USA > California > Mendocino County > History of Mendocino County, California : comprising its geography, geology, topography, climatography, springs and timber > Part 19
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8. School districts have three funds: State, county and library.
The State fund must be used only for payment of teachers.
The county fund may be used for payment of teachers, incidental expenses, supplies, etc.
The library fund can be used only for the purchase of books and school apparatus.
9. Trustees will please number and date orders drawn on the county superintendent, and state explicitly for what purpose drawn.
10. When possible avoid drawing orders in favor of a trustee of your dis- trict. (See section 1,876.)
11. It is the duty of trustees to visit each and every school in his district once in each term, and they ought to visit as much oftener as possible.
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THE INDIANS OF MENDOCINO COUNTY.
THE INDIANS OF MENDOCINO COUNTY.
THE Indians which inhabited the section of territory which now com- prises Mendocino county did not differ materially in any respect from those of other portions of the State. We would refer the reader to the first chapter of this work for an extended description of the Aborigine as seen by the early settlers. Still there are many facts of interest concerning the Indians of Mendocino county, which it will be our province here to record ; for, like all facts and data concerning them, they are fast passing into oblivion. In an early day they were very numerous in all this section, and the valleys were especially full of them. The Indians called Long valley Kai-neh-moo, which means the valley of many people. At present it is impossible to give any definite idea in regard to their tribal relations and tribal extent. A few of the names, with a remnant of the people who bore them, are all that is to be found in this county now.
Beginning on the Russian river, at the south, just above Cloverdale, there were the Sanel pomo, which tribe extended to the vicinity of Ukiah. Here the Yo-kai-ah pomo lived, their territory extending to where Calpella now is. Here the Cul-pa-lau pomo-and, in Sherwood valley, the She-bal-ne pomo-had their habitation. In Round valley the Wylackies held sway. The word pomo means people in their language. We are unable to give the tribe names.of all the people in these valleys, but through the kindness of Mr. Alfred E. Sherwood, who came into the county in a very early day, and is the best of authority on matters pertaining to the Indian history of this section, we are enabled to give the names applied by them to the several localities in the county, and to give the signification of the terms. We append the following list : Ukiah valley was called Yo-kai-ah and signifies deep valley (the word kai signifying valley). Calpella was named after a chief by the name of Cul-pa-lau, which signifies a mussel or shell-fish bearer. Potter valley was called Be-loh-kai, which signifies leafy valley, or the valley . of shade. Little Lake valley was called Ma-tom-kai, which signifies big valley. Long valley was called Kai-neh-moo, which signifies the valley of many people. Round valley was called Me-sha-kai, signifying the valley of tule or tall grass. Sherwood valley was called Che-hul-i-kai, signifying the north valley. Cah-to is the name the natives applied to both that location and the people who inhabited it. The word " cah " signifies water, and "to" means, literally, mush, and was applied to the section owing to the fact that there was originally a large swampy lake there, the greater portion of which
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HISTORY OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
was miry and boggy, being veritable water-mush-cah-to. The people were known to all surrounding tribes as Cah-to pomo. Kai-be-sil-lah meant the head of the valley, hence the name is applied to that point where the moun- tain spurs project into the ocean and the mesa lands, or valley, ends. The town of Kibesillah is located at this point, and the name is about the same as the one the Indians used. What is now known as Ten-mile river, was called Be-dah-to, literally mush river, the name being applied on account of the quick-sand at its mouth. They applied the term Noy-o to what is now called Pudding creek. The name was given to it on account of the sand- dunes which were near its month. To the stream now known as Noyo they gave the name of Chim-ne-be-dah, which signified brush creek. Big river was called Bool-dam, on account of the blow-holes around the bay at its mouth. The Albion river was called Kah-ba-to-lah, signifying crooked river. Anderson valley was called Taa-bo-tah, but its signification is unknown.
