by their owners all last
summer and fall, and turned adrift in the winter.
In the expedition to capture them, many were
killed. When found, the Indians men toned had
been offe: ed to the farmers in the neighbourhood
at a dollar head, but it was considered too high
for beings so low in flesh, and rather than lower
the prices, they were left to starve.
Lieut.. Beale says he knows it to be a common
practice to catch Indian children when they are
great many Indian slaves are held in this way. or
taken captive in forays. One hundred and thirty
six Indians were captured and sold as slaves in
one county, by single band Of Mexicans,
and they are treated more like brutes than
human beings. The statutes of the State afford
no protection against the cruel treatment of the
Indians. Lieut.. Beale gives the details of sew
era horrible massacres of Indians by whites
without cause, and says:
sThere are from $4,000 to 100000 Indians in
that country, and probably not week passes in
which some are not killed or worked and starved
to death. Accounts of the killings usually ap-
pear in the newspapers; and as such accounts are
mostly derived from the actors, they appear as
war exploits end expeditions for which the Uni
ted States is called upon to pay. The total de-
mand for Indian wars in California it is believed,
is near II million of dollars.
1.-THE Indians of this country do not hold labor
in disgrace, as those do who live on the Atlantic
side of the continent. They labor freely, and in
the time of the missions did nearly all the labor
of the country, cultivating and building; and me-
mory and tradition present it as the happiest Pc
riod of their lives. | know they would re oice
to get back into such condition; and they hope
to find it in the military reserves, if established
At place where | have collected five or six
hundred, between the Mariposas and San Joa-
qun and where | make frequent visits and tenn
porary abode, they are now working about twenty
ploug his and about one thousand acres will be
cultivated this year. The ploughing is we'll
done, and other Indians are begging the san pri-
vilege."-Phn. Amer.