California Gold Rush Research Paper

The admittance of California as a territory to the United States of America had a tremendous effect on the aborignals bands living in the newly claimed land. Already suffering from the strife caused by the two previous colonizing nations which held control over them for the previous seventy-two years, the natives of California were subjected to disease, stravation and violent campaigns by American settlers intent on exterminating entire native populations through the use of fire and steel. The gold rush in 1848 was the impetus which propelled this narrative into reality. With the thousands upon thousands of new immigrants coming from all over the world looking for gold the destruction of California's natural resources was inevitiable. Salmon
runs blocked by mining operations, the competition for wild game with immigrants, and an unusually dry couple years leading to the scarcity of acorns (a very important source of protien for native californians) all played a part in ensuring the starvation of thousands. The state government in California was wholly implicit in these crimes. By passing laws similar to the Black Codes of the future south's, California's legistlature made Native Americans effective non-persons, with no rights to legal, political, social or economic position within the state of California (Trafzer & Hyer 1999:19) making them unable to seek legal redress for themselves or any of the victims of this mass genocide. When James Marshall found gold buried in the river bed in the Sacramento River in Coloma in 1948 the fate of native californians was sealed.
The world rushed into the quiet town of Yuerba Buena turning it into the modern San Fransisco and in the process becoming the center of trade and population in the west. California has historically been a sparsely populated area. In 1848 there was around 157,000 people in the territory of California. This population was comprised of over 150,000 Native Californian Indians, 6,500 Californios (people of spanish descent) and just 800 Americans[SOURCE]. With the discovery of gold, the poulation of the territory exploded with growth. A year and half later the non-native populations of Americans and foriegners rose to more than 100,000 from that 800 and kept on rising. By the 1850's there was over 300,000 newly arrived Americans and immigrants in California, one in every 90 people living in the united states at the time [SOURCE]. This explosion in population and the resulting economic growth quickly moved California to statehood. In just two years, 1848 to 1850, California went from an empty paradise to the center of power and population in the
west. In addition, it wasn't just Ameriacns that made the trek across the continent to fulfill their dreams of riches. By 1850 over 25 percent of California's population had been born outside the United States. Many of the first immigrants arrived from Asia and South America. Over 25,000 immigrants alone arrived from China, hearing rumors of a mountian of gold across the ocean which was ripe for the picking. This influx of foriegners into Calfornia, now firmly an American state, caused a massive rise in xenophobic attitudes, especially when the precious metal began to become scarce. This lead to the passage of the 1850 Foreign Miner's tax, which required all foreigners pay a $20 monthly fee (more than $500 today) [SOURCE]. This xenophobia and competition for gold also caused a wave of violence agaisnt foreign miners. Beatings, rapes and murder all became normal occurances in the wild and civilized places of the state. [SOURCE] These thousands of immigrants who flocked into California from around the world by wagon, ship, and later by train, brought with them the articles of modern civilization. The gold prospectors traveled deep into the Sierra mountains and down into the brush covered hills and marshes of the Sacramento and San Juaqin mountains. Down into the lower Sierras and into the high deserts of the Mojave. They fanned out east and north into the future state of Nevada and made claims there as well [SOURCE]. This movement of people interrupted the lives of every native in the state and led to the largest genocide in American history. Over the course of the 20 years of gold rush in california, the numbers of natives in california dropped from 150,000 to 31,000. Most starved to death after being forcibly removed from traditional lands and left unable to provide for themselves. Many also died from diseases brought in by the miners. Others were maimed and killed by mining accidents. Many though, regretablly, were put to death in a series of deliberate killings organized by local townspeople and by private militias financed by the state of California. The Wiyot of Eureka, the Pomo of Clear Lake, the Yahis near Redding, and the Wintu band of Mt. Shasta all suffered from such a fate. The surviors of these military campaigns sadly reaped a perhaps worse conclusion; forced onto reservations on unwanted land, or sold into slavery to work as free labor on farms and mines throughout the state. Over 4000 children were bought and sold on the open market at prices ranging from $60 for a boy to $200 for a girl. Enslaved women and girls were sold at higher prices because the miners and ranchers used them for forced sexual labor [SOURCE]. The California state government paid one million dollars for scapling missions in 1851 and 1852. Militis were paid $5 for a severed Indian head in Shasta in 1855, and 25 cents for a scalp in Honey Lake in 1863. [SOURCE] The call for wars of extermination by both private and public citizens was answered and ensured the elimination of over 4,000 natives. The image of forty-niners panning for gold is another myth of the gold rush.
Accompining the genocide of California's natives was an unprecedented destruction of california's enviroment. Forests were clear cut. The area around Lake Tahoe, now know for its beautiful forest growth was completely leveled, only recently recovering [SOURCE]. The gold miners dug up 12 billion tons of earth, excuvating river beds with giant dredges and river banks with high pressure water cannons[SOURCE]. Blasting away California's hillsides for pure greed, entire rivers became clogged with the crumbled hillsides and flooded the Sacramento valley. Whole hillsides and mountains were turned into tailings and debris that were dumped into the rivers and lakes of California. These tailings were called slickens, leading to the phrase of the day which said “slickens is too thick to drink and too thin plow” [SOURCE]. Mining operations employing these hydrolic methods destroyed the precious and untouched natural resources of California, flooded towns and inundated farmland with the tailings. While this particular method of mining was outlawed, the damage can still be felt and seen to this day. In addition miners used mercury and quicksilver to extract gold from the ore, dumping over 7,600 tons of the toxic metals into California's fresh waterways. Mercury is a deadly toxin which dramatically affects the kidney, brain and the nervous system and will lead to death. Just a teaspoon of mercury dumped into a
pond would be enough to poison all the fish and any unlucky soul who ate the poisoned catch. That mercury remains with California today, in the San Fransisco Bay and in the American, Bear, Feather, Klamoth, Sacramento and Yuba Rivers. In Clear Lake alone, where the Elem Reservation stands, there sits over 100 tons of mercury, ensuring the move to make the area a Superfund site. Clean up operations are expected to take years.