The Indians in all this section were as wild as the wildest as late as 1850; and in some sections they remained wild till 1856. It is said that it was a custom of the early settlers in Sonoma and Napa counties to make raids among the Indians of Sanel and Anderson valleys and capture large num- bers of them and drive them off and make them work for awhile, allowing them to return at the end of the busy season. For instance, the potato digging season was a time when help was most needed, and as most of the local Indians were gone, assistance had to be had from some source, so a
raid would be made on the upper valley tribes. When captured, it would seem that the thought of escape did not enter their heads, but they con- tented themselves to do what they were told to do. To those white men who came among them and lived with them, they were uniformly kind, generous and faithful. Very few of that class of men ever came to grief at the hands of an Indian, although a few have been killed by them; but it was usually the white man's fault, for forbearance ceases at times to be a virtue even with Indians. The women chosen by white men as consorts were usually faithful to them in every respect, and it mattered not to them whether he chose one or many of the damsels of the tribe, all were alike obedient and faithful, the first the crowning virtue in the eyes of an Indian, and the last the ultimatum of virtue in her white lord's estimation. There were quite a number of men who, in the early days, cohabited with the tawny daughters of the forest, and there are quite a number of half-breed children in the county as a result. These children are the most unfortunate of all people. They are too good to associate with the people of their mother's, and not a whit better than their mothers' people in the estimation of the whites. They are sometimes sent to school, and this causes trouble, for white parents do not wish their children, especially their daughters, to grow up in such close relations to them. Sometim's there is one who has gone to school and grown up in the neighborhood with the daughters of the
James L Hughes
169
THE INDIANS OF MENDOCINO COUNTY.
white men, and when the line of demarkation is passed by the girl, and she stands on the side of womanhood, and closes the door of her childhood's friendship in the face of the half-breed boy, it causes pangs of remorse and regrets unknown to any but him who is neither white nor black. It would be the part of humanity to provide as well as possible for this class of unfor- tunate humans. Something should be done to ameliorate their condition and to raise them as far above the level of the Digger Indian as his blood has raised him. But that is a question which can not be settled in any ordinary method, and requires a great deal of delicacy in adjusting. If these Indians were what their Algonquin brothers were of the East, it would not be so very bad, for who that has Algonquin blood in him is not proud of it ? Who was a more worthy progenitor than the great and noble minded Logan ? But these are a different people in all respects, especially intellectually.
The fathers of these children are universally men of means, and it would be well to form an association and purchase a home for them all, and let each man pay his pro-rata in proportion to the number of children he puts into the home, and have the property so deeded to the county as a trustee that when the place was abandoned by these people, by depletion or other cause, that it would revert pro-rata to the heirs of the original purchasers. By this means a spirit of thrift and independence would be engendered among them, and if they were allowed to have and use the profits of the place they would soon develop into traders, and, perhaps, some would wish and be able to purchase farms of their own.
The majority of the men who, in an early day, consorted with Indian women, as soon as practicable married white women. The consequence of this is sometimes that those white women whose husbands have never con- sorted with Indian women are a little inclined to consider themselves free from the taint, as it were. A brilliant rebuke to a woman of this class is reported to have been given by a lady whose husband had at one time cohabited with an Indian woman. Several ladies were present, and it so happened that this one was the only one whose husband had formerly lived with an Indian woman, and of course the other ladies took occasion several times to remind her of that fact. At last she grew weary of their thrusts and archly remarked that " Mr. - is a very peculiar man, and will never take anything but the very best that is to be had. Now, when he was consorting with an Indian woman he had the best that could be found in the land, and to-day he is practicing that cardinal principle of his life." The others saw the thrust, and felt it much more keenly than the lady had felt their insinuations concerning her husband's having been a "squaw man."
