USA > California > Humboldt County > History of Humboldt County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 9
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In 1853-54, while there was a great deal of talk of Indian warfare there was no general uprising, but many indications pointed to an approaching outrage, so that the superintendent of Indian affairs of the state paid some attention to the Indians of this section. Colonel Buchanan was stationed at Fort Humboldt near Eureka with a portion of the United States forces then doing nothing of special importance or advantage. It was about this time that General Grant had his sad and lonely experience in this part of the country.
In January, 1855, there was much anxiety and suspense among the miners on the Klamath and Salmon rivers, for they heard from many sources that the Indians were preparing for a general outbreak. The miners were so anxious, and in many cases so alarmed, that they deserted their claims and collected at different trading posts on the Salmon river. At some points the rancherias were visited
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and firearms were taken away by bands of whites, while at other points the Indians obtained information of the intention of the whites, so their squaws and children were sent into the mountains with whatever firearms the warriors present did not have to carry with them.
Another danger which menaced the whites was the practice of certain un- scrupulous traders to sell arms and ammunition to the Indians, as well as to repair their guns. Miners at Orleans bar, knowing the great danger from this practice, on the sixth day of January held a public meeting and pledged themselves to do 15.55 everything in their power to stop the traffic. It was decided that all persons detected selling firearms to the Indians should be sentenced to have their heads shaved and receive twenty-five lashes and thereafter be driven away from camp. It was also decided to make an attempt to disarm the Indians in the vicinity of Orleans bar. In pursuance of this object the head men of the rancherias in the neighborhood were notified that failure to comply with this request would be visited with death to any Indian carrying weapons, and a notice was given that all who refused to surrender their arms would have until the nineteenth of January to give them up. The Orleans Red Caps and a few other tribes refused to give up their arms, and matters stood largely this way until the middle of January, when a number of miners organized for the purpose of destroying the rancheria of the Red Caps. On the same day the company marched to the rancheria and demanded its surrender. Thereupon there was a volley of shots which killed William Wheeler and Thomas O'Neil and wounded several others. The death of these inen demoralized the miners, who retreated to Orleans, and immediately a messenger was dispatched to Colonel Buchanan, in command at Fort Humboldt, -luis for assistance. He ordered Captain Judah and twenty-five soldiers to the scene of the difficulty. They were accompanied by Dr. Simpson of the medical staff. A party of volunteers on horseback also left the bay for Weitchpec.
By this time the entire Indian country was beginning to assume a warlike attitude. The Indians knew every ravine and mountain path, as well as every stream which they could ford. Being children of nature, inured to all sorts of hardship and accustomed to a simple life, sometimes going hungry for days, they had many advantages over the whites, who were much disconcerted by the swift and swollen streams and deep mountain fastnesses that confronted them on almost every hand. By this time the Trinidad Indians and those on Mad river and Little river began to desert their rancherias for the mountains. Not long after this a volunteer company of white men, composed of miners and others, killed Tharash, a bad Indian leader of great cunning and boldness. The war was now on, for the Indians were stealing cattle, robbing and murdering the white men, burning houses and running wild in general. There were at least three thousand five hundred of them, about half of them being armed with pistols, revolvers or guns.
Orleans Bar was_the _scene of many bitter-hostilities, and it was not long before two white men were killed and several were badly wounded in that vicinity, the Indians meantime growing bolder and bolder, and their boldness was accompanied by great treachery. Dunham and Proctor were killed while at work near Orleans Bar on their mining claims. Lamm and Johnson were wounded at the same time and in the same vicinity, the offenders being Red Cap Indians.
