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California History and Native California Acorn Use:
Historical Documents
and Abstracts
PDF version of Abstracts
This page offers a descriptive list of some primary
source historical documents that teachers and students can read, download, or
print in order to learn more about some of the many events, policies and laws
in California History that have impacted Native Californians’ acorn use from
1850 to today. An abstract noting the cultural and historical significance of
the selected documents is offered beneath each link.
1. March
1850. California State Legislature,
Senate Bill No. 54 entitled An Act Relative to the Protection, Punishment
and Government of Indians. California Secretary of State, California State Archives, Original Bill File
Chapter 133, Location: E6553, Box
1.
John Bidwell, a member of the
first party of American emigrants to travel overland to California in 1841 (Bidwell-Bartleson
Party), authored this document. In Bidwell’s absence, and at his request, the first
President pro Tempore of the Senate, Ephraim Chamberlin
introduced the bill for consideration on March 16, 1850. Bidwell’s
proposal created a system of Justices of the Peace for Indians (elected by
the Indians) to decide issues about land possession, various disputes between
whites and Indians (and related punishments), and white custody and control
of Indian minors. The bill explicitly
permitted Indians and their descendents to reside at their “village sites
where they…lived from time immemorial.”
The bill continued to recognize the Indians’ rights to hunt, fish and gather seeds and acorns. The bill met the fate of being indefinitely
postponed, and died in Senate chambers on March 30, 1850. (Here is a  transcribed
version of the hand-written bill, document no. 1, above.)
2. April 22,
1850. An Act for the Government and
Protection of Indians. Chapter 133, 1850 Statues of California.
This law was originally introduced as Assembly Bill No.
129, authored by Elam Brown, a delegate to the California Constitutional
Convention of 1849 and elected to represent San Jose in the Assembly. While the final law resembles concepts in
John Bidwell’s bill, significant provisions were
left out of the version that Governor Peter Burnett signed, including the
continued right to gather acorns.
Additional sources:
Ignoffo, Mary Jo. Gold Rush Politics: California’s First Legislature. (Sacramento: California State Senate,
1999).
Johnston-Dodds, Kimberly. Early California
Laws and Policies Related to California
Indians. (Sacramento:
California
Research Bureau, September 2002). http://www.library.ca.gov/crb/02/14/02-014.pdf
3. Treaty “N” - Treaty of Camp Barbour signed April
29, 1851. Printed in Indian
Tribes of California, Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on
Indian Affairs, House of Representatives, March 23, 1920. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing
Office, 1920).
On page 12 of this document you will find Treaty N, the
second of the 18 treaties negotiated between United States Indian
Commissioners/Agents, and California Indians from the period of March 1851 to
January 1852. Around 500 Indians and
their leaders convened along the San
Joaquin River
to negotiate with the federal representatives, O.M. Wozencraft,
Redick McKee and George W. Barbour. The Treaty of Camp Barbour is the only
treaty specifically recognizing that the signatory tribes at all times could
hunt and gather acorns in valley lands up to the foot of the Sierra Nevada
mountains. In June 1852, the U.S.
Senate rejected ratifying this treaty, along with the 17 other California treaties.
While the federal Indian commissioners attempted to
negotiate this treaty, contemporary eyewitness accounts of militia personnel
describe how the state sanctioned Mariposa Battalion intentionally destroyed
acorn caches and oaks in order to starve the Indians into agreeing to sign
the treaty and move from their ancestral lands. See Lafayette Houghton Bunnell,
Discovery of the Yosemite, and the Indian War of 1851 Which Let to That
Event, originally published in 1880, 4th ed.(1911) reprinted
by the Yosemite Association in 1990, pps. 73-86.
4. March 21,
1906. Report of the Special Agent for
California Indians to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Printed in Indian Tribes of California, Hearings before a Subcommittee
of the Committee on Indian Affairs, House of Representatives, March 23, 1920.
(Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1920).
The report, authored by C.E. Kelsey, California Special
Agent provides an historical overview of policies that impacted California
Indians, and the results of his survey of the status of California Indians
throughout the state from August 1905 to March 1906. At the time, Kelsey estimated that acorns
and other nuts constituted approximately one-third of the nutritional food
source for the Indians. He also
describes how fencing for cattle grazing, and acorns
as hog feed competed with California Indians’ access to and use of acorn
resources.
