FAN FAVORITE: California Gold Rush | Battlelines | 3

0:28Hello, American History Tellers listeners. That's AmericanHistoryLive.com. Come see my Days That Made America tour live on stage. Go to AmericanHistoryLive.com. A listener note. This episode contains descriptions of racial and sexual violence and may not be suitable for everyone.

0:55Imagine it's a cold, stormy night in December 1849. You're riding a horse across the ranch where you work in Napa Valley, California. Normally, you'd be fast asleep by now. Your boss expects you to be up for work by 5 a.m., and he's been known to beat workers who show up late. Most of his laborers, like you, are from the local Pomo and Wapo Indian tribes. But tonight, you're praying your boss doesn't find out where you are. Because you and another ranch hand have borrowed two of the boss's horses so you can steal a cow from his herd. White miners have pushed tribes like yours off your ancestral lands, and as a result, your people are starving.

1:35In an act of desperation, leaders from a nearby Pomo village hired you to take one of the cows. As you approach the field of cattle, you turn to your partner, a fellow Pomo named Shook. I think we should back off tonight. The lightning and thunder have the cattle spooked. They look fine to me. Come on! Even your horse looks jumpy. Let's come back tomorrow night. No, I'm not going to risk sneaking out here again. You sigh and spur your horse onward through the driving rain. But the truth is, the storm isn't the only thing that's worrying you. This is a bad idea, Shook. The boss, you know what he's like.

2:14If he finds out we stole this cow, it won't be just us he punishes. He'll go after every Indian within 50 miles of here, even if they had nothing to do with this. But he's not going to find out. Cows wander off all the time. We lost two just last week. I guess. Besides, are you just going to let the people in that village starve? They hired us to get food. We can't let them down. You know Shook is right. When you spoke with the elders in the village, you were shocked at how sunken their cheeks looked, and you could hear the children wailing from hunger in nearby tents. They're already starving, and winter has barely begun.

2:54So reluctantly, you decide to go ahead with the plan. As you approach the cattle, Shook rides to one side of the herd and readies his lasso. When he gives you the signal, you spur your horse forward. You ride into a group of a dozen cows. Your goal is to separate one of them from the herd and drive it towards Shook so he can lasso it. But just as you manage to isolate one cow, the sky flashes with lightning, followed by a booming clap of thunder. The cow panics and start to charge right at your partner. Shook's horse rears up in terror, and he tumbles off the back of the animal, landing hard in the mud.

3:34You watch as both the cow and the horse run off into the night. Shook staggers to his feet. Come on! If we can't find that horse, we're done for. You help Shook onto the back of your horse, your heart beating fast. You might be able to explain away a missing cow, but a horse is another story. If your boss finds this out, you could be beaten or even hanged. So together, you and Shook ride off into the darkness, searching desperately for the horse. But the rain is falling harder, and you know there's little hope you'll find it. Before tonight, your people were already facing brutal treatment and the threat of starvation.

4:15But now you have a terrible feeling. Things are about to get much worse.

4:23I'm Alice Levine. And I'm Matt Ford, and we're the hosts of British Scandal. Yes, indeed. In this series, a Derbyshire couple are bored of their curtain-twitching, lawn-mowing suburban life. So they sell their house, build a yacht, and sail off around the world. Which sort of sounds idyllic until a sperm whale sinks their boat and they begin to starve. Oh, yes, and they didn't bring a radio because real sailors don't use radios. Right? This is the story of Marilyn and Morris Bailey. And the 117 days they spent lost at sea. Follow British Scandal wherever you get your podcasts, or listen early and ad-free on Audible.

5:04During World War II, New York communist Julius Rosenberg began spying for the Soviet Union. Soon he was persuading other Americans to betray their country as well. But when his wife's brother joined the Manhattan Project, Julius targeted him as a valuable new recruit and inadvertently set the stage for the ultimate betrayal. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, host of Audible's original show, American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history. Presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, two young New Yorkers meet and fall in love. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg's commitment to each other is matched only by their commitment to communism, and the couple risks everything to help the Soviet Union develop an atomic bomb.

5:47But when they're uncovered, they have to make an impossible choice about where their loyalty truly lies. Follow American Scandal wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of American Scandal The Rosenbergs ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app.

6:10From Wondery, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American History Tellers, our history, your story.

