USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume I > Part 43
USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume I > Part 43
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Sixty years have passed since Cabrillo's visit to California, and in all these years Spain has made no effort to colonize it. Only the Indian canoe has cleft the waters of its southern bays and harbors. Far out to the westward beyond the islands the yearly galleon from Manilla freighted with the treasures of Ormus and of Ind., sailed down the coast to Acapulco. These ships kept well out from the southern coast to escape those wolves fo the high seas-the buccaneers; for, lurking near the coast of Los Californias, these ocean robbers searched for the white sails of the galleon, and woe to the proud ship if they sighted her. She was chased down by the robber pack and plundered of her treasures. Sixty years have passed, but the Indians of the Coast. still keep alive the tradi- tion of bearded men floating in from the sea on the backs of monster white-winged birds, and they still watch for the return of their strange visitors. Sixty years again pass, and again the Indian watchers by the sea discern mysterious white-winged objects floating in upon the waters of the bays and harbors of California. These are the ships of Sebastian Viscaino's fleet. Time and space will not permit of any extended detail of Viscaino's visit nor of his description of the country and the Indians.
Viscaino found clouds of smoke hanging over the headlands and bays of the coast just as Cabrillo had sixty years before, and for centuries preceding, no doubt, the same phenomenon might have been seen in the autumn of each year. The smoky condition of the atmosphere was caused by the Indians burning the dry grass of the plains. The Cali- fornia Indian of the coast was not like Nimrod of old, a mighty hunter. He seldom attacked any animal fiercer than the festive jack rabbit, nor
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were his futile weapons always sure to bring down the fleet-footed conejo. So to supply his larder he was compelled to resort to strategy. When the summer heat had dried the long grass of the plains and rendered it exceedingly inflammable, the hunters of the Indian villages set out on hunting expeditions. Marking out a circle on the plains where the dried vegetation was the thickest they fired the grass at several points in the circle. The fire eating inward drove the rabbits and other small game back and forth across the narrowing area until blinded with smoke and heat and scorched by the flames they perished. When the flames had sub- sided the Indian secured the spoils of the chase, slaughtered and ready cooked. The scorched and blackened carcasses might not be a tempting tidbit to an epicure, but the Indian was not an epicure.
Viscaino sailed up the coast. Passing through the Santa Barbara Channel he found many populous Indian rancherios on the mainland and the islands. The inhabitants were expert seal hunters and fishermen and were possessed of a number of large and finely constructed canoes. From one of the villages on the coast near Point Reyes, the chief visited him on his ship, and among other inducements to remain in the country he offered to give to each Spaniard ten wives. Viscaino's explorations did not extend further north than those of Cabrillo and Drake. Here is what he said about the Indians he found up the coast, in a letter to the King of Spain: "This land has a genial climate. Its waters are good and it is very fertile, judging from the varied and luxuriant growth of trees and plants, for I saw some of the fruits, particularly chestnuts and acorns, which are larger than those of Spain.
"And it is thickly settled with people whom I found to be of gentle disposition, peaceable and docile, and who can be brought readily within the fold of the gospel and into subjection to the Crown of Your Majesty. Their food consists largely of seeds, which they have in abundance and variety, and of the flesh of game, such as deer, which are larger than cows, and bear and of neat cattle and of bisons and of many other animals.
"The Indians are of good stature and of fair complexion, the women being somewhat less than the men in size and of pleasing countenance. The clothing of the people of the coast lands consists of the skins of sea walrus or other animals abounding there which they tan and dress better than is done in Castile. They possess also flax like that in Castile, hemp and cotton from which they make fishing lines and net for rabbits and lares. They have vessels of pine wood, very well made, in which they go to sea with fourteen paddle men of a side, with great dexterity even in very stormy weather."
