The Opelousas courier., 1898-03-12
LAST OF THE YUKIAHS.
ONLY A FEW OF THE ONCE NJ.
NERVOUS DIGGER INDIANS LEFT.

The California Aborigines Were Very
Low in the Scale of U~u1nanity-A Few
Hundred of Them Are still Alive and
Are Called Civilized.
At the time of the Spanish conquest
Of California, writes Enos Brown in
the Scientific American, the Indian
population in the territory was known
to have been very large. In Northern
California alone it IS estimated that
over fifty thousand a%borigines roamed
III undistnrbed security all yer this
fertile land. With the advent of the
conquerers the Indians began to de-
cline III number, owing to the cruel
treatment of the Spaniards ana the in
PRODUCTION of hitherto unknown dis
eases which We're very fatal to them, so
that when the state came into posses
sion of the American !, not one-half as
many Indians remain d in the countr'
as existed a century before.'9"'
The destruction Of the tribes pro-
crossed more rapidly even under Amer
lean domination than under the Span
iards. The fatal vice of drink be-
came more general among them, and
they succumbed to the new ciyiliza-
ton. When the settlers of the coun-
Try discovered how we'll the northern
half Of the state was adapted for stock
raising they appropriated the lands Of
the helpless Indians, and drove them
back into regions less fertile. The In
lians resented this hardship by kill
ing the white mans cattle, and then
vengeance, cruel, swift and strong,
was visited upon the inferior race. and
q war of determination was waged.
Thousands of Indians were cruelty
~massacred, and thewar ended when
there We're no more TO kill.
Certainly no more worthless types
Of humanity ever existed than the
California savages. They were only
q step iii advance of the Australian in
intelligence and were not the equal Of
that lowest type of humanity in the
ingenuity of their devices for trapping
game. The original California Indian
was an abject aud bestial object. They
ate the most repulsive reptiles, snakes,
lizards and worms. Roasted grass
hoppers were adelicacy, only matched
by a feast of tainted fish. They de-
rived their name of "diggers' from
the custom Of digging into the
ground for roots Or game. Their sole
object in living was to exist with as
little trouble as possible, and they
were SO lazy that the LATEST white
who ever breathed was amonument of
industry in comparison.
There still lives the remnant of this
once numerous tribe at Hopland,
Sonoma county, California. Only
two or three hundred are left. There
has been secured to them a tract
of worthless land upon which they
have settled, and where they made a
feeble pretense of raising vegetables
and fruit. They own a little stock
and are called civilized.
The church, out of its large charity,
has sent them a missionary who has
taught them agriculture, and has la
bored increasingly to improve their
condition and morals. They have q
school where the youth are taught the
rudiments of education and instruc-
ton given them in the common utili-
tartan arts. The ONE make good
seamstresses and fair cooks, and both
sexes, when in the chapel, are exceed
ingly devout. Some of the more am
bilious have frame houses. but many
prefer homes after the picturesque
style of their forefathers, formed of
saplings curved at the top and covered
with straw.
The people have some virtues; hos
pitality, for instance. The women
make baskets which are sometimes
artistic, being ornamented with differ
ent colored straw, woven in angular
figures and with feathers from gayly
colored birds. The federal govern
ment, whose wards these Indians are.
is doing all in its power to protect
them from their most dangerous
enemy, rum, but with Indifferent sue
cess.
Heavy penalties are laid upon the
trader who supplies them, but an In
dian will barter everything he has for
a bottle of whisky, and generally
finds some INSCRIPTIONS dealer to
supply him.
To this cause, and to disease Incl
dent to civilization, the defamation of
of this remnant of the old G%allionozi
meros or Yukiah Indians may be as
cribed. Every year shows their num-
Der decreased, and a generation hence
will find the last of the tribe awaiting
his final call.