Tanaka Pedro Essay 2

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Pedro Tanaka

Professor Finnegan

English 1A

20 January 2009

Gold Fever

The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill on January 24, 1848 unleashed the largest migration

in United States history and drew people from a dozen countries to form a multi-ethnic society on

America's fringe. The gold fired up the U.S. economy and fueled wild enterprises like the

construction of a cross-country railroad line. The promise of quick wealth altered the life

expectations of the hundreds of thousands of hardworking miners who flooded California in 1849

and the decade that followed. This was the birth of the Gold Rush era and dream, a period where

hard work and luck could reward great wealth. Described “as the most fortunate and most

significant factor in California’s history” (Rawls 111), the Gold Rush later served as foundation to

the world wide famous California dream, which depicts “California as a land of wealth,

opportunity, freedom, and progress” (Finnegan 1). In other words, California became the “Golden

State.”

Exploring a different perspective of the California Gold Rush, Clifford E. Trafzer and Joel

R. Hyer, authors of the book Exterminate Them! Written Accounts of the Murder, Rape, and

Enslavement of Native Americans during the California Gold Rush, describe the “dark” side of the

Gold Rush. According to Larry Myers, Executive Secretary of the California Native American

Heritage Commission, “California’s Gold Rush was nothing less than a time of pure, unadulterated



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genocide …” (Trafzer back cover). As the accounts in the book show, this period was marked by

racism and injustice. As the prominent writers Trafzer and Hyer point out, “[h]olocaust is an

excellent word to use to describe the terror, death, and destruction brought to Native Americans in

California during the Gold Rush” (Trafzer 1). This quote shows what really happened during the

California Gold Rush.

Bringing to light “a part of California history that we rarely, if ever, hear about” (Finnegan

1), Trafzer and Hyer revive the debate about the true importance of the Gold Rush to the

development of the state. As James J. Rawls states in The Gold Rush and Economic Development ,

“[i]t can be cogently argued, however, that in the long run the state would have been better off it

had contained no gold at all, that because of its other advantages it would eventually have become

just as populous and prosperous, and that in the meantime its social evolution would have been not

only more gradual, but also far more orderly and civilized” (Rawls 111). In other words, Rawls

believe that the Gold Rush was in fact detrimental to California. Considering the innumerous

accounts present in the book, it’s clear the paradox between the miners dreams and their actions.

For this reason, Rawls is correct that the Gold Rush brought chaos and disorder to California.

The lack of a controlling governmental democratic framework provided a perfect breeding

ground for chaos. Social institutions often crumbled under the continuous pressure. Competition

and the lack of organized legal or social structures to fomented an environment of lawlessness,

theft, fraud, and violence, that has endured as the stereotyped Wild West .For instance, since

mostly Anglos were part of the government, Californian Military Governor John Mason

determined that only foreigners who attempted to work in the mines should be treated as

trespassers. But indeed, all miners were trespassers since they had no legal right to possess or work

on any Californian land. Furthermore, Indians involved in disturbances and crimes were punished



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harshly and often were executed. When US citizens were equally involved in the quarrels with

foreigners, they did not face similar punishment because the statue “An Act for the Government

and Protection of the Indians” stated that “in no case shall a white man be convicted of any offense

upon the testimony of an Indian, or Indians” (Trafzer 141). In other words, it was common that

crimes committed by Americans were ignored by the court because there were no witnesses other

than Indians. As expected, the lines between the ethnic groups were harshly drawn and violent

encounters became common.

The miner’s greed fueled a war between Anglos and Indians. Most of the miners came to

California already imbued with hatred against Native Americans. In a climate of economic envy

and racism, the white miners expelled and killed Indian. White settlers obstructed the rivers,

harming the salmon runs through their mining. Moreover, they diminished the deer population

with their hunting, and they burst into the Native Americans most distant sanctuaries and hiding

places, expropriating Indian land and barring the natives from using it. Particularly in northern

California, more specifically in Shasta and Klamath counties, these intrusions prompted Indians to

resist the invaders. As Native Americans reacted with occasional raids in search of subsistence, as

well as a form of violence against the miners who devastated their already fragile economic base

and coerced them into forced labor, American miners responded with organized racial violence,

claiming that the natives endangered white miners and their property beyond interfering with white

activities. Concurrently to the massacres, whites raided Indian villages and kidnapped their

inhabitants to sell them to farmers and ranchers - peonage had been transformed into slavery. In

search of wealth, the miners engaged in a war that would largely destroy California Native

Americans and challenge the Gold Rush dream that brought them to California.



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The government response to the increase in tension between Anglos and Indians just

stimulated a climate of disorder and injustice. Since the federal troops didn’t performed their task

of protect routes and cities, the state government started to encourage vigilantism. Trafzer and

Hyer state, “the state of California set aside $1.5 million to reimburse volunteer militia units that

hunted down and killed so-called hostile Indian. Thus, the state of California paid men to murder

Native Californians” (Trafzer 135). In other words, the authors believe that even the government

was conspiring against the Native Americas. Moreover, in face of the increasing violence and

requests of the population, the federal government appointed three Indian commissioners to

negotiate agreements with the Natives. As Trafzer and Hyer described, “[t]hey [the

commissioners] negotiated eighteen treaties with California’s tribes, which the United States

Senate rejected. At one time, California’s tribes controlled all of the land, water, minerals, and

other resources of the region, but under the treaties of the 1850s, they would have lost most of their

state. … Even this was too much for whites in California …” (Trafzer 135-6). Trafzer and Hyer

point is that even though the Indians were willing to cooperate, the government wasn’t. Hence, the

lack of action of the authorities contributed to overwhelming chaos.

The ethnic group most persecuted in California during the gold rush years was the Native

Americans. Even though they were murdered everywhere in the United States, only on the West

Coast did this racial violence bear the traits of organized civilian campaigns financed by the State.

The greed sought by the Gold Rush dream lead to exploitation of the Indian labor force in mines,

destruction of their food supply by hunting and mining; all this, racially and economically

motivated actions of the Indian “Holocaust.” Instead of “a land of wealth, opportunity, freedom,

and progress” (Finnegan 1), California was a land of poverty, racism and oppression As expected,



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the chaos that characterized California during such a period doesn’t resemble in any way the Gold

Rush and California dreams. Therefore, Rawls claim is true.

Today, as California celebrates the pioneer history of the Gold Rush, it fails to recognize

the toxic legacy that such event left in our beloved state. Even though the forty-niners may be

gone, their mistakes and greed will haunt us forever. Unfortunately, that greed continues nowadays

through the modern exploration of gold, which still destroys Native lands for a prize that has the

deadly sheen of a poisonous fever.

Works Cited



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Finnegan, Jordana. English 1A Essay 2: Analysis and Argument.

Rawls, James J., and Walton Bean. California an interpretative History. 8 th edition. McGraw-Hill,

2003.

Trafzer, Clifford E., and Joel R. Hyer. Exterminate Them! Written Accounts of the Murder, Rape,

and Enslavement of Native Americans during the California Gold Rush. East Lansing, Michigan:

Michigan State University Press, 1999.

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