Captain Judah arrived at this moment and opened negotiations with the friendlier of the Indians. He consulted the leaders of the mining men as well,
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and was of the opinion that peace might be obtained if the parties on both sides would listen to reason, but the miners were strongly for war, desiring if possible to exterminate their foes. About this time the Weitchpecs surrendered to Captain Judah. A company from Union, commanded by Reason Wiley and F. N. John- son, arrived at the opportune moment. Peace failed, however, because Colonel Buchanan, a man of changing purpose and moods, ordered Captain Judah to return to Eureka. By reason of this unwise course an era of bloodshed that might have been prevented had Captain Judah been allowed to carry on his sensible plan, forthwith ensued. The Salmon river miners, hearing of the trouble below, at once joined their Klamath brethren for the purpose of hunting the Red Men. The Salmon miners, however, refused to join in an indiscriminate attack on all tribes of Indians, as they were requested to do by their friends. They said that it would be the height of folly to attack all Indians, whether friendly or hostile. Strife arose between the miners because of these conflicting views, and this was greatly to the advantage of the Indians.
Captain Buzelle and his company arrived on January 24, 1855, and at once prevented a number of miners from killing peaceable Indians. Capt. U. S. Grant, later of Civil War fame, was at that moment at the mouth of the Salmon river, where several tribes had surrendered to him. The military men, as a whole, Captain Grant co-operating with them, prevented a number of hot-headed men from massacring a number of friendly Indians. The same cool-headed military men confined the hostilities of the whites to a fight against the treacherous Red Caps, who were the leaders of the Indian forces. -
About this time Gapt. F. M. Woodward and some of his men were led into an ambush by unfriendly guides whom they were obliged to kill. No harm was done to the soldiers, Woodward's party soon thereafter killing twenty warriors and taking almost as many prisoners of war.
News of the war had by this time spread throughout the settlements of the county, and those living away from the hostilities made up their minds to do everything in their power to help the men in the field. Merchants immediately opened their stores to the fighters and to the volunteers who passed through Union and the other settlements, whereupon long pack trains of mules began to carry provisions to the mines. Mining was then a very risky business and was almost abandoned, for there was no safety whatever for the men engaged in it. Nobody could travel or work without the aid of armed guards. About this time some malcontents attacked a rancheria of friendly Indians and killed a number of them. This was a deplorable event. Some miners and others on New river, moved by a motive that surpasses our comprehension at this late day, and which the people of that time could not understand, sold firearms to the Indians, thereby causing the death of many brave pioneers. The events following may be briefly summarized in paragraphs as follows:
March was a hard month of rain, snow, and heavy floods-no hope of relief from the governor or from the superintendent of Indian affairs. Both were in- different. No representative of either the State or the Nation was on the ground to speak with authority, or nobody had been appointed to succeed Captain Judah.
Volunteers remained close to camp-only a little desultory fighting-occa- sional lonely cabins or miners in isolated positions were attacked and the miners were killed.
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The Hoopas and Weitchpecs, also some other Indians, offered to help the whites in their contest with the Red Caps, if the white men would protect the rancherias of the Indians while they were engaged in the warfare.
April brought good news. F. G. Whipple was appointed Indian agent and he proved to be a man of considerable ability, and was honest. He was influential enough to have the commander at Fort Humboldt reassign Captain Judah to the command in the Klamath. The Indians believed in him, because he was a man of influence. He called a council of the friendly Indians and decided to do all he could to help the whites.
By this time only about-fifty Red Caps were left, but within twelve or four- teen days sixteen of them surrendered. Unfortunately, Captain Judah was again ordered to report to Eureka. It seems that a very curse of recalls followed this able man's footsteps. Captain Jones succeeded him, and Jones proved to be a very good man. He and Whipple at once started the Klamath reservation plans which proved successful for a time. The Red Caps, much reduced in number, consented to live on the reservation and were glad to accept reservation life as a good escape from the harassing position into which the whites had forced them.
The miners, too, rejoiced because they were able to return to the bar and pursue their vocation without the danger of being killed.
By 1856 the military authorities again showed signs of great negligence, and the_ Klamath tribes, growing restless under superstition, began to grow hostile _again. They were swayed by superstitious beliefs of all kinds, and their imagina- tions were inflamed by reason of a number of earthquakes which then occurred. There was some excitement in the Hoopa Valley at this time and the reservation began to give evidence that it would be a complete failure.