There have been two reservations set aside for the use of the Indians in Mendocino county. The first was known as the Mendocino, and the second as the Round Valley reservation. The first named was established in 1856. The first station was located about one mile north of the Noyo river, and
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HISTORY OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
what was afterwards known as Fort Bragg. Captain H. L. Ford was the agent. Robert White, John Simpson, Samuel Watts, - Hinckley, H. and Stephen Mitchel, G. Hagenmeyer, G. Canning Smith, H. Kier, H. Bell and Lloyd Bell, Sr., were there as employés, and Dr. T. M. Ames was the physician. This place was always the head-quarters for all other stations of the reservation. The next station was established about three miles north- east of Noyo, and was known us the " Bald Hill" station. The facetious and irrepressible Mike C. Doherty was agent here, and John Clark was his assistant. The station at Ten-mile river came next, with Major Lewis as agent, and E. J. Whipple as assistant. The last station was about half a mile south of the Noyo river, and was called " Culle-Bulle," with John Simp- son agent, and William Ray assistant. The reservation was established under the supervision of Thomas J. Henley, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in California, and contained twenty-four thousand nine hundred and thirty- eight and forty-six one-hundredths acres. It was abandoned about 1867. Fort Bragg was established in 1857 by Lieutenant Gibson. The first build- ing erected there was the small square house situated on the east side of the parade ground. When the soldiers were located there, it was their chief business to gather the wild Indians into the fold of the reservation, and for this purpose great expeditions were made into the country. The entire management of an Indian reservation is as inscrutible as the ways of Prov- idence, and altogether past finding out. In the reservation under con- sideration, out of the twenty-four thousand acres of land included in its limits, there were not that many hundred that were arable. No progress worth speaking of was male 'in the way of farming. A few acres were planted, and if the cattle and other stock were kept off, a small crop was grown, but it never was of any advantage to the Indians. We are sorry to have to be so severe, but the truth demands that we shall brand the whole sys- tem of reservations in this county, until very recently, at least, as a grand scheme of vassalage. It has always afforded a place for a few political pets, who have thus been enabled to live at the expense of the government, and also to " feather their nest " out of the proceeds of the hard work of the Indians. The prime and fresh meats were served upon the tables of the employés ; while the Indians got the odds and ends. And so it was with everything else. Of course, these strictures apply only to those cases where the facts set forth did really exist. There have been honest men connected with these reserva- tions, and men who have tried to advance the status of the Indian in every respect; but that has not always been the case. At the present time there seems to be a general feeling of content among the Indians on the reserva- tion at Round valley. They are being taught to read and to know what an education is worth to them. The following figures, which were collated in 1877, will give an idea of the work being done in that direction: In the reservation school there were enrolled-full-blood, forty ; half-blood, six.
171
THE INDIANS OF MENDOCINO COUNTY.
Total, forty-six. The average attendance was thirty-three. Number who could read and write, twenty-four ; number who had learned to read and write during the year, fifteen ; number in the third grade, twelve. It will thus be seen that over eighty-six per cent of the entire number can read, and that more than fifty per cent of them can read and write. This speaks very well, indeed, for the educational work which is being done there.
In 1856 the Indian farm was established at None Cult or Round valley. It is estimated that there were upwards of five thousand Indians in Mendo- cino county at that time, and that three thousand of them were subject to the Round Valley farm, and two thousand or more to the Mendocino reserva- tion. While this Round valley section was a farm only it was used as a stock range principally, and the cattle were driven out to the Noyo station to be slaughtered. There was a trail, which passed through where Cahto now is, which led from the Round Valley farm to the Noyo station. In 1858 the Round Valley farm was changed into a regular reservation, which con- tained about twenty-five thousand acres. April 14, 1868, it was ordered that the reservation should extend to the summit of the surrounding moun- tains. March 30, 1870, the land embraced in the above boundaries was set apart, by a proclamation of the President of the United States, for reserva- tion purpose. March 3, 1873, an act was passed by Congress setting all lands formerly embraced in the reservation, south of the line between town- ships twenty-two and twenty-three, to the public domain, and extending the reservation north to the hills, with certain boundaries, as follows : The line between townships twenty-two and twenty-three being the southern bound- ary ; main Eel river being the western boundary ; Eel river being the northern boundary ; Hull's creek, Williams' creek and middle Eel river being the eastern boundary, containing one hundred and two thousand one hundred and eighteen and nineteen one-hundredths acres.
