I
have never posted a piece from a news source and am only doing so as
it indirectly deals with the overall theme of this blog –
California Indians.
1863
Indian Massacre Site Uncovered in California
Now,
the Paiutes and DWP are fighting to leave the area untouched
By
Kate Seamons, Newser Staff, Posted Jun 9, 2013 9:29 AM CDT
(Newser)
– Archaeologists say they've stumbled upon a grim page in American
history: the site of the 1863 Owens Lake massacre. The Los Angeles
Times
[http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-massacre-site-20130603,0,1495973,full.story
] provides a history lesson: The Paiute Indians occupied land some
200 miles north of LA that proved desirable to an influx of ranchers
in the mid 1800s. The Owens Valley Indian War broke out in 1861, but
a seminal moment occurred on March 19, 1863: Settlers and soldiers
battled with the Paiutes, who tried to flee their attackers by
swimming into the lake, but were thwarted by a strong wind; nearly
three dozen of them drowned or were shot. The tale of that day
remains, but the exact location was lost.
That's
in part because officials diverted the Owens River in 1913 in order
to feed LA's water needs, reports Grist; by the middle of the next
decade, Owens Lake was no more. But heavy winds and rains in 2009 may
have helped return bullets, buttons, and Native American artifacts to
the surface; Los Angeles Department of Water and Power archaeologists
found them during a survey last year. But the discovery is spurring a
small controversy: The dry lake bed fuels toxic dust storms, and DWP
has been charged with mitigating that with shallow flooding—at what
is now thought to be the massacre site. The Paiutes want the area
left untouched; DWP agrees, and is in discussions on how to make that
happen. "We take this personally," says a tribal historic
preservation officer. "My grandmother told me about this
massacre and she knew the people it happened to. This ground, and the
artifacts in it, is who we are."
No
way Indians little removed from the Stone Age could stand against
ranchers and soldiers armed with these.
And
this is the Los Angeles Times article.
DWP archaeologists uncover grim chapter in Owens Valley history
Researchers believe that
bullets, musket balls, cavalry uniform buttons and Native American
artifacts found in Owens Lake point to the massacre of 35 Paiute
Indians by settlers and soldiers in 1863.
By
Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times
June
2, 2013, 4:28 p.m.
LONE
PINE, Calif. — Oral histories of Native Americans and U.S. Cavalry
records offer insights into a horrific massacre here in 1863:
Thirty-five Paiute Indians were chased into Owens Lake by settlers
and soldiers to drown or be gunned down.
But
the records are silent on one important point. Exactly where did the
massacre occur on the moonlit night of March 19, 1863?
An
archaeological find in what is today a vast alkali playa has revealed
a cache of bullets, musket balls, cavalry uniform buttons and Native
American artifacts that Paiute tribal members and researchers believe
are evidence of the grim chapter in Owens Valley history.
The
site has been lost to history for more than 100 years, a time in
which Los Angeles drained most of Owens Lake to slake the growing
city's thirst. Strong winds and torrential rain in 2009 may have
uncovered the artifacts, which were found by Los Angeles Department
of Water and Power archaeologists surveying the area in preparation
for dust mitigation projects.
Dust
wasn't a problem in the mid-19th century at Owens Lake, 200 miles
north of Los Angeles. Native Paiutes hunted along the lake and
diverted the flow of local streams to irrigate fields of wild
hyacinth and yellow nutgrass.
But
disputes arose as settlers poured into the valley and began ranching
on the tribe's pasture lands. U.S. troops were sent to protect the
settlers and the land and water they had effectively stolen from the
Paiutes.
By
1860, the Paiutes' land had been overrun with cattle and sheep.
Tensions spiked when Paiutes took down a settler's cow or ox to eat
during the severe winter of 1861.
During
the Owens Valley Indian War, between 1861 and 1866, ranchers —
backed by troops — and the Paiutes tried to wipe each other out.
Paiute homes and stores of food were destroyed. Paiutes fought back
with bows and arrows, and a few guns.
On
March 19, 1863, 20 soldiers and 10 white settlers attacked Paiutes
who were reportedly killing livestock in the area. The battle began
in a nearby oak grove and the Paiutes ran into the lake, hoping to
swim to safety.
However,
"a strong wind was blowing from the east and the Indians could
make little progress in swimming against it; therefore they became
easy targets for the men hunting them," historian Dorothy Clora
Cragen wrote in her book, "The Boys in the Sky-Blue Pants."
After
taking a shot at one of the Indians trying to swim beyond the range
of gunfire, a white settler raised his fist and shouted, "Die,
damn you, in the lake!" she wrote. "And the Indian did."