5. September-October
1906. “An Acorn Store-house of the California
Woodpecker,” by Walter
K. Fisher, The Condor, A Magazine of Ornithology vol. VIII, no. 5. (Article) http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Condor/files/issues/v008n05/p0107-p0107.pdf
(Photo)
http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Condor/files/issues/v008n05/p0106-p0106.pdf
This one page article describes how the acorn or California woodpecker stores acorns in the bark of the California live
oak. The giant oak tree in the
photograph stood in front of the residence of David Starr Jordan, in Palo Alto, California. In addition to being President of Stanford
University, a noted scientist, and peace activist, Starr Jordan also
supported the efforts of early 20th century Indian reform
movements and organizations such as the Indian Rights Association and
Northern California Indian Association.
These associations, assimiliationist in
their strategies and policy advocacy, lobbied Congress and federal government
officials to provide relief for the homeless Indians in Northern
California.
6. July/August 1937. “The Tan
Oak, Friend of the Hoopa Valley Indians: Shall We
Destroy It?” by Leonard B. Radtke, Forest
Supervisor, U.S.
Indian Service, Office of Indian Affairs, Indians At Work: News Sheet for
Indians and the Indian Service. (Washington,
D.C.: Office of Indian
Affairs).
The author describes the continuing importance of the
acorn culturally, nutritionally, and economically. The Hupa used
acorns as feed for hogs, cattle and chickens.
The article provides statistics from the time period of
publication. It also describes how the
tan bark industry (tannin for leather tanning) destroys tan oaks and
adversely impacts the Indians. The
author makes a point that “to this very day the Hoopa
hold an acorn festival, generally in the early part of October.” John Collier, appointed Commissioner of Indian
Affairs by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, created the biweekly Indians
At Work: News Sheet for Indians and the Indian Service. The publication
commenced on August 1, 1933 and ran until 1945. Articles initially focused on American
Indian participation in Civilian Conservation Corps projects such as soil
erosion and forest fire control. Later
the magazine published articles from anthropologists, lawyers,
conservationists and Indians Service personnel on a wide range of topics
related to American Indian life.
7. January 1940. “Indian, Aged 111 Years, Tells His
Experiences.” Office of Indian Affairs, Indians
At Work: News Sheet for Indians and the Indian Service. (Washington, D.C.:
Office of Indian Affairs).
A Hupa elder born in 1828
(called Indian Ned by author of the article) gives eyewitness reminiscences
about how in 1843 northwestern California Indians provided acorns and other
Indian food to a white party that was shipwrecked off Trinidad traveling to Oregon.
8. September 1939.
Proclamation by Governor of California.
In 1939, Governor Culbert
Olson designated October 1st as California Indian Day. This is an early example of a proclamation
that called “upon citizens throughout the State of California to give thought and
consideration to the past, present and future of the American Indian, and to
hold appropriate ceremonies in observance thereof.”
9. August/September 1949. “Indian
Day to Be Observed.” The Smoke Signal of the Federated Indians
of California, (Vol. VIII,
No. 11).
In Sacramento
in 1949, California Indians prepared to celebrate Indian Day on September 24th,
and as the article states: “What’s an Indian celebration without acorn
soup?” The Federated Indians of
California (FIC), a pan-Indian organization founded in 1946 published the
newspaper, The Smoke Signal. Marie
Potts (Mountain Maidu) was the newspaper’s editor
and the organization’s publicity agent.
The members of the FIC joined together in order to press their land
claims case against the federal government before the Indian Claims
Commission, also created in 1946.
10. Governors’
Proclamations – 1968 to 2004.
Reagan 1968; Brown, Jr. 1982; Deukmejian
1985; Wilson 1996;
Davis 1999; Schwarzenegger
2004
Every governor, from Ronald Reagan in 1968 to Arnold
Schwarzenegger in 2004, has issued a proclamation annually recognizing or
observing California Indian Day. In
more recent times the day has been designated Native American Day. In California,
the day set aside for celebration usually falls during the last week of
September or first part of October, when acorn harvesting, gathering, and
processing activities and related ceremonies traditionally begin.
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