Kumeyaay - California Genocide
By : Mike Connolly
Campo Tribe
Prior to the Mexican-American War, United States visitors criticized the exploitation of Indian people (in the areas of Mexican control) as being cruel and inhuman. It was seen as providing a moral basis for the incorporation of California into the United States. After the war, criticism was muted as the Americans expanded and transformed the Mexican exploitation far beyond anything envisioned by the Mexicans.
August 7, 1853, Yreka Herald said:
"Now that the general hostilities against the Indians have commenced 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."
In 1856, Thomas J. Henley, the superintendent of California Indian Affairs, claimed evidence of hundreds of Indians being stolen from their homes and sold into servitude. Militias at the forefront of the government sanctioned the murder of Indians in California. Typically attacking at night, the militias would murder men, women and children. William Kibbe, the leader of a volunteer company in the Humbolt area, claimed his men had killed over 200 Indians to open up land for immigration.
Local, State and Federal governments supported the genocide of California Indians. City governments paid bounties on heads or scalps of Indians. Volunteer militias received reimbursement from the State treasury for their expenses in Indian extermination. Furthermore, the Federal government would often reimburse the State for much of the claims against the treasury by militias.
In 1861, George Hanson, superintendent for Indian Affairs for the northern district of California reported organized gangs were kidnapping Indians and selling them into slavery. The mountain Sh’mulqs of the Kumeyaay escaped the worst of the murder and destruction because of the isolation of mountain strongholds, the lack of gold and the proximity of the Mexican border for refuge. Despite their own exploitation of the Indian population, many Mexicans were horrified at the treatment of Indians in California by the Americans.
Mexican officials threatened to cross the border with armed men if the Americans were committing atrocities and, in fact, did cross on occasion to investigate reports. Although no armed clashes were reported, it is certain that the threat of intervention by the Mexicans was an additional factor that helped protect the mountain Sh’mulqs of San Diego County. In 1845 the California Indians population is estimated to have been 150,000. In 1848, Indians in California outnumbered whites by ten to one. By 1855, the population had dropped to 50,000. By 1900 less than 16,000 survived.
During the 1850's, the mountain Sh’mulqs were generally protected by their isolation from the atrocities of the coastal areas. A Kumeyaay trail from Hauser Creek through Jacumba and to the desert was followed by Captain Nathaniel Lyon in 1851. In 1853, an Army pack-train base had been established near Jacumba. This route was used in 1854 for a military mail service. The San Diego to Yuma stage was established in the late 1860s through Campo and Jacumba.
The first big influx of white settlers occurred at the close of the civil war (1861-1864). So many were from Texas that the area got the nickname of "New Texas". (Some had suffered personal losses at the hands of Comanche raids in Texas, and brought with them a hatred for all Indians). The population of Kumeyaay in the Campo-Jacumba area was still many times the white population. While there were many incidents of violence between the Kumeyaay and white settlers, the settlers were wary of provoking a wholesale assault.
The Kumeyaay, on the other hand, worked hard to police their own people and prevent incidents. The loss of the best water supplies and most fertile land gradually took its toll, along with smallpox plagues during the 1860’s. Many Kumeyaay people adapted to the influx of settlers by becoming laborers for the ranches. Others maintained their villages on the fringes of San Diego, providing a labor force for fishing, whaling, construction and domestic trades.