"Darkness
came on but there was a bright moon, and the soldiers and citizens
formed a line along the … shore, and remained there until the
bodies began to wash ashore," Cragen wrote. Only two Paiutes are
thought to have survived that day.
DWP
archaeologists discovered the site a year ago, but its existence had
been kept private to prevent looting and vandalism. Now, a nasty
dispute between the department and air pollution authorities is
forcing it into the open.
The
site is on a section of the lake bed that state air pollution
authorities say contributes to choking dust storms in the Owens
Valley. As the lake was drained over the last century, it left vast
salt flats prone to sending up powder-fine dust that often exceeds
federal health standards.
Sixteen
years ago, on orders from the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution
Control District, the DWP embarked on a $1.2-billion campaign to
mitigate dust with shallow flooding and gravel.
The
effort largely succeeded, but air pollution officials said the DWP
needed to do more. Over the objections of the utility, Great Basin
called for mitigation measures on other portions of the lake bed —
including the land where the DWP later made its discovery. Now, the
utility is siding with Paiutes who want to make the area off-limits
to dust mitigation projects.
On
a recent weekday, Kathy Jefferson Bancroft, tribal historic
preservation officer for the Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Reservation,
brushed away dirt from an ancient grinding stone she had found a few
minutes earlier along a stretch of lake bed shoreline sparkling with
shards of volcanic glass and chert left by ancient Paiutes making
tools and arrowheads.
Nearby
mounds of rocks harbored the newly discovered remains of her
ancestors killed in the massacre. Cragen's research found that only
Paiute men were slain that day, but Bancroft says that women and
children were among the victims.
"Just
over there, 150 years ago, our people ran into the water and then
were picked off," she said, nodding toward a silent expanse of
cracked clay and salt.
"We
take this personally — my grandmother told me about this massacre
and she knew the people it happened to," she said. "This
ground, and the artifacts in it, is who we are."
Brancroft
said the land should be left undisturbed. "These artifacts do
not belong to archaeologists. They belong here. They are not ours to
bother."
Great
Basin, the DWP and local tribal leaders are trying to strike a
compromise that would spare the site from disturbance. It also would
avoid a showdown in court between requirements of the federal Clean
Air Act and laws that protect historical artifacts: the National
Historic Preservation Act and the Native American Graves Protection
and Repatriation Act.
One
alternative under discussion would ban construction on the massacre
site and have the DWP mitigate dust on roughly 350 acres of land
elsewhere in Owens Valley.
DWP
spokesman Joe Ramallo said the utility believes the site, as well as
other land where archaeologists have found artifacts, should not be
disturbed by mitigation efforts. He said the department's proposal
would "protect these areas, improve habitat, control dust and
save water and our customers' money."
Great
Basin air pollution control officer Ted D. Schade said the DWP and
his agency are making progress.
"For
the longest time, Great Basin has had a hard time even having a
rational discussion with the DWP," Schade said. "This
discovery has opened up relations that are more fruitful.
"You
don't come across massacre sites very often," he said.
During
the period of early 1769 to 1823 when Spain ruled California, no more
than a dozen Indians died at the hands of Europeans and the majority
of them came due to minor uprisings against the soldiers. In that
same period, only 2 Franciscan friars died and the Indians
consistently did everything they could to protect those friars they
considered to be their fathers.
In
fact, Spanish explorers never entered the Owens Valley, de Anza only
passing for to the south from the present-day Imperial Valley. And,
there was only one brief expedition in the San Joaquin Valley on the
far side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. However, some was known of
the Paiutes as, on a number of occasions, they raided the cattle
herds of Missions San Fernando and San Gabriel.
It
was when Mexican gained its independence from Spain and turned
California into a territory that problems with the Indians arose –
almost all of those from Indians not part of the missions. During
this time, more and more Americans entered the territory due to the
excellent weather and arable land for farming and ranching. As the
friars were removed from the missions and the Indians forced to seek
work for ranchers who treated them like slaves, more and more
Americans sought land, often buying it from corrupt government
officials not entitled to sell it.
In
the above article, it states “settlers and soldiers” battled with
the Indians. They were Americans, not Spanish or Mexican. Another
example of Manifest Destiny in which the ignorant savages had no
rights to the land where they had lived from beyond memory and their
death was of no matter at all.
Many
California textbooks claim the demise of the California Indians to be
due to the Franciscan friars and their Spanish overlords – totally
false and another coverup of the truth of American Expansion. One of
the few things of American history that truly saddens me.
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