My life has been going so good that I should be ashamed of myself. The store is doing extremely well. Janis is healthy and happy (It's really scary when she is not upset about something.)
My 90 year old mother finally got herself some new hearing aids. She can hear fairly good now, as long as there is not too much background noise. The doctor blocked the volume knob so she can't turn them down or off. The Doctor wants to get her used to being able to hear again. I think that the doctor must have a pretty good understanding of how older people act. For instance, my mother will read a book in the dark before she will turn a light on. "Oh, I can see good enough". Stubborn!
My cousin Karen is writing a history book with pictures. Basically it's about the sawmill camps and the kids that lived there. She is printing the recollection of the people involved. She wants me to do an "Ernie Chapter". I'm am honored, but none the less overwhelmed. I am hoping that when she gets it done she will do a book signing at our store. Wunt that be spiffy?
Anyway, just wanted to keep the doors open here and I enjoy all of your comments. Please feel free to talk about anything... Oh, by the why, I still have that really great post waiting in the wings. I just need to find some more history on it. If I fail, I am going to post it anyway, with hopes that some of you out there can fill in the blanks for me.
The photo above was added just to increase intrigue. Were you intregued? It is a muchroom growing at the base of a plum tree. "Oregon" will appreciate this, he loves mushrooms.
I put some comments in the "Gypo" post below.
Earnestly yours,
Ernest
shesAlihi ernie, my cousin karen gave me penny's book through the eyes of the elders. it looks pretty good. i found a story about my 2g js kauble when he was justice of the peace, he acquitted a man jack farley and a few other ranchers accused of rustling. when he gave him his guns back, he went after them and he was shot in self defense. james baugh was the man who was shot. his great great grand daughter didn't know that her ancestor was found not guilty because not all of the story was told locally. but i found the rest of it from a sacramento paper. i think her dads family was the sniders. anyway, lets see if this posts before i write anymore
ReplyDeletewell, so far so good. i found out from river that the local indians were experiencing the ghost dance in 1872, the year of john kauble's death. the indians had stopped working and thought the end of the world would happen in may or august. the big head dance was what they did in laytonville. indians were coming from all over the mountains scaring the white people so they had the army remove 400 of them to round valley reservation that year. another 600 came from potter's valley. so it was a pretty eventful and strange year. glad to hear that your family is well.
ReplyDeleteWhew! Another close one. I was just about ready to post another one of my notorious "Time to roll up this blog and shut 'er down..." comments.
ReplyDeleteGood to see Spyrock around again!!!
ReplyDeletethe indians had stopped working and thought the end of the world would happen in may or august. the big head dance was what they did in laytonville. indians were coming from all over the mountains scaring the white people so they had the army remove 400 of them to round valley reservation that year. another 600 came from potter's valley.
ReplyDelete-they were right, the world pretty much did end for them.
hi susy and ross, good to see you around too. i'm trying to connect with a janice c nelson who wrote an e book about her life in laytonville. her father was a snider and their family lived off of dos rios road on 640 acres. her mothers grandfather was james baugh who was accused of cattle stealing and wound up being shot. she doesn't seem to realize that he was acquitted of cattle stealing by my great great grandfather j s kauble who was justice of the peace. basically, because back then there were no fences and cattle went pretty much where the grass was greenest. ranchers kept track of their cattle by branding them. and branding is still a big ceremony for ranchers these days. baugh got mad because he was accused of stealing cattle that wandered onto his land and he was willing to stand up to jack farley and his buddies. and when he got his gun back, that's exactly what he did and he got shot for it. so it was self defense.
ReplyDeleteif you read genocide and vendetta, accusing someone of cattle stealing was a very common thing for george white via wylackie john to do. this gave them the self proclaimed right to chase someone off their land or homestead and shoot them if it came to that. then the grazing land would be available for their cattle again. my uncle delbert used to laugh about this because no one really understood that it was common practice for someone to brand a calf of one of these strays who wandered on to someone else's range. that was the underlying motivation for someone to accuse someone because the brand meant ownership. so janice c nelson should know that her great great grandfather wasn't a cattle rustler but very brave and maybe just was being a man.
"Maybe there was a different Bloody Run massacre?My Great Grand father was a Little Lake pomo from Willits who was escorted to Round Valley Indian Reservation here in Covelo.
ReplyDeleteHe said he was driven here with other Little Lake Pomo males like livestock by well armed White men. The second group that comprised of elder men, women, mothers with babies, children were were being driven to RVIR. In their words the armed white men told them to take a break where Bloody Run creek runs into the other main creek. Then the armed men started killing the Indians. This went on from afternoon until dark. Some women had managed to run and hide while the White men were killing the old people and small children with clubs and knives. My Grand mother told us the story from her Fathers story as was told to him by the few survivors who were later driven to Round Valley/Covelo."