The Hoopa Indians were all good shots. There were two hundred of them, ) and it was the general opinion that they were more than the equal of any two hundred white men among the miners. Various tribes began to grow restless and hostile. For this reason a number of white families became so alarmed that they left and made their homes nearer the settlements around the bay. About this time a few cattle were killed by the hostile Indians at Angel's Ranch.
Soon after this Captain Snyder was sent up to the Klamath to pacify the Indians. They had confidence in him and he explained that the white people desired to know that the restlessness of the Indians did not presage a general outbreak. The Indians soon surrendered a number of guns to him, and peace was assured for a long time. In August there was a little uprising on Redwood creek, but it did not amount to very much.
Occasionally Indians were flogged for stealing or some other little offense of that kind, though some of the bolder pioneers, even then, would have hanged them to the first convenient tree. The whites were often in a perilous position because there were so few of them, also because the Indians were numerous and restless, appearing to be eager to exterminate their foes.
The Indians often tried and sometimes succeeded in ambushing and even killing the settlers. The settlers, however, were rather wary and often escaped from being slain by using their brains and avoiding the snares of the Indians.
A number of atrocities occurred here and there during those times-notably one or two in the Eel River Valley country. David and Adolphus Cooper were slain by Indians and their bodies were mutilated by the wolves, for example. They were two of a family of five brothers who had come from Canada and who had trusted the Indians a little too far.
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We cannot pause to give a minute description of the trying events of those times, and must hasten on to matters of more importance.
We might take a little glance at the conditions surrounding a bold tribe known as the Win-toons. They were a desperate race of hardy Red Men who peopled the Bald Hills country and thronged in places remote from large streams. Bledsoe, the entertaining writer of Indian warfare, tells us that the Win-toons were a hardy race subsisting on game and nuts. As their principal occupation was hunting, unlike the lower or valley tribes who lived on fish, they early became accustomed to the use of firearms and were very clever shots. Even before Dr. Gregg and his notable company ascended the Trinity river there were a few guns in the possession of the higher mountain tribes of Indians, and when the valley Indians were using them ignorantly and with poor effect the Win-toons had become proficient in their use and this was anything but encouraging to travelers along the lonely trails.
It may have been that their early acquaintance with the white men induced them to remain friendly as long as they did, for as long as they were friendly they could obtain firearms, also whiskey. For several years after the Klamath war they committed occasional depredations on the property of stock-raisers in the Bald Hills country, and when they saw their old hunting grounds deserted by the deer and the elk, the devil that is naturally in an Indian's composition began to assert itself. Revenge was sweet to the savage, no less than to the civilized man, and with a blind fury, characteristic of the race, theirs was then cruel and atrocious.
About this time several men were murdered in the mountains, one on Trinity trail near Grouse creek. This was a murder of a very heinous character. About July 1 three companies volunteered to go out after the Indians on Redwood creek and the upper Mad river, for they had been acting in a very hostile manner, having attacked a Grouse creek rancheria. Murderous white men were also on the rampage in the wildest way imaginable. They had shot several Indian boys, also others, and were in the habit of looking upon the Indians as their legitimate prey. Unfortunately they were men of so depraved a- nature that- they had no respect whatever for the rights of the primitive inhabitants of the forest. They hunted down good looking young squaws as if the squaws had been mere animals created for their own enjoyment, and often forced these young women to submit to their passionate desires. A number of half white children resulted from these forays of the men who thus violated Indian maidens, who were often regarded as worthless creatures except for rapes of this character. It is said that bands of white men, consisting of three or four depraved wretches, would often catch a young squaw or two and detain them for several days or weeks at their cabins and then permit them to make their way home as best they could.
All this naturally inflamed the Indian's desire for revenge and many murders of white men followed in the guerrilla warfare that resulted from this conduct. The Indians began to plan as best they could to circumvent their white foes. There were many lonely trails and canyons, veritable death traps, into which the Indians often lured their foes.