6:32As the lure of gold brought miners into the hills of Northern California, they came into contact with local Native American communities. Tribal nations like the Pomo, Miwok, and Nisanon had called the region home for thousands of years. They had encountered European settlers before, but they had never experienced anything like the gold rush. In a matter of months, tens of thousands of miners had overrun their land. Initially, some native people joined in and mined the gold around where it was first discovered at Sutter's Mill. But as the easy pickings of the early gold rush disappeared, mining got competitive, and white settlers began to displace indigenous communities, often by force.

7:14When California became a state, informal policies that discriminated against Native Americans became law. State officials deployed militias to violently put down Native resistance, and the federal government enacted a policy of pushing tribal communities off their land and onto reservations. For the white settlers, the gold rush promised riches, but for Native Americans, it became a fight against catastrophe. To help tell this story, we've enlisted actor Robbie Damon to voice the characters you'll hear in this episode. This is Episode 3, Battle Lines.

7:51Before the Gold Rush, the mountains east of Sacramento were mainly inhabited by two indigenous communities, the Nisanon in the north and the Miwok in the south. The Miwok and Nisanon spoke different languages, but shared many customs. Both groups tended to live in small, autonomous villages. For food, they fished the local rivers, hunted deer, elk, and birds, and foraged for seeds, nuts, and berries. They depended heavily on acorns from oak trees, which they made into a porridge. They often tattooed their bodies and wore their hair long, except when mourning the dead, when they'd shave their heads and pour ashes over their exposed scalps.

8:28But this traditional way of life was disrupted with the arrival of California's first major European colonizers, the Spanish. Starting in 1769, they established coastal missions and began to forcibly convert Native people to Catholicism. Further inland, near the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Spanish established large farms and ranches where they forced Miwok, Nisanon, and other Native people to work for little or no pay. This system of exploitation continued under the government of Mexico, which gained independence from Spain in 1821. For native people like the Miwok and Nisanan, Spanish and Mexican colonization was devastating.

9:08The missions and ranches introduced domesticated animals like pigs, sheeps, and cows, which forced the clearing of land for grazing. This destroyed the tribe's main food sources, clearing entire oak forests and driving away the deer, elk, and other game they relied on. The Spanish also introduced diseases like measles and smallpox, for which the native people had no natural immunity. Between disease, declining wild food sources, and brutal working conditions at the missions and ranches, the native population in California fell from 300 ,000 at the start of Spanish rule to half that by the late 1840s.

9:45After the United States seized control of California from Mexico in 1848, the U.S. continued the Mexican policy of forcing indigenous people to work on ranches, and then came the gold rush. The Miwok and Nisanan people had long known that gold existed in the mountains, but it was not culturally or economically important to them. At first, they didn't understand why white people coveted the mineral so fervently. But once it became clear that gold was something white settlers would pay for, some Native people saw an opportunity. By Christmas 1848, one observer reported that there were roughly 4 ,000 Native people mining in California.

10:23Many set up their own businesses to dig for gold, and they flourished. At first, the gold rush seemed to be a boon for some Native Americans. But that changed as competition increased, especially with the arrival of American miners from nearby Oregon in early 1849. These settlers had already clashed violently with Native tribes, and now they brought their hostility to the California gold fields. In April 1849, a group of Oregon miners raped several Nisenan women near Sutter's Mill, then killed the Nisenan men who tried to stop them. Soon after, the Nisenan retaliated by killing five Oregonians at the middle fork of the American River.

11:03In response, a dozen other Oregonians formed a posse and rode into a Nisenan village near Sutter's Mill, where they opened fire with rifles and killed 30 men, women, and children. Other acts of violence were unprovoked. One 49er reported seeing two Oregon miners flip a coin to decide which of them would shoot a Native man who had simply passed within reach of their rifles. And that summer, the violence spread, as more waves of 49ers began arriving from the east. Many of these new settlers had been given guns and ammunition by the U.S. War Department, supposedly for protection from Plains Indians on the journey west.

11:40And as these heavily armed settlers began driving them off their lands, some native California inhabitants responded with violence of their own, leading to endless cycles of retaliation. Many natives eventually realized that every killing of a white man would be met with a disproportionate number of killings of their own people. But the violence continued, in part because the rule of law in California was lax. California was not yet a state, and the limited government played only a small role in people's daily lives. If there was any government policy with regard to Native people, it was to let local ranchers and white miners do what they wanted.

12:16But as the push for statehood gathered momentum, political leaders began to debate how best to handle the violence.

12:27Imagine it's September 1849 in Monterey, California, where regional delegates have gathered from all over the territory to draft a constitution and petition for statehood. You're a young delegate originally from Missouri, now based here in Monterey. A constitutional convention is taking place in a handsome stone schoolhouse in a huge meeting room on the second floor. There are large fireplaces at each end and four long wooden tables for the 48 delegates. U.S. flags and portraits of George Washington decorate the walls. You're excited to be at this convention, helping to shape the future of what could become America's second largest state.