A Native man shared this story of a second Bloody Run massacre online and recently a different family line from Round Valley shared an even more graphic version as passed on by a survivor.
This second Bloody Run massacre occured in the late spring of 1872, as the removal of the Little Lakes and different tribes was documented.
From Lynette's blog: " In 1870 a “Ghost Dance” movement went through NW California. A Pomo version came to Willits around 1871-2. Northern Pomo John Smith (Potter Valley) recounted: “The Willits Indians had gotten together and were dancing all the time….The white people were frightened by this and and sent all the Indians from around Willits to Round Valley” (1)
Nancy McCoy recalled that “The Indians from Sherwood, Fort Bragg, Juan Creek (near Union Landing, Coast Yuki) and Usal (Sinkyone) all came together at Willits. They said if they did not come together they would be lost.” Nancy goes on to describe the belief that the world was to end, and how preparations for returned deceased relatives were to be made. “At first they built a brush house in Willits. Then they were to build a deep sweathouse underground, but they never finished it. The whites around Willits were afraid when the Indians gathered together.”(2)
The 1872 Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs states:
“Last May [1872]…a majority of the citizens of Little Lake Valley, in this county, having decided that the presence of Indians was a detriment to their community, forcibly brought here [Round Valley Reservation] 309 Indians, part from Little Lake and part from the coast. About this time a large number of the citizens of Potter Valley, also in this county, petitioned for the removal of the Indians in their neighborhood…. [With no force or extraordinary persuasion] 685 Indians from Potter, Coyote, Walker, and Redwood Valleys gathered together, and came to the reservation. A few straggling parties, coming in swelled the number of arriveals to something over 1000. Some of these remained but a short time.”
The oral tradition of the massacre at Bloody Run would make sense of the 685 Natives who came in “With no force or extraordinary persuasion”, as the news would no doubt have traveled fast in Native circles. Many Pomo trickled back to their homes, in some cases ranchers who had missed their cheap labor, induced Natives to leave Round Valley reservation to come to small parcels of land donated for rancherias in the Ukiah Valley.
Few enough have heard of the forced marches and many trails of tears as the indigenous people were rounded up and taken to the reservations at Round Valley and Mendocino during the first half of the 1860′s. But history has passed over the 1000+ Pomo who left their homes due to fear from the whites, some even slaughtered en route."
some of this story is from the "the 1870 ghost dance" by cora du bois originally published in berkely, ca in 1939. it tells about the movement of the ghost dance throughout northern california and how the different tribes reacted to it. cora doesn't mention anything controversial about people being killed on the way to round valley but she does back up this story that over 1000 indians were taken to the reservation in the spring of 1872. however, she does say that the kato indians in laytonville didn't believe that the world was going to end because nagaitco who was 15 to 16 feet tall told them it wasn't. there were only two white men in the area who both came to watch the people dance. it wasn't an anti-white thing with the kato because there were so few of them in the area at that time. someone had told them earlier that a flood was coming and the world was ending so they all went up kato mountain for four days and when they came back old man doctor and the other elders didn't think it was the end of the world so they sent out people to look for nagaitco who was like a "god" to them. john kauble's land was where the laytonville cemetery is and the little lake across the road right by the red fox casino so he might have been one of the white men that saw the dance. his position as justice of the peace, coroner, and his wife being a well known mid-wife makes me think that they were on good terms with the kato and that it would probably upset him if he saw indians, especially women and children being killed on the way to the reservation. they say his wife died two months later of a broken heart. maybe he died of a broken heart as well. so you have maybe bigfoot telling the kato its not the end of the world up in laytonville.
ReplyDeletei like the story about the 4000 indians that went to kelsey creek for their ghost dance. i spent a summer back in the early 70's swimming in kelsey creek.
it's a great book to read about northern california indians and i highly recommend it. maybe someone will show up and tell us more about bloody run 2.
Thanks spy.
ReplyDeleteI hope you do that Ernie chapter Ernie! Sorry not to acknowledge your genial return to the blogosphere before launching into the Bloody Run 2 story.
