I can see you are uncomfortable with the historical record but the facts are undeniable. I gave you a definition. Is there some other definition you are thinking of? Conflict where a loss to one side is intended, is almost always harmful to one side and usually to both, while in war the type of losses are helloushly brutal and inhumane. At the same time there is a clear difference in being victorious in war and genocide. We were victorious over the Germans, Japanese, the Confederacy, the British, the Spanish. We were also victorious over American Indian tribes but there is a diffence when victory involves extermination, intent to exterminate, war crimes intended as a "final solution" etc. In 1851 near the end of American conflicts with Indians, we can interpret governor McDougall's comment as a generally held disposition among American leaders and the common folk alike. California governor John McDougall told the California legislature:
“That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races until the Indian race becomes extinct, must be expected... the inevitable destiny of the race is beyond the power or wisdom of man to avert.” nativeamericannetroots.net
Life had become a living hell for the native peoples. And it became geocide when the popular press proclaimed, as the Yreka Herald of 1853 did:
We hope that the Government will render such aid as will enable the citizens of the north to carry on a war of extermination until the last redskin of these tribes has been killed. Extermination is no longer a question of time -- the time has arrived, the work has commenced, and let the first man that says treaty or peace be regarded as a traitor.
cabrillo.edu
California Sherrif in the 1850's. “The captain was always entitled to the scalps. At one time Good had forty hanging in the poplar tree by his house.” (Sim Moak, injun-killer) Captain Good liked to stroll through town with strings of Yana and Yahi scalps fastened at his belt and ankles of both legs instead of buckskin tassles. It became quite fashionable for the other men to imitate Captain Good.
angelfire.com
All across California, groups of anglo males formed "volunteer armies" and would periodically swept down on peaceful Indian villages, indiscrimately killing women, men, and children. In 1853 in northern California a group of citizens from Crescent City formed one of these "companies" and dressed like soldiers they surrounded the Tolowa village of Yontoket. Here, at the center of the religious and political world of the Tolowa people, some 450 Tolowa had gathered to pray to a universal spirit for beauty and order &to thank God for life. Suddenly the anglos attacked - a Tolowa man tells the story, years later:
The whites attacked and the bullets were everywhere. Over four hundred and fifty of our people were murdered or lay dying on the ground. Then the whitemen built a huge fire and threw in our sacred ceremonial dresses, the regalia, and our feathers, and the flames grew higher. Then they threw in the babies, many of them were still alive. Some tied weights around the necks of the dead and threw them into the nearby water.
Two men escaped, they had been in the Sacred Sweathouse and crept down to the water's edge and hid under the Lily Pads, breathing through the reeds. The next morning they found the water red with blood of their people.
The following year, the Tolowas were attacked again with hundreds of Indians murdered, all for the "crime" of taking a horse! According to one anglo account:
... the Indians of the area and the whites were involved in a good deal of trouble. One of the Indians had stolen a horse belonging to a white man.
This was too much for the white people who forgot about their sale of liquor to the Indians, the fact that whites had taken the Indian women for immoral purposes, had beaten the Indians whenever it suited them, and had squattered and seized the Indian's land and game. The Indians had to be punished for the taking of this one horse, and the whites organized a party armed with guns. The group went ... and hid in the brush surrounding the village....
As the Indians, men, women and children, came from their homes, they were shot down as fast as the whites could reload their guns. The Indians were unable to defend themselves as the attackers were hidden in the brush. A few of the Indians who survived the massacre at the village ran toward Lake Earl and plunged into the water. The angered whites followed, shooting at every head that appeared above water, so fierce was their determination to exterminate the entire village as a lesson to other Indians in the area.
The nature of some of the larger operations against the Indians is illustrated well by the Clear Lake Massacre of 1849. It began when two white men were killed by local Pomo. These two men had been brutally exploiting the local Indians, enslaving and abusing them, and sexually assaulting Indian women. The response from the whites was a massive military campaign, characterized by savagery and brutality on the part of the whites.