13:04But there's one issue that's troubling you more than any other, the treatment of Indians. So when you see the convention chairman walk in alone before tonight's session, you seize the opportunity. Chairman Dimmick, could I bend your ear for a minute? Certainly, young man. Go for a drink? Oh, sure. Thank you. He produces a flask from his coat. You don't like whiskey, but you're trying to be cordial so you take a sip. For his part, Dimmick takes a long pull and smacks his lips. Well, what's on your mind? The Indian situation. Ah, yes. Damn shame. I agree. They're stealing our cattle. Standing in the way of progress.

13:45Actually, sir, I... I meant the recent wave of violence near Sutter's Mill. White miners have been indiscriminately attacking local Indians, destroying their villages and claiming the land for themselves. Yes, the lawlessness in the goldfields has been troubling. I agree. That's why I think we should guarantee Indian voting rights in the state constitution. Only by giving them a voice in our government can we pass laws that will protect them from these wanton attacks. Timmock takes a long look at you and then has another sip of whiskey. He tries to smile. That's, um, tricky. In my experience, Indians don't understand our system of government.

14:26But they can learn. Don't we owe it to them to offer them the advantages of civilization? This was their land before it was ours. Dimmick takes a moment to answer. I'm sure there are some good, hard-working Indians out there. Capable of understanding our system of government. In which case, I'm confident we can work out a way to grant them the right to vote. Hearing this is a huge relief, and you shake the chairman's hand. You always suspected he was a good man and willing to listen to reason. But when you part ways with the chairman, he walks over to a group of delegates originally from Oregon.

15:02They are notorious for their hostility to Indians, and the chairman seems awfully friendly with them. One slaps him on the back and produces a cigar. Another tells a joke, and they all start laughing. You're left standing with a sour taste in your mouth. And it's not just the whiskey. You've got a sinking feeling that despite the chairman's reassurances, Indian voting rights could be doomed.

15:28The California Constitutional Convention began on September 1, 1849, in Monterey. Forty-eight delegates attended, including John Sutter of Sutter's Mill. A few of the delegates had Native American ancestry, or Native wives. But the notion of Native American rights, especially voting rights, was one of the most divisive issues under debate. The delegates who supported Native rights argued that Native Americans were the original inhabitants of California and therefore deserved to participate in its government. They also pointed out that other states with large Native populations, like Wisconsin, had already granted them the right to vote, so there was legal precedent.

16:07Delegates opposed to suffrage for Native Americans included Oliver Wazencraft from Ohio. He and others argued that Native people didn't understand the American system of government and were therefore unprepared to vote. The debates got heated and dragged on for so long that some delegates had to leave for other obligations. Finally, the delegates that remained agreed to vote on a constitutional amendment that would enfranchise all adult men except Indians, Africans, and the descendants of Africans. When the votes were counted, the initial tally was 20-20. Convention was deadlocked. So it fell to convention chairman Kimball Dimmick of New York to break the tie.

16:46Despite his moderate rhetoric regarding Indian rights, he voted in favor of the measure, thereby disenfranchising non-white Californians, including Native Americans. The pro-Native contingent responded by suggesting a compromise, granting voting rights to some Native Americans, but only if they owned land under American law. But the opposition rejected that idea, too. They feared that wealthy landowners like John Sutter would game the system by granting his Native workers a few acres each and then controlling their votes. Eventually, the convention did adopt one measure. The state legislature could grant voting rights to individual Native Americans, but they had to approve each potential voter one by one and then by a two-thirds majority.

17:30Although this fell short of an outright ban on Native American voting, set the bar impossibly high. In practice, Native Californians would be blocked from the polls. The delegates signed the state constitution on October 13, 1849. Voters then ratified it on November 13, setting California on the path to statehood. That same November day, voters elected California's first two U.S. senators. One was John Fremont, the soldier and explorer whose wife, Jesse had braved a harrowing journey across Panama to join him. Both Fremonts were ardent abolitionists, but their liberal views did not extend to indigenous people.

18:10John Fremont had personally led numerous expeditions into the West, where he and his men shot and killed many Indians, often on sight. And now Fremont would be representing California in the U.S. federal government. But the state government was no friendlier to Native Americans. After California became a state in 1850, its assembly passed multiple laws to curtail and suppress Native rights. In criminal trials, Native Californians were considered guilty until proven innocent, and Native people were also barred from testifying against white people in court. Laws like these sent a clear message that the basic rights of Indigenous people in California would not be protected.

