Your search for: subjects:"Indians Of North America Government Relations 1789 1869"

Benjamin Davis Wilson was one of the first American settlers in Southern California. He became a prosperous rancher and the mayor of little Los Angeles. A special friend of the Indians of Southern California, Wilson was appointed their subagent in 1852, when the Indians were on the edge of ...

Benjamin Davis Wilson was one of the first American settlers in Southern California. He became a prosperous rancher and the mayor of little Los Angeles. A special friend of the Indians of Southern California, Wilson was appointed their subagent in 1852, when the Indians were on the edge of catastrophe - their population reduced by two-thirds within a generation. Wilson's great contribution, the one he wished to be remembered for, was to appraise the problems of these Indians and urge their settlement on land set aside for them. His report (published in the Los Angeles Star in 1868) was instrumental in creating the reservation system. The Indians of Southern California in 1852 was inspired by Wilson's desire "to secure peace and justice to the Indians". He recognized his duty to guard against Indian raids on the ranchos and settlements while establishing policies that ensured the future welfare of Indians suffering from the breakdown of the old mission program. Besides the influential Wilson report, this volume contains vivid descriptions of life in the so-called Cow Counties of Southern California at mid-nineteenth century. Also included are excerpts from contemporary newspapers.

The Destruction of California Indians "is so powerful that every American should read it. These accounts of the activities of agents, military officers, and newspapers reveal how thousands of California natives died from 1847 to 1865 from starvation, disease, drunkenness, enslavement, rape, murder ...

The Destruction of California Indians "is so powerful that every American should read it. These accounts of the activities of agents, military officers, and newspapers reveal how thousands of California natives died from 1847 to 1865 from starvation, disease, drunkenness, enslavement, rape, murder, and warfare. . . . The editor lets the documents tell the story and has provided organization and balance which make it possible to trace themes while letting the reader draw the conclusions."-Library JournalCalifornia is a contentious arena for the study of the Native American past. Some critics say genocide characterized the early conduct of Indian affairs in the state; others say humanitarian concerns. Robert F. Heizer, in the former camp, has compiled a damning collection of contemporaneous accounts that will provoke students of California history to look deeply into the state's record of race relations and to question bland generalizations about the adventuresome days of the Gold Rush.Robert F. Heizer's many works include the classic The Other Californians: Prejudice and Discrimination under Spain, Mexico, and the United States to 1920 (1971), written with Alan Almquist. In his introduction, Albert L. Hurtado sets the documents in historical context and considers Heizer's influence on scholarship as well as the advances made since his death. A professor of history at Arizona State University, Hurtado is the author of Indian Survival on the California Frontier.

Historians have written on "Bleeding Kansas" and on the frontier army as a constabulary force, but little scholarship exists on how the army performed its peacekeeping operations in the 1850s. In Peacekeeping on the Plains, Tony R. Mullis is one of the first scholars to detail the military concerns ...

Historians have written on "Bleeding Kansas" and on the frontier army as a constabulary force, but little scholarship exists on how the army performed its peacekeeping operations in the 1850s. In Peacekeeping on the Plains, Tony R. Mullis is one of the first scholars to detail the military concerns associated with peace enforcement in Kansas and the trans-Missouri West. Between 1854 and 1856, the Franklin Pierce administration called upon the United States Army to conduct a series of peace operations in the newly formed Kansas and Nebraska territories. The army responded to the president's call by successfully completing a mission against the Lakota Sioux in 1855 and by aiding civil authorities in the imposition of peace among competing factions in Kansas during 1856. Although these constabulary or police duties were not always popular with the soldiers that conducted them, the purpose behind them remained constant--the maintenance of peace, order, and security. Given Americans' misgivings about a standing army and their limited expectations of it as a domestic peacekeeper, its use in this fashion during the 1850s was a delicate proposition. By drawing on diverse sources, including official army correspondence, personal papers of key military and political leaders, and local accounts of army activities, Mullis shows how peace operations were conducted by the U.S. Army long before the second half of the twentieth century. He also presents a thorough analysis of the professional dilemmas confronted by army officers, as well as the delicate command and control issues associated with the different types of peace operations. Mullis's assessment of the army's peacekeeping efforts in themid-1850s offers a full understanding of the constraints and frustrations involved. Many of the dilemmas faced by the army in Kansas parallel those encountered in various spots around the globe today. Peacekeeping on the Plains w