While citizens were raising many volunteer companies for the purpose of attacking the Red Men, the Indians were far from idle. Mass meetings were being held among the white men at Union, but meetings in the woods were being held by the Indians. While the white men were discussing the question of exterminating the Indians, the Indians, on the other hand, were discussing the
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question of harassing the whites. At Union the sentiment for a time was that the only hope was in the total extermination of the Indians, but the Win-toons were also busy, and the plan to exterminate them seemed one that could not be carried out.
The unprovoked murder of one Paul Boynton inflamed the white men and stirred them to action. About this time people were aroused by rumors of atrocities and decided to go along rational lines of warfare. Forty-eight soldiers arrived from Fort Humboldt and this, unfortunately, checked the popular move- ment against the Indians and the entire result proved later to be rather disastrous to the whites and was in the nature of fuel added to the flames.
Governor John P. Weller, sitting at Sacramento in comfort, was slow to act. A. Wiley, then editor and publisher of the Times, pleaded for help and showed the necessity for action, but even then the Governor did not call for volunteers, nor did he seem willing to do anything to help the settlers in the Northwest. Fort Humboldt, strangely, was equally slow and sleepy-a mass of inactivity and stupidity at Sacramento and the same at Fort Humboldt.
Here a peculiar event occurred. Suddenly news came from some Indian that a horrible massacre had occurred. It was reported that hostile Indians had murdered many families of peaceable Indians in the Mad River country and that the tribes of Indians friendly to the whites were in great danger. It was reported that the women and children of the peaceable tribes were wholly at the mercy of the more ferocious of the Red Men. The people of Union and the surrounding country at once began to hunt everywhere possible for firearms, desiring to go to the aid of the Indians, but just as the settlers were about ready to go forth to rescue the friendly Indians it was discovered, by reports from some ranchers and others, also by news from a scouting party, that there was nothing in the story. It was either a joke or a lie started by a few stray Indians. Stories of this character were frequent and the public-was often excited by all sorts of rumors.
Finally, after a long period of warfare which we cannot describe more fully here, the war came to an end. Hard pressed and half famished, the Win- toons were forced to surrender, but not until many lives were lost on both sides. General Kibbey and his troops had suffered terrible hardships for five and a half months. The settlers and the state owed them much, for they came to the rescue many times when it was believed that little help, if any, would be afforded to the settlers. The state of California finally paid them $52,000 as a mark of appreciation of their services. The Win-toons went to their reservation, but did not remain there long in happiness. They began to feel the call of the wild and the desire to rove. They grew weary and began to desert the softer life of the reservation for the high country in the mountains, their native environment.
As the situation developed the outlook for peace became more and more gloomy, for it was evident that neither the army nor the state would master the situation with any degree of celerity ; but the effective work of Kibbe and his brave soldiers had now become only a memory. True, the Win-toons and others had been brought under the power of military force, and they knew that the military forces were strong when well directed, but the Indians were beginning to learn how to fight with their foes and they grew bolder as time wore on.
A strong force like that which General Kibbe commanded could have sup- pressed the uprisings which were now inevitable, but the delay in paying volun- teers, owing to the sleepiness and redtape at Sacramento, had had an evil effect
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on the people and had warned the volunteers not to rush in where angels might fear to tread.
About this time some of the bolder Indians began to commit murders in the Mattole valley and elsewhere. It was not long after this until the blankets, ammunition and arms of the murdered men were found on a rancheria and several Indians confessed that they had committed the deed. The case was one of peculiar atrocity, for the bodies of the murdered men were chopped up and thrown into the surf.
It was evident that the only way that could be devised for rectifying these conditions would be for volunteers of the pioneers to go after the Indians without any hope of assistance or reward from the state. The news of these events spread throughout the county and caused a great deal of excitement, especially as the stories were exaggerated as they were passed along.