Rev. J. L. Burchard, a former agent at the Round Valley reservation, gave the following information to a reporter of the San Francisco Call, in Jan- uary, 1878: " There are on the reservation about one thousand Indians. They are peaceable, industrious, and as a rule, sober. They make excellent laborers, and for sheep-shearers surpass white men, as they are more gentle to the animals. At this work they make from two to three dollars a day. At hop-picking they are not excelled by white boys or Chinamen. The squaws, especially, make very good pickers, and can make from seventy-five cents to one dollar a day. The various tribes on the reservation are the Potter Valley, Ukiah Valley, Little Lake, Conchow, Redwood Valley, Pet Nuer, Ukies, and Wylackies. As a rule, they are distinct in habits, lan- guage and appearance. They are readily domesticated if kept separate from other Indians. They attend school regularly and become apt scholars in reading and writing, but are weak in arithmetic. Although retaining some affection for their former dainties, they are rapidly adopting the food of the
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HISTORY OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
white man. A store of provisions is always kept on hand to prevent a chance for a famine. Some idea of the produce raised by these Indians can be gathered from the following figures : Growing crops on the reservation land-small grain, seven hundred acres; hay, six hundred tons; corn, one hundred acres ; hops, thirty acres; gardens, three hundred acres; and orchards, fifteen acres. Their stock comprises three hundred head of cat- tle, one hundred head of horses and mules, and three hundred head of hogs. All the wheat is ground into flour and stored in the provision house. Many of the Indians are learning habits of economy, and are, out of their earnings, buying little farms for themselves. In this they are assisted by several prominent men, among whom may be mentioned Messrs. McClure, Burke and Bartlett, who are justly earning the praises of the white men and the gratitude of the Indians for their efforts to ameliorate the condition of the latter, and training them so that in the near future their descendants will become a profit, rather than an incumbrance, to the State. The Sunday- school and general religious training are left to the Methodist Episcopal church, doing a very beneficial work."
Speaking of the difference in their dialects, calls to mind the fact that all those Indians from Sherwood valley southward talked a kindred tongue, and could communicate very readily with each other ; but strange to say, those of Sherwood valley could not converse with the "Cah-to pomo," less than ten miles away to the northward. This was very remarkable, indeed.
The Indians were capable of the most remarkable endurance. No proper conception can be formed of what they could perform in the way of bearing burdens. When the Mendocino reservation was established they carried sev- eral heavy government wagons from Sherwood valley to Noyo, a distance of over twenty miles and over a mountain trail. One man would take a wheel and trudge along with it all day; while two would be able to carry an axletree. They delighted, in an early day, to go with some rancher to the coast and carry his freight and provisions in to the ranch. It was a sort of a holiday spree with them, and there was no scarcity of those who de- sired to go when the day of his departure arrived.
But the Indian is vanishing from the face of the earth surely and not so very slowly. It was estimated in 1877, that there were less than ten thou- sand left in the entire state of California, distributed as follows : On the reservation at Hoopa valley, five hundred and eighty ; Round Valley reserva- tion, nine hundred and fifty-two; Tule River reservation, twelve hundred ; and not on any reservation, six thousand five hundred. Making a total of nine thousand two hundred and thirty-two. And yet, it is in the memory of every old pioneer when there were at least that many living on the terri- tory covered now by any one county in the State. It is very strange, and yet it seems a matter of destiny, and just as much so as it was that the
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THE INDIANS OF MENDOCINO COUNTY,
nations of the land of Canaan should disappear before the advance of the chosen people of God into their country. Many people are inclined to put on a sentimental air and charge that the white man has been the cause of all this decimation among their ranks. Such, however, does not seem to be the case. The truth is, that they had served their purpose in the great economy of God, and the fullness of time for their disappearance from the earth has come, and they are going to go. Of course, looking at it from this stand-point does not give the white man leave or license to help rid the coun- try of them. Far from it; but on the other hand, the great law of Chris- tian (by which word is meant Christ-like) charity comes in, and demands that they should receive just and honorable usage at the hands of those who come into contact with them.
At the present time there is quite a village a few miles north of Sanel, the remnant of the Sanels, numbering perhaps one hundred and fifty. The village consists of some twenty thatched, dome-like huts, and in the center of it is located the inevitable sweat-house. South of Ukiah about five miles, there are two or three small villages containing in all, perhaps, two hundred. Near Calpella there are, perhaps, fifty; east of Ukiah, there are about one hundred. At Cahto there is a village of about seventy-five; at Sherwood valley there are about seventy-five. Near Point Arena there is a village of probably one hundred ; and at the mouth of Big river there is a rancheria of about one hundred. There are others scattered here and there over the county, but these are the main villages. There are some Indians from all of these tribes at the reservation. Some tribes have con- sented to go bodily, while others go and come, holding their old camping ground.
