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Pouring the Culture: Ed Palmer (Choctaw/Lakota), illustrates in this painting how massacres often took place during ceremonies, when the people were most vulnerable. The white deer skin and red woodpecker scalps are used in World Renewal Ceremonies. 94% of California Indian people were killed by the end of the Gold Rush era due to disease and genocide. Palmer dedicates this piece to his grandfather, " who stood unmoving in the face of hatred and prejudice." copyright Ed Palmer 1999 $1,000,000 (2) Post Order No. 24 Fort Gaston Cal. June 26, 1863 All Indians found south of the trail usually traveled by mules from Martins Ferry on Klamath River to the mouth of William Crick, on Trinity by way of milk ranch and up the south side of Trinity will be shot on sight. By Order of George W. Ousley, Capt. Company "B" Commanding Post Excerpt from the Hoopa Valley paper Common Sense (3) "Your correspondent also labors under a mistake in representing the late killing of some 40 Indians at the Upper Crossing as occurring in a 'fight.' It was a cold-blooded, unprovoked massacre. An Indian, sometime in the early part of March, had been shot by a white man at Happy Camp. The Indians on the rivers above were exasperated, and perhaps threatened retaliation. At all events, some miners were alarmed, raised a party, surrounded the Rancheria at the Ferry, and killed every man and some women; then proceeding up the river 2 miles, surrounded another village and killed every man but one, who escaped wounded, making a total of some 30 or 40 killed. All accounts agree in stating that the attack was wholly unlooked for by the Indians, who from the date of the treaty at Scott's Valley in November, had been perfectly quiet and inoffensive....No single case of murder or other outrage upon the whites can be traced to any of these tribes. Where difficulties have existed, the whites have been the aggressors. This statement may be denied, but it cannot be disproved. I wish for the credit of the whites that the facts were different." Very Respectfully, R. McKee. Alta California, May 21, 1852 (1d) |
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