The Gold Rush Carved Itself on Psyches- The legacy of the Gold Rush created oppressive life conditions within Native communities. Perhaps the most disruptive force in Native life was the U.S. legal system. The Allotment Act of 1887 broke up community strength by spreading families and tribes onto different pieces of land. In 1902 the Indian Religious Crime Code banned all forms of indigenous religion. The White Deerskin Dance, Boat Dance, Jump Dance and all Brush Dances could no longer be held. Indians were not granted U.S. citizenship until 1924. The psychology developed by European-American males denied the symptoms of post-traumatic-stress disorder in Native people. Religious groups, among them Christians and Catholics, continued to aggressively 'convert' Native people by invading their homelands and denouncing their traditional way of life. This still happens today. Alcohol was introduced and peddled to Indians by miners, and the effects have been devastating to Native families. Indian children were often taken from their homes by non-Native social workers and adopted to non-Native families in an effort to assimilate them into mainstream America. The political forces of the federal government and the state of California are often pitted against small groups of Indian people fighting for cultural survival and a way of life. Derogatory stereotypes of California Indian people were started with the miners. In an effort to dehumanize indigenous people, miners labeled them with horrible terms. Savages, devils, bucks, squaws, braves, diggers, pests, vermin, redskins-some of these terms are still used today by sports teams and the media, furthering misconceptions about the original inhabitants of this land.
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