From what has been said heretofore the Pacific Coast was thickly settled, both the mainland and the islands, and all the way down, especially in Mexico and Peru, they were in a high state of civilization, and it is best only conjecture to say how long that civilization had lasted and the strangest thing about it is how the people everywhere seemed to melt away before our more modern and robust usages. Although many were exterminated by the sword, the larger portion simply disappeared. leaving a mongrel people who seem to be lacking in the elements of progress. Spanish republics appear to be at least partially successful from Mexico down through the South American continent, but how is it with the common people? Judging from what we see from Mexico, its mongrel people do not appear to be capable of being more than "hewers of wood and drawers of water." They are content with a small patch of ground where they can raise corn and beans enough for their own use, with a few chickens and enough to sell to buy beef enough to cook
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with hot chile peppers. Tobacco, which this continent gave to the rest of the world, is also a necessity for both men and women. Contentment without ambition, possibly an inheritance from their aboriginal blood, no one dare predict any brilliant future for them. But what of those who were here in a highly civilized state which could not stand contact with the old world? Nations, like individuals, have their birth, man- hood and decay. All the civilizations of the past with their people have gone into oblivion. Each was noted for some peculiarity, but when they came to the point which they could not pass, they went out and another and a higher took its place. The Chinese seems to be the exception- a nation standing still. Will they, too, have to go down, being unable to take a step higher? The American civilization reached its culmination and was ready to pass out when the European came in. They had reached the point at which it might be said thus far shalt thou go and no further, and so they "sleep with their fathers." Evolution, progress, is the law of the universe, and when progress is at an end then nature or the eternal law says pass out and let another come in.
To return briefly to our own Indians, the Indian of our coast and immediately surrounding us before we pass on to the Padres, the Missions and the Spanish occupation. There are two almost contrary narratives about the Indians. One is the prehistoric Indian, the Indian as found by the early explorers of this coast. All accounts agree about the Indian when first met. Sir Francis Drake, Viscaino and the Mission Fathers, that they were peaceful and not inclined to resent the intrusion of the white man. He was honest, virtuous, trusting, generous and truthful. The other account is of those who have met the Indian after contact with the white man. He had acquired all the vices and diseases of modern civilization without one redeeming virtue. The truth is that in the main both accounts are correct. Being ignorant and undeveloped, naturally their religious views were on the same plane.
The Indians of or near Riverside belonged to the tribe of Luisanos. They were not much given to Fetishism. They believed in one God and had no evil spirits corresponding to our devil. They had an idea of a rational soul and that when they died this went to Tolmar, where all came together and lived together in much happiness. Today the Indian is nominally Roman Catholic, if anything, but how much this may have modified the original belief it would be hard to say. In their burial rites they are rather secretive, not desiring the presence of white people. In the early days of Riverside there was a rancheria near where Bankers' Row now is. They were about the only labor that could be hired. As a rule, they were good workers and reliable.
If an Indian did not want to work, he would not come and lie around doing nothing, he would either work or stay away. Their worst failing was a love of liquor, and although the law prohibited selling liquor to them, if they had the money they could always get drunk if they wished. This is one of the vices they contracted by association with white men, along with diseases of infection and direct contact which had a great effect in reducing their numbers.
One loves to think of the Indian in Pope's lines :
"Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutored mind Sees God in Clouds or hears him in the wind.
His soul, proud science never taught to stray Far as the solar walk or milky way.
Yet simple nature to his hope has given,
Behind the cloud topped hill an humbler heaven."
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"Where slaves once more their native land behold. No fiends torment, no Christian's thirst for gold.
To be, contents his natural desire.
He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire.
But thinks admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog can bear him company."
RAMONA. A history of Riverside County would hardly be complete without some allusion to Helen Hunt Jackson's story of Ramona, as Riverside County was the scene of the most tragic and sorrowful part
TYPE OF INDIAN GIRL, REPRESENTING RAMONA IN HER YOUNGER DAYS
of the whole story and some of the characters were well known residents of the county. Aunt Ri was a well known character true to Mrs. Jack- son's delineation who died recently, but whose memory is to be perpetu- ated by a monument. Jim Farrar was also well known as the slayer of Alessandro and as might be expected a worthless character who by escap- ing his legal punishment did not gain much either personally or in the regards of the people. The writer saw him on one or two occasions, but had no personal acquaintance with him. The road up which Alessandro rode Sam Temples' horse was a steep one, but in use for bringing down lumber from the sawmill or wood for fuel, going up it took four horses to haul the empty wagon and coming down frequently a tree was chained to the hind end of the wagon to keep it from slipping with locked wheels on to the horses. In Mrs. Jackson's time there was an occasional bear
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that at times came to the foot of the mountain to eat the beekeeper's honey.