How beautifully and truthfully is the result of the invasion of the white people portrayed in the following lines from Longfellow's " Hiawatha:"-
I beheld, too, in that vision All the secrets of the future, Of the distant days that shall be; I beheld the westward marches Of the unknown, crowded nations; All the land was full of people,
Restless, struggling, toiling, striving, Speaking many tongues, yet feeling But one heart-beat in their bosoms. In the woodland rang their axes, Smoked their towns in all the valleys,
Over all the lakes and rivers
Rushed their great canoe of thunder. Then a darker, drearier vision
Passed before me vague and cloudlike;
I beheld our nation scattered. All forgetful of my counsels;
Weakened, warring with each other;
Saw the remnants of our people
Sweeping westward, wild and woeful,
Like the cloud-rack of a tempest,
Like the withered leaves of Autumn! * *
* Thus departed Hiawatha In the glory of the sunset,
In the purple mists of evening,
To the regions of the home wind, To the Islands of the Blessed, To the kingdom of Ponemah, To the land of the hereafter!
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HISTORY OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
MEXICAN GRANTS.
CORTE MADERA DEL PRESIDIO-SOULAJULLE-ANGEL ISLAND-LAGUNA DE SAN ANTONIO-ARROYO DE SAN ANTONIO-NOVATO-OLOMPALI-SAN PEDRO-SANTA MARGARITA-LAS GALLINAS-TINI- CACIA-CANADA DE HERMA-SAUCELITO-TOMALES-BOLINAS-SAN JOSE-BOLSA DE TOMALES- CORTE DE MADERA DE NOVATO-NICASIO-MISSION SAN RAFAEL-TAMALPAIS-LAS BOLINAS-BUA- COCHA-PUNTA DE LOS REYES-SAN GERONIMO.
THE subject of the tenure of land in California is one which is so little understood, that it has been deemed best to quote at length the following report on the subject of land titles in California, made in pursuance of instrue- tions from the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Interior, by William Carey Jones, published in Washington in the Year 1850,-a more exhaustive document it would be difficult to find:
On July 12, 1849, Mr. Jones had been appointed a "confidential agent of the Government, to proceed to Mexico and California, for the purpose of pro- curing information as to the condition of land titles in California." Pursuant to these instructions, he embarked from New York on the 17th July; arriv- ing at Chagres on the 29th, he at once proceeded to Panama, but got no op- portunity, until that day month, of proceeding on his journey to this State. At length, on September 19th, he arrived at Monterey, the then capital of Cali- fornia. After visiting San José and San Francisco, he returned to Monterey, and there made arrangements for going by land to Los Angeles and San Diego, but finding this scheme impracticable on account of the rainy season, he made the voyage by steamer. On December 7th he left San Diego for Acapulco in Mexico, where he arrived on the 24th; on the 11th he left that city, and on the 18th embarked from Vera Cruz for Mobile.
We now commence his report, believing that so able a document will prove of interest to the reader :-
I. "TO THE MODE OF CREATING TITLES TO LAND, FROM THE FIRST INCEPTION TO THE PERFECT TITLE, AS PRACTICED BY MEXICO WITHIN THE PROVINCE OF CALIFORNIA.
All the grants of land made in California (except pueblo or village lots, and exeept, perhaps, some grants north of the Bay of San Francisco, as will be hereafter noticed), subsequent to the independence of Mexico, and after the establishment of that government in California, were made by the different politieal governors. The great majority of them were made subsequent to January, 1832, and consequently under the Mexican Colonization Law of August 18, 1824, and the government regulations, adopted in pursuance of the law dated November 21, 1828. In January. 1832 General José
,
175
THE MEXICAN GRANTS.
Figueroa became Governor of the then territory of California, under a con .- mission from the government at Mexico, replacing Victoria, who, after having the year before displaced Echandrea, was himself driven out by a revolution. The installation of Figueroa restored quiet, after ten years of civil commotion, and was at a time when Mexico was making vigorous efforts to reduce and populate her distant territories, and consequently granting lands on a liberal scale. In the act of 1824, a league square (being 4,428.402-1000 acres) is the smallest measurement of rural property spoken of; and of these leagues square, eleven (or nearly fifty thousand acres) might be conceded in a grant to one individual. By this law, the States composing the federation, were authorized to make special provision for colonization within their respective limits, and the colonization of the territories, "conformably to the principles of law" charged upon the Central Government. California was of the latter descrip- tion. being designated a Territory in the Acta Constitutiva of the Mexican Federation, adopted January 31, 1824, and by the Constitution adopted 4th October of the same year .*
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