By the beginning of February, however, there was a strong organization to go out and fight the Indians, and it was manifest that the Red Men were to be met with great firmness. In vain the volunteers appealed to Sacramento for arms, but no requisitions from the people in the lonely outpost of Humboldt were honored by the Governor at Sacramento. Not only was no attention paid to the petitions and the earnest oral requests, communicated by travelers who chanced to reach Sacramento, but the war claims, for some mysterious reasons, were not paid. Citizens who had rendered valuable services and furnished supplies in good faith, and where every consideration of honor and of public policy should have prompted Congress at Washington to make necessary appropriations to cover the losses, were doomed to disappointment. It is no wonder that Bledsoe tells us that the farmers and settlers, hemmed in by innumerable difficulties, exasperated and maddened beyond control, were prepared to sanction the most desperate enterprises if they contained even the slightest promise of relief.
Those who live in Humboldt county today, isolated though it be, can have no appreciation of the terrible difficulties that confronted the pioneers of the first ten years in the history of Humboldt county. It was about this time that one of those mysterious leagues which are sometimes formed by civilized man was hatched and began to plan its awful work of destruction which was fated to be executed upon the Indians. It will be best to speak of this briefly and to say that on Saturday evening, February 25, 1860, the most remarkable massacre ever known in Humboldt county occurred on what was then known as Indian Island, being now known as Gunther's Island. More than two hundred Indians of all ages and of both sexes were engaged in worshiping, dancing, feasting, and enjoy- ing themselves. Sometime during the night their stealthy foes, maddened beyond all imagination by knowledge of the treachery and continuous warfare that had harassed them, went to the island and killed every Indian there. When the sun rose on the morning of February 26 its bright rays shone on a scene of death and desolation. Old men and women lay dead with their heads split open or their hearts pierced with daggers or bullets, while by their side, young in life's great battle, boys and girls alike lay peacefully sleeping in the sleep of death. Terrible was the destruction which had fallen upon all these for the crimes that had been perpetrated during the year preceding.
At other places throughout the county simultaneously similar deeds of violence had been perpetrated upon the Indians. At last the white men had become more barbarous than the savage, and every member of the mysterious league had sworn to keep the secret until his death. In the years that have passed
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no lip has ever whispered the story of the great massacres which then occurred. This deed excited great condemnation among a large class of the white people, but it stirred the Indians to the very depths of revenge and destroyed every hope of peace at that time. In the three massacres which then occurred more than three hundred Indians met their death, and the news of the uprising of the whites soon spread throughout the county. Immediately thereafter the county grand jury tried very hard to ascertain the names of the persons who were responsible for the killing of the Indian children and women, but their reports concluded that after a strict examination of all the witnesses nothing was elicited to enlighten them as to the perpetrators. They expressed their condemnation of what they called the outrage and regretted that their investigations met with a result so deplorable and absolutely void of facts.
Three months of trouble and Indian warfare quickly followed in the wake of these massacres and some of the most terrible of all events of those times were then perpetrated by both sides in this warfare. It will thus be seen that the year 1860, while it was one of war for the nation, it was one of a peculiarly atrocious war for the people of Humboldt county. At no time during the year was there anything like an abatement of the difficulties which had so long confronted the settlers-difficulties of the character which have been described in these pages. The Indians began to leave the reservations for the Klamath country, and those in tive Hoopa valley showed signs of dissatisfaction. Evidently there were many conferences among the Red Men and they had decided to do all they could to harass and avoid the whites. It was not long before hostile tribes throughout the county were on the warpath in deadly earnest. A veritable reign of death followed. Many murders were committed during the last half of the year and they left a profound impression on the people. The community was startled out of any idea of peace that might have been entertained at the beginning of the year, for the Indians had entered on a fanatical attempt to exterminate the white people or drive them from the settlement. This naturally caused the people to hold mass meetings and take more active measures against the Indians. A two years' war ensued and many bloody deeds characterized this fighting. The Hoopas were the leaders in the fight on behalf of the Red Men, and Captain Flynn of the United States Army has been given the credit for leading the first actual engagement of the war, which occurred a few days before the massacre at Stone Lagoon in April, at a place called Big Ben, on the North fork of Eel river.
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