Cahuilla Valley the headquarters of the Cahuilla Indians and reserva- tion is thirty-five miles away from Hemet and so far off that the Cahuilla Indians were comparatively secure from molestation from white men and also remote from the vices and diseases of white men which were so destructive to those nearer the coast. The rule of the Padres was to keep the missions some distance away from the coast as a protection to the converts. Ramona is one of those romances that stand in relation to the Indian race that Uncle Tom's Cahin did to the colored race. Appeal after appeal had been made to the authorities in Washington in vain and although perfunctory efforts were made on behalf of the Indian and reservations were made only to be time and again occupied by the white man and the Indian driven further back. Fortunately the Cahuilla res- ervation and settlement were so far back in the mountains that they were beyond the reach of the grasping white man and that is the main reason why that tribe has been so well preserved from the depredations, vices and diseases of the white man.
The name Ramona the title of Mrs. Jackson's book is derived from Ramona Wolf the wife of the storekeeper and hotelkeeper at Temecula who was a great friend of the Indians and at whose hostelry Mrs. Jack- son remained for a time gathering material for her story. In San Jacinto she heard the story of the killing of the "locoed" Indian by Sam Temple from Mary Sheriff the teacher of the government school at Saboba.
The story of the faithlessness, dishonesty and even worse of some of the Indian agents need not be told over again for it needed not Ramona to tell that. Mrs. Jackson herself in connection with Abbot Kinney as a special committee appointed by Congress to investigate and report in their publication "A Century of Dishonor" told enough, but Ramona was what called public attention to the injustice under which the Indian suf- fered more than anything else. In addition to this Mrs. Jackson had written a series of special articles on the condition of the Mission Indians of California for the Century Magazine in 1881 and 1882. It was during this experience that she first conceived the idea of writing up a story but she was unable to find a plot until she came across the story of Aless- andro. The climate and surroundings all were perfect and all at once as by a sudden inspiration the whole thing was flashed on her mind, the first word of which was written December 1, 1883, and from that time until the story was finished she wrote with the greatest rapidity often from two to three thousand words a day. She said the entire story seemed to be "at her finger ends."
Ramona first appeared in the Christian Union, appearing in book form in the latter part of 1884. Her friends told her it was the best thing she had written, but she herself was at times doubtful. In one of her letters she says, "I can't believe it as good as they think. I am uneasy about it." But she lived long enough to know that she had not only writ- ten a book that would "tell" for the helpless people in whose defense she wrote, but one that placed her among the great novelists of her generation. She herself valued Ramona and "A Century of Dishonor" above all her other books. Her life work as she viewed it at the end had found expression in what she had done and in what she had tried to do in behalf of the Indians, but she was not for long to enjoy her pleasure arising from success for in June, 1884, she fell down stairs and broke her leg and from that she went to worse for soon after symptoms of the disease that finally cut her off arose and she died in San Francisco
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August 12, 1885, and thus passed the woman that wrote the Idyl of South- ern California "Ramona."
Her last poem written five days before her death contained the follow- ing last stanza.
"Ah well friend Death, good friend thou art,
I shall be free when thou art through,
Take all there is-take hand and heart
There must be somewhere work to do." 1
In placing a fine picture of Miss Rose Costa as a representation of what Mrs. Jackson's picture of Ramona was in her early life it gives the writer much pleasure in doing it and in knowing that he is not alone in this idea for the people of Hemet, "the Heart of Ramonaland" also concur in the same idea, so much so, that they made the appearance of Miss Costa under the chaperonage of her mother in connection with the appearance of the original Ramona one of the leading features of the Hemet exhibit at the Southern California Fair at Riverside in October, 1921, and it was a very drawing feature exciting the admiration of the many visitors at the fair. Miss Costa's modesty and graceful appearance in exceedingly appropriate and graceful Indian dress won the plaudits of all while her intelligent presentation of the characteristics of the origi- nal Ramona showed that after all it is not so much heredity as environ- ment that makes the individual.
