Life Amongst the Modocs - Joaquin Miller

This is random, but I have found some inspiration - it doesnt cross my path every day, so I thought I would share.  I was born and raised in TX, which has a much different state history than CA.  In my 8 years here, I have found myself reading a ton to understand the place that I now call home.  Having visited Humboldt County a few times, fished Shelter Cove a few times, and read on this forum about the risks to conservation Northern CA faces, this inspiration really hit home.

My 10 yr old is currently studying the watered down, public education version of CA state history, so in an effort to help, I am studying the real CA state history.  So, we are on the Gold rush.

I wanted to share a book that I found and quickly read - Life Amongst the Modocs - Joaquin Miller.  It outlines a "Dances with Wolves" like experience of the author's which takes place around 1850 near Shasta.  Miller wrote in visceral detail about his experiences some 10-15 years later in London and produced this book with a surprisingly progressive voice which I can assume was somewhat unpopular in the 1850s.  I encourage you all to find this book and read it.  It is available for free online - https://archive.org/details/amongstthemodocs00millrich.  The following passage is a taste.  This is an incredible book that mirrors a lot of what is going on now, but from a radically different perspective.  Check it out!!   


    It was all a mystery to these Indians as long as they were permitted to live. Besides, there were some whites mining who made poor headway against hunger. I have seen them gather in groups on the bank above the mines and watch in silence for hours as if endeavoring to make it out; at last they would shrug their shoulders, draw their skins closer about them, and stalk away no wiser than before.
     Why we should tear up the earth, toil like gnomes from sun-up to sun-down, rain or sun, destroy the forests and pollute the rivers, was to them more than a mystery - it was a terror. I believe they accepted it as a curse, the work of evil spirits, and so bowed to it in sublime silence.
     This loss of salmon was a greater loss than you would suppose. These fish in the spring-time pour up these streams from the sea in incalculable swarms.  They fairly darken the water. On the head of the Sacramento, before that once beautiful river was changed from a silver sheet to a dirty yellow stream, I have seen between the Devil's Castle and Mount Shasta the stream so filled with salmon that it was impossible to force a horse across the current.  Of course, this is not usual, and now can only be met with hard up at the heads of mountain streams where mining is not carried on, and where the advance of the fish is checked by falls on the head of the stream. The amount of salmon which the Indians would spear and dry in the sun, and hoard away for winter, under such circumstances, can be imagined; and I can now better understand their utter discomfiture at the loss of their fisheries than I did then.

Only on page 3 but what a great read! Thanks

  Not sure why Joaquin Miller called the Native Americans around Mt. Shasta Modocs...the Modocs territory was a tick north to the southern area of Oregon. But...a great read and an eye opener. I am presently reading "The Modoc War". I have also visited Captain Jack's Stronghold at Tule Lake and camped the Modoc territory several times.
   As an avid reader, I have read many books about the Modoc's, and primarly Norther California Native Americans. Just moved to Humboldt County...retired...and have read several books of local Native Americans. From my reading, once again, we have plenty to be ashamed of...of our treatment of the Native Americans..

   We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills, and winding streams with tangled growth as wild. Only to the white man was nature a "wilderness" and only to him was the land "infested" with "wild" animals and "savage" people. To us it was tame. Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery.
   Luther Standing Bear
   
   

Good stuff, Nolan.  Thanks for sharing it. 

My Shasta has a nice museum just outside town that has a nice display on Joaquin Miller and the history of the local native Americans.  Very enlightening.

Not to take away from the absolutely horrible treatment of the natives during this time, as I read, one aspect of this time I cannot stop thinking about is the transition from living with the land to living on the land by the same species in the same area.  The descriptions of the utter destruction of the natural area over such a short period that had been in some equilibrium for thousands of years is nuts!  It must have felt like a curse to see it happen so fast.   

Thanks to everyone for the recommendations!!  I really need to plan a trip up there with my kids to check this stuff out for real.  Good excuse to tie in some fishing while Im at it!   

Thanks for sharing this interesting part of history.