The footnotes for the above Bloody Run comment--
(1) The 1870 Ghost Dance, Cora Du Bois pg 202
(2) ibid. pg 208
i saw the lincoln movie earlier the year and it really lays down the correct context for the times. i don't think that there is any way someone can judge what happened back in the 1850's by the standards we say we have today. and i'm not here to judge anyone and i don't really have an agenda about it either. i have found out that i am related to practically everyone who lived during that time including the indians. so i look at the past in the light of all my relations. i'm just here to learn the story of my ancestors and to tell it without judgement. some of it is going to be what i think happened when i finally decide to write a story about it. i trust that whatever shows up in words is ok with the ancestors.
ReplyDeleteWhat this "mustn't judge the past" viewpoint is missing is the fact that there were plenty of people in those days judging the behavior of the 1st wave of settlers in the 1850's-60's. It was a brutal lawless time and many saw the genocidal murder of the Native people and the wanton rape of their women and the sale of the children as horrible and worthy of severe judgement. And those judgements show up in the newspaper articles in the cities, the military reports, depositions under oath...repeatedly. I reserve the right to judge away as the people of that time era did as well. Just as I judge the lawless brutality of this time era and modern warfare. Men killing each other is usually wrong, no matter what time era, whether it is Native baby's head being smashed on a tree or a Muslim wedding party of innocents killed by a drone. Killing and genocidal practices are wrong in almost all eras.
ReplyDeleteIn our area white men invaded other people's land, stole it, ruined Native food supplies and got huffy when Native people fought back or killed to eat. Reminds me of our Middle East policies...kick a hornet's nest and then complain about the result.
For the record, in the Mattole and Shelter Cove areas in the 1850's-60's there were about 6 whitemen killed; in Long Valley/Cahto, none; in Sohum, one (Hickox around 1867); Round Valley had half a dozen killed in this time frame; and Leggett, one whiteman killed. At least half of these killings, and most non-lethal attacks, were because of whitemen taking Native women or befriending/collaborating with slavers. As you know thousands of Native people in Northern Mendocino/Sohum were killed outright, in forced marches, through disease and starvation, rounded up like cattle and generally treated as less than human. The Native families I know of haven't forgotten.
I find it fascinating, but not surprising, when the facts of massacres and murders are reported on this site, the choir of we mustn't judge the past sings out its defensive refrain. The fact remains that we genocided the Indians away so we could take the land the way powerful people take whatever they want in any time era.
Rampant racist views, the Manifest Destiny ego tripping mindset of the culture, and a bunch of thugs with superior weaponry taking the land, the women and the slaves are the dominant history of this time era.
Most settlers who came along later were horrified, as they should have been, and the accounts of the 1870's and '80's are replete with regret and sorrow for the genocide that occurred.
As most of us are too.
I only vaguely recall the story on the second 1872 Bloody Run Massacre.
ReplyDeleteI think that I thought that it might have been the same one only the dates were confused.
Thanks Spy and River.
so i am content to let the judging fall to others. i only have fond memories of the people of older generations i knew here back in the early 50's and up until recently when the last of them died. i have a hard time finding people like them these days. people that are down to earth, who expect you to stay for dinner and who look for the good in you instead of the bad. like everyone else, i wasn't taught real california history. thanks to river, ernie, and others, i have learned a great deal about it just from this blog. so keep this stuff coming. maybe someday i will find out how john kauble, my great great grandfather died. maybe it was the indians that killed him, maybe it was the white slavers. maybe it was because he was a judge.
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/1pX6FBSUyQI
ReplyDeletethis is a link to the dakota 38 movie. if it doesn't work just look for the movie on utube. lincoln ordered this mass hanging. actually, they were going to hang a lot more people, it's still one of the biggest mass executions in us history. a friend of mine went on this ride last year. it's all about healing.
i've read about people who have put a curse on all the descendants of the pioneers. as river says, there are still a lot of indians out there who hate the white man. and as one of these white descendants, i have thought a great deal about this subject over the years. and i have come to the conclusion that, it's important for everyone to become acquainted with true indian religion or spirituality. because that understanding will reconnect us with the earth that we are quickly destroying. i think a lot of the descendants of those who had first contact with the indians understand this already. we have more in common with the indians than those who came later. but because of hatred and because practicing indian religion was against the law until only recently, very little of this teaching is out there. this is the teaching, i am searching for and waiting for. waiting for people to get educated about what really happened. waiting for people to get over their hate and judgement no matter how right they think they are about it. i am waiting for each person in the circle of life to have their say sorta like passing a peace pipe. i am waiting for us to remember future generations when we make decisions because the ancestors have come to us and reminded us of these things. we had the same kind of killing up in northern california when chief lassik and his men were executed. these stories from people like lucy young who was there are important. so the dakota 38 is the wylackie 38. same thing. i have spoken.
This is fantastic!
ReplyDelete