Miss Costa is a native daughter of Hemet or vicinity. Her mother, Marian Costa, was from San Luis Rey of the tribe of Lusitanias and was educated at San Diego and speaks English fluently in addition to Spanish and Indian. Her daughter, Rose, the subject of the picture knows no language but English. Her father is of the Cahuilla tribe and as said before the mother is a Luisitania. Rose Costa went to grammar school at Valle Vista, a suburb of Hemet and from there to the Hemet High School where she is very proficient in her studies and for her good- ness and good nature she is the idol of the other scholars where she holds her place with the foremost. When she graduates from the High School it is her intention to study art. She is certainly a fine type of what Ramona was in her young days.
The Ramona of Mrs. Jackson still lives at an advanced age. At the time of the murder of Alessandro she was living alone with her husband, but went over the mountains to notify the Cahuillas of the death of her husband, carrying her baby in arms where she met Mrs. Jackson who got the story in this way for her book. Ramona had eight or nine chil- dren of whom only one son survives.
1 It was generally supposed that "Ramona" was the last work that Mrs. Jackson ever wrote and that the verse above quoted was the last. But there was another story she was writing just before her death which was published by Roberts Brothers, Boston, entitled "Zeph," which although not being finished was published in its unfinished state with at the close a synopsis giving the thread of what would have been written if she had been allowed to finish it and it may make an interesting sequel to "Ramona" which the reader might like to read.
Conceived and begun by Mrs. Jackson during the winter of 1884-1885 it was put by to be finished on her arrival home in Colorado Springs, a home she was destined never to reach. In her last hours she sent the manuscript to her publishers with this message:
"I am very sorry I cannot finish 'Zeph.' Perhaps it is not worth publishing in its unfinished state, as the chief lesson for which I wrote it was to be forcibly told at the end. You must be the judge about this. I suppose there will be some interest in it as the last thing I wrote. I will make a short outline of the close of the story, Good bye. Many thanks for all your long good-will and kindness. I shall look in on your new rooms some day be sure-but you won't see me. Good bye. "Affectionately forever,
On a separate sheet was the "Outline."
"H. J."
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RUPERT ISIDORE COSTA. The Indian boy here presented as a type of what Alessandro was in his youth is a brother of Rose Costa and like her is a mixture of Cahuilla and Lusitania. He has an older brother who is a member of the ball team, but is at this writing in Japan on baseball business.
TYPE OF INDIAN BOY, REPRESENTING ALESSANDRO
Rupert is attending Hemet High School where he is just as proficient as his fellow pupils. He also excels as an athlete. Like his sister he knows no language but English.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INDIANS
MRS. H. A. ATWOOD
Chairman Committee on Indian Welfare, Division of Industrial and Social Conditions, General Federation Women's Clubs
The Indians who live in Southern California south of Tehatchipi are called Mission Indians and in the southern part of the State the Indians live almost exclusively on the reservations and in tribal relations.
There is, in connection with the Indians of Northern California, an interesting bit of history. At or about the time of the discovery of gold in California, 1851-52, the Government was asked to enter into treaty with the Indians to dispossess them of the lands on which gold was found, so they would not interfere with mining operations. Men were sent out from the Indian Office to arrange treaties which contemplated the removal of the Indians from their homes to other lands which were to be assigned to them. The Indians observed their part of the treaties
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and moved away from the lands, leaving them in the possession of the gold diggers, but Congress refused to ratify the treaties on the part of the Government and, consequently, the Indians of Northern California have been wanderers on the face of the earth, with not a rod of land to call their own, until very recently, when the United States has tried. in rather a futile way, to repair the wrong. Not living on reservations or in tribal relations, the Indians of Northern California have their citi- zenship; but in Southern California the Indians are still wards of the Government.