18:49As a result, when conflicts over land intensified during the next few years of the gold rush, white settlers would go after native Californians with an increasing sense of impunity and ever more deadly force.

19:07I'm Alice Levine. And I'm Matt Ford. And we're the hosts of British Scandal. Yes, indeed. In this series, a Derbyshire couple are bored of their curtain-twitching, lawn-mowing suburban life. So they sell their house, build a yacht and sail off around the world. Which sort of sounds idyllic until a sperm whale sinks their boat and they begin to starve. Oh yes, and they didn't bring a radio because real sailors don't use radios. Right? This is the story of Marilyn and Maurice Bailey. And the 117 days they spent lost at sea. Follow British Scandal wherever you get your podcasts or listen early and at free on Audible.

19:53As California advanced towards statehood, white miners continued to enforce their claims on the gold fields of Northern California. Throughout late 1849, they seized more and more land from the Miwok and Nisanon people in the Sierra Nevadas, expanded into new areas, and increasingly relied on native labor to mine their claims. Among the cruelest of the white miners during this period were brothers Benjamin and Andrew Kelsey. The Kelseys owned a large ranch in Napa Valley, north of San Francisco, which they had purchased from a Mexican landholder. With the ranch came about 15 ,000 head of cattle, 2 ,500 horses, and a built-in labor force, members of the local Pomo and Wapo tribes who lived on what was now the Kelseys' property.

20:37The Kelseys brothers built fences around the Pomo and Wapo villages on their land and detained all the residents under strict nighttime curfews. By day, they worked them in slave-like conditions. Workers were paid only with meager rations and items like handkerchiefs. Rule breakers were whipped, beaten, and tortured. Andrew Kelsey also raped Pomo women, as did one of the brother's partners, an overseer named Charles Stone. Then the rush came, and in the spring of 1849, Benjamin Kelsey rounded up a hundred Pomo men and forced them to march into the goldfields to mine. When malaria broke out among the workers, Kelsey fled the goldfields, abandoning his workers.

21:17Most died, either of malaria or starvation. Back at the Kelsey's Napa Valley Ranch, the Pomo were also beginning to starve. Unable to leave their villages except to work, they couldn't visit their hunting and foraging grounds. And as winter approached, one village came up with a desperate plan. They hired two Pomo workers on the Kelsey Ranch, men named Shook and Zasis, to steal a cow for them to eat. But the two men attempted their raid during a thunderstorm. Shook's horse got spooked, threw him off, and bolted. The two young pomos searched everywhere, but the horse was not to be found. They knew the Kelseys would assume the horse had been stolen and might retaliate by torturing not only them, but any pomo they suspected of being involved.

22:02So later that night, Shook and Zasis snuck into the village that hired them and called a meeting to discuss the disaster.

22:13Imagine it's December 1849. You're a Pomo elder in a village on the Kelsey Ranch. There's a terrible thunderstorm tonight, and you're huddled around a small fire in a reed hut. Smoke makes you cough, but you stay close to the heat. You're thin from lack of food, and it's hard to keep warm otherwise. You and two other elders are waiting to hear from the two Pomo ranch workers you hired to steal a cow for your village. At last, the two ranch hands arrived, dripping wet as they enter the hut. You hand them a wooden bowl of acorn porridge to warm themselves, and you ask about the raid. Did you get the cow?

22:50One of the men, shook, shakes his head sadly. No. We failed. And it's worse than that. In a trembling voice, he explains what happened. When he's finished, you hold your head in your cold hands. Andrew Kelsey will be furious. He values the lives of those horses more than ours. I know. But I have an idea. I can say I saw a white man prowling around the stables last night. I'll claim he stole the horse. Why would Kelsey believe you? An Indian. Besides, we'll see your wet clothes and know you were out in the rain. But what if we just confessed? We could throw ourselves on his mercy, then pay him back for the horse.

23:30Pay him back with what? We can't even feed ourselves. and I don't trust Andrew Kelsey's mercy. And what do you suggest? We have to do something. You swallow hard. The idea's been building in your mind for weeks now. It seems desperate, but it might be your only chance. You take a deep breath, attempt to explain. We can't sit back and let Kelsey and his brother kill any more of us. How long before they take more of us to the goldfields? Never to return. Or keep us here and force us to starve. I think we should fight. Shuk and Zasis look at you with skepticism. So do your fellow elders. But as you outline your idea, you can see by the looks on their faces that they're coming around.