... many women and children were killed around this island. One old lady ... saw two white men coming with their guns up in the air and on their guns hung a little girl, they brought it to the creek and threw it in the water ... two more men came ... this time they had a little boy on the end of their guns and also threw it in the water. A little ways from her ... two white men stabbed the woman and the baby ... all the little ones were killed by being stabbed, and many of the women also.
The army reported that by the time the masssacre was over more than 400 Pomo had been killed, most of them women and children.
It shouldn't be assumed that all such acts were condoned. The San Francisco Bulletin in 1861 noted:
G.H. Woodman, of Mendocino, states in a letter to the San Francisco Herald, that the Indians there commenced killing stock on September 20, and have killed four hundred head, and have murdered three white men and adds: "If we do not have assistance--immediately, we shall be compelled to move our families and stock out of this valley."
Well, if their whole stock shall be killed and their families driven out of their homes, they would have none but themselves to blame; and it would be but partial justice and punishment to them for the inhuman murders they have committed upon the Indians there. They themselves have been the foulest murderers, or have permitted the murder of unoffending Indians, without raising a word of objection; yet they now whine and call upon others for assistance, but because a few of their cattle have been killed, and their own necks are in danger.
Men who have behaved as they have towards the Indians deserve no protection.
Yet the official position of both the state and federal governments was such that they exuded an air of fatalism which could be interepreted as tacit approval of the killing of Indians. California's governor in 1851, Peter Burnett, stated:
... that a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the two races until the Indian race becomes extinct, must be expected. While we cannot anticipate the result with but painful regret, the inevitable destiny of the race is beyond the power and wisdom of man to avert.
What makes all of this really disturbing is that such wanton killing was subsidized by both the State and Federal governments. Almost any white could raise a volunteer company, outfit it with guns, ammunition, horses and supplies and be assured that the government would reimburse all costs. In 1851 &1852, the California legislature passed several Acts authorizing payment of over $1.1 million to reimburse citizens for "private military forarys." And again, in 1857, the State authorized an additional $410,000 for the same purposes. And the U.S. Congress reimbursed the state for what was nothing less than SUBSIDIZED MURDER and GENOCIDE. As if that was enough, in 1854, Commissioner of Indian Affairs in California, T.J. Henly, porposed to the federal government that all California Indians be hauled off to a reservation east of the Sierra Nevada mountains in order to "rid the state of this class of population."
Indians often were blamed for crimes they did not commit. For example, in 1849, five white miners were discovered missing from their camp &other miners assumed, with no evidence, that Indians were responsible. They formed a "company" and attacked an Indian village, killing 20 Indians and capturing 80 more. When the Indians tried to escape, all 80 were shot. It was later learned the missing miners had simply gotten drunk and wandered off.
In some regions of the state, the removal of Indians was encouraged by paying bounty hunters for Indian scalps. California newspapers documented many of the atrocities. One headline in 1860 read: "Indiscriminate massacre of Indians - Women and Children butchered." Then followed details of the slaughter of Indians living on an island in Humboldt Bay: "With hatchets, axes, &guns 188 peaceful Indians were killed." The Humboldt Times carried more typical headlines:
- Good Haul of Diggers
- 39 Bucks Killed
- 40 Squaws &Children Taken
- Band Exterminated
We see genocidal intent in 1866 in a letter from General Sherman to President Grant:
“We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women and children.” nativeamericannetroots.net
Following an attack on a friendly Shoshone camp in which 18 Indians, including six women and children, were killed, a letter to the Idaho Statesman said:
“We long to see this vile race exterminated. Every man who kills an Indian is a public benefactor.”
President Thomas Jefferson, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, December 29, 1813
“This unfortunate race, whom we had been taking so much pains to save and to civilize, have by their unexpected desertion and ferocious barbarities justified extermination and now await our decision on their fate.”
Orders of George Washington to General John Sullivan, May 31, 1779
“The immediate objectives are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible. It will be essential to ruin their crops in the ground and prevent their planting more.” |