There are thirty reservations that belong to the Mission Indians and the total population on those reservations approximate 5.000. The res- ervations are scattered from Santa Barbara on the north to San Diego on the south ; some of them in the mountains: some on the desert and some in the valleys. but no matter how hard the conditions under which the Indians exist. they love their homes with desperate fervor.
On the Morongo reservation near Banning you will find a contented tribe, cultivating deciduous fruits in orchards which bear the fruit in abundance. In good years hundreds of tons of apricots are taken to the canneries ; and their acres of figs. lemons and other fruits in their season are a beautiful sight. The Indians live in comfortable little homes and are a well mannered. kindly people. Their reservation is right on the edge of the desert, with several hundred acres of land that cannot be surpassed for fruit, when it is well watered. Surrounding these acres lie several thousand acres of desert land running well up into the moun- tains which, in season, affords pasture for the stock.
Farther out on the desert are small reservations where the Indians are mostly employed by the white people in the onion and cotton fields. Their lands are valueless except when furnished with plenty of water; and water is not always to be had.
One of the most interesting characters among the Mission Indians. "Old Fig Tree John," lives far out on the desert and exists as best he may on the charity of his tribe. He is over 100 years of age and boasts a uniform that he says was given him by General Fremont when he came through on his historic journey to the Pacific Coast. "Old Fig Tree John" is a familiar sight on the streets of our towns. clad in his uniform gaily decorated with an abundance of brass buttons.
The Saboba Indians have their homes in a beautiful spot near the town of San Jacinto where they find plenty of employment among the white people, by whom their services are greatly valued. They live in a little village and a number of years ago some of the best basket- makers in this part of the country were of their number: but in the earthquake a few years ago some of the most skillful were killed by the falling buildings and with them perished the industry that meant so much to their tribe.
At Cahuilla is found the mountain type of Indians. Great. stalwart men, fine looking and intelligent, who are very independent and find the restrictions and government of the reservation extremely irksome. Their lands are grazing lands which they hold in common and where they have great herds of cattle.
These different tribes of Indians are typical of the localities where they live, of the desert, the valley, the mountains.
Slowly, through the influence of the white man and through the educational advantages offered by Sherman Institute, which is one of the finest schools in the Indian Service, our Indian friends are taking on some of the best features of our civilization. They are rapidly coming to a point in their development where they are fully qualified and
LOUIS ROBIDOUX
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capable of taking upon themselves the responsibilities of citizenship. The older ones are a little slow in realizing the advantages that will come with having the inalienable rights of citizens but the younger ones are demanding it.
The reservation system, governed by agents invested with discre- tionary powers, is becoming irksome to the Indians. Before they were educated it was accepted; but now with an enlightened vision they are asking and petitioning for the rights and privileges that we hold so dear.
LOUIS RUBIDOUX might be stated to have been in a sense the original colonizer in Southern California, for, unlike most of the owners of Spanish grants, he was not, averse to selling small farms to settlers who would cultivate the soil. He was born in France in 1791. The father, Joseph Rubidoux, came to St. Louis before the Louisiana purchase from France while France was under the domination of the great Napoleon Bonaparte. He was a merchant in St. Louis and had three sons. The elder son founded the town of St. Joseph, Missouri, where he had estab- lished a trading post in 1826 and laid out the town in 1843, naming it after his patron saint.
The two younger sons pushed west and became noted hunters and trappers in what is now known as New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah. The name, under a slightly different spelling, is known in several places in connection with trading posts, etc. John C. Fremont in his exploring expedition to the West, speaks of stopping at the trading post of Antoine Robidoux, but did not find him at home-a lucky thing for him, for the post was raided shortly after by Indians and everyone mur- dlered and the fort burned. Antoine acted as guide for General Kearny across the continent, where he was met by the Mexican troops at San Pasqual, losing part of his command. In this encounter Antoine Rubi- doux was wounded severely and came near dying from cold and loss of blood. It has been supposed that this Rubidoux was Louis, but it could not have been, for Louis was already a prisoner in the hands of the Mexicans, having been captured at Chino along with other Americans and American sympathizers.
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