Wakinyan, I wanted to make the same point, but didn’t have the facts to back me up specifically on California tribes, nor the time to research. I’ve read, but cannot decently cite right now, that the introduction of smallpox and bubuonic plague were responsible for many tribes becoming more nomadic, as the surviving population couldn’t support itself in the manner they had become accustomed. My opinion is that this helped shaped the current image, versus the native way of life prior to Columbus’ arrival.
I appreciate that you’re addressing a widely-held myth, but you might also want to note that there were no Native American cities in California. Many tribes, such as the Miwok of the area I live in, the San Francisco Bay Area, moved seasonally. Both cultivation of crops as well as permanent settlements of more than 100-200 persons were extremely rare, if they existed at all, in central and northern California - I’m not that familiar with the natives of southern California, so it may have been different there.
There were large Native American cities in the central U.S. (Illinois), and southwest (AZ/NM), but I’m not sure how relevant their existence is to the California Gold Rush.
I agree about the notion of noble, but there were nomadic Native Americans. Obviously, the notion that nomads somehow have less right to land they live on than permanent inhabitants is ethically unsound, but let’s not muddle the fact that nomadism was a successful lifestyle in many parts of the Americas, and California.
No arguement about that.
Aside of the propaganda, I think one of the main reasons we still think of the natives as few, nomadic, “uncultivated”, is that our image is very much shaped by one hundred years of Hollywood, where only nomadic tribes are pictured; namely the prairie cultures, which in fact was a new culture (or way of life) made possible by the spanish import of horses, and not too representative for the stunningly diversity of North American civilizations (though very interesting).
The natives were driven for the lands en masse, diseases wiped entire societies from the face of earth, and the extermination or close to extermination of many species like the buffalo, of course had a apalling decimating effect. – The last memories we have of “the free indians” is, as you point out, the few starving families cuddling up by the fort wall.
wevets , I think we agree on all accounts. I know my post was a bit sweeping in my trying to get the point through; there’re all kinds of cultures, as we both know. Also, it was a bit of a hijack, not really a comment to the OP, as I stated.
I remember visiting the Mission of San Juan Batista, south of SF. In the handout at the mission museum, there was a little bit about the indians-the little cemetary attached to the mission is mostly filled by the graves of indian converts. The mission indians died off, well before the end of the missions. So most likely, western diseases did away with many of the native people. But I agree-given the Spanish greed for gold, its amazing thta the gold wasn’t discovered before Sutter built his mill.