Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1855-01-27
From the Placer Times and Transcript.
The Indians Of Northern California--their
Numbers, Manners, Customs, &c.

NulAOCI0s UAdhuCTSs NubSOuS, OC.
We have been furnished with the perusal of
o report made by one of Colonel Henley's sub
Indian agents, concerning the tribes in North
ern California, from which we extract many in
teresting particulars. The district compre-
hended III the report embraces the counties Of
Nevada, Yuba Sierra and Placer. 1t has been
the principal aim Of COL Henley and his sub.
ordinates to persuade the different tribes to en-
igrate to the Government reservation, where
they will be taught the arts Of useful employ
ment, and their condition benefited to an in
calculable degree. Those who refuse this phi
lanthropic alternative, must inevitably waste in
numbers and strength until they are completely
extinguished.
OF the Grass Valley tribe there were, in lS49,
$500; at present, roo. Males, $50; females,
$50 Principal Chief, Weimah.
Booyer Tribe numbered, in l849, 800 at
present, l60. Males 80 females, 80. Princi-
pal Chief, Ca7n,ola.
Rose Bar Tribe, in l849, 1900; at present,
500. Males, ESQ; females, 25O. Principal
Chief, Junasu or Francisco.
Yuba Tribe, in l849 $50; at present, $50.
Males, l25; females, l25. Principal Chief
Ball,tk.
Allecks Tribe, in Is49, 400; at present, 200.
Males, 100; females, 100. Principal Chief
ALEX.
Bencow Tribe, in j $40, 400; at present. 200.
Males, 100; females, 100. Principal Chief
Bencotc.
Illnoistown Tribe, in ls49, 1900; at pres.
emit, COO Males, 300; females, 800 principal
Chief Captain Bill or Gulph.
Auburn Tribe, in lS49, 1000; at present,
$50. Males, 375 females, 375. Principal Chief,
Moore.
Total number of Indians, in lS49, l0,070; at
present, 1850. Total males, 1880; total fe-
males, 1880.
Some Of these Indians are comfortably clad,
while others suffer greatly from exposure and
the inclemency of winter weather. Their chief
articles of food are acorns, lizards, snals offa,
and such other animals and articles as can be
procured when the cravings of hunger are felt
the severest. A great portion Of the Indians
are opposed to removal, and resist every over
ture made to them by the chariiably disposed
officers Of the General Government-pre ferring
to roam at freedom, with precarious subsist-
ence, over the hills and through the forests Of
their early attachment, to the adoption of the
manners and customs of the white man, whom
they feel to be infinitely removed above them
in native and cultivated superiority.
The report commences by enumerating the
MANY opstacies III Tue way Vi oDtdinlnB correct
information relating to the different tribes,
growing out of their general distrust of the
whites, and an inability to address them in
their own peculiar dialects; for which reason
its information is neither SO full nor perfect as
it might, under other circumstances be made
to be. Assigning causes for the great mortality
which has existed among the tribes, the report
advances the opinion, that it is not so much at
tributable to the adoption of the CUSTOM Of
wearing clothes, eating fod, to which they were
previously strangers, or inddiging an inordi.
nate use of ardent spirits, as to that awful
scourge Of the Indian tribes generally on the
American continent the small pox. Whole
tribes have been swept away by it, and others
so far rednced in numbers as to forego dis
tinct identity by merging themselves in the
ranks of their neorest neghbors