279:. By August 1846, the American military had permanently occupied the sparsely populated northern half of present-day California, and by early January the entirety of the modern state was under American control. John C. Frémont became Military Governor of California in January 1847, but was forced to give up the position less than two months later under disputed circumstances. In 1850, Frémont became California's first U.S. Senator. Frémont, who in the meantime had become wealthy from gold mining claims, wrote a bill limiting gold mining claims to white citizens of the United States. In 1856, Frémont was nominated as the first U.S. presidential candidate of the fledgling Republican Party, losing the race to James Buchanan. He later fought as a Union general during the Civil War.
240:
Estimates of the casualties vary. Expedition members Thomas E. Breckenridge and Thomas S. Martin claim the number of Native
Americans killed as "120-150" and "over 175" respectively, but the eyewitness Tustin claimed that at least 600-700 Native Americans were killed on land, with another 200 or more
222:
Captain Frémont ordered an advance on the Native
Americans, with every one of his men carrying a rifle, two pistols, and a knife. The soldiers advanced from three sides on the Wintu, who were unable to flee the camp as the majority of their ranks were women and children and they were pinned against
250:
Neither Frémont nor any of his expedition members were charged or punished in any way for the killings. Several expedition members suggested that the massacre led local Native
Americans to fear the White men and avoid raiding the settlements and ranches that American settlers had begun erecting on
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The remaining Native
Americans were forced to flee, with some running for the hills and others braving the river. Eyewitness William Isaac Tustin reports that men of Frémont's band mounted on horses chased down the running Native Americans and tomahawked them to death, while riflemen stood on the
282:
While some locals had admired the massacre, the wealthy landed settlers were beginning to depend on Native
American labor in a sort of feudal system, with the Native Americans working both as free and as bonded labor. To some degree this saved the local Wintu from immediate annihilation, though
189:
In 1845, Captain Frémont was sent by the War
Department on an expedition to survey the Great Basin and Alta California, a possession of Mexico. Upon arriving in western Alta California, Frémont and his men moved about the northern half of the present-day state for several months, provoking the
226:
Expedition member Thomas E. Breckenridge states that "the order was given to ask no quarter and to give none." Frémont's men lined up and began firing several rifle volleys, slaughtering the Native
Americans in front of them. The long range of the rifles rendered it impossible for the Native
206:
was preparing to attack White settlements. Frémont moved his men up the
Sacramento River in search of such Native Americans. Frémont's party was made up of 60 white men, nine Delaware Indians, two California Indians, and five members of a nearby trading post. The party reached
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I think that I hate an Indian as badly as anybody and have as good reason to hate them, but I don't think that I could have assisted in that slaughter. It takes two to fight or quarrel but in that case there was but one side fighting and the other side trying to
241:
dying in the water. There are no records of any expedition members being killed or even wounded in the massacre. Kit Carson, one of the mounted attackers, later stated, "It was a perfect butchery." Breckenridge, who claims not to have participated, laments:
231:
The settlers charged into the village taking the warriors by surprise and then commenced a scene of slaughter which is unequalled in the West. The bucks, squaws and paposes were shot down like sheep and those men never stopped as long as they could find one
283:
smaller scale massacres occurred as early as the next year. By the 1850s, white
American animosity at Native American possession of the land had built, and large-scale massacres involving hundreds of Wintu deaths recommenced, including the
185:
of
Missouri was a prominent leader of this movement, into which he enlisted his son-in-law, John C. Frémont. Benton obtained government funding for several expeditions led by Frémont to map and explore the western territory.
274:
On 9 May 1846, Frémont received word that war with Mexico was imminent. He quickly returned from Oregon to participate, killing several more Sacramento Valley Native Americans in the journey south in the
227:
Americans' arrows to reach them. The men then approached towards the camp, fired another volley at closer range, and rushed in with their sabers and pistols. Breckenridge writes:
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shores of the river and took potshots at the Native Americans trying to swim to safety. He described the scene as "a slaughter."
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The expansionist movement of the 1840s motivated many Americans to work to push America's borders out into land owned by
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Kit Carson's Own Story of His Life, As dictated to Col. And Mrs. D.C. Peters about 1856-1857, and never before published
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651:
812:
182:
215:) on 5 April 1846 and spotted a large native camp. The area was hundreds of square miles and home to over 5,000
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Mexican authorities and building upon grievances and patriotic sentiment among Americans who had settled there.
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eventually retaliated and killed three members of Frémont's party on the night of 9 May 1846, leading to the
178:, captured the idea that the young American nation was destined to rule all of the North American continent.
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Frémont and his band continued up the Sacramento River, killing Native Americans on sight as they went. The
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the river. The men of the Wintu camp formed a defensive line with the women and children behind them.
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730:
Freedom's Frontier, California and the Struggle Over Unpaid Labor, Emancipation, and Reconstruction
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in the upper Sacramento Valley. There they met Americans who claimed that an encampment of 1,000
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433:"American Crime Case #53: The Genocide of California's Native Americans, 1846–1873"
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171:
142:
807:
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626:. University of Missouri at Columbia: Western Historical Manuscripts Collection.
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Estimates of "120-150" up to "600-700" shot and around 200 dying in the water.
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763:
750:
216:
138:
69:
703:
A World Transformed: Firsthand Accounts of California before the Gold Rush
641:
115:
51:
163:
692:
Genocide in Northwestern California: when our worlds cried
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The California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War
663:
Handbook of North American Indians: California, Volume 8
681:
With Frémont to California and the Southwest 1845-1849
27:
Mass killing of Wintu people in Northern California
689:
350:Bear Flag Rising: The Conquest of California, 1846
347:
779:
721:Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West
149:of Virginia. Estimates range from 125 to 900.
145:on 5 April 1846 by an expedition band led by
635:. Taos, NM: Santa Fe New Mexican Publishing.
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564:
540:
492:
468:
456:
643:Memoirs of My Life, By John Charles Frémont
198:On 30 March 1846, the band arrived at the
739:Recollections of Early Days in California
709:
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696:. San Francisco: Indian Historian Press.
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413:
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639:
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287:, the Old Shasta Town massacre and the
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788:Native American history of California
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818:Anti-Indigenous racism in California
798:History of Shasta County, California
714:. New York, New York: Vintage Books.
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616:Bibliography of California history
263:they encountered further north in
127:American expansion into California
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622:Breckenridge, Thomas E. (1894).
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354:. New York: Macmillan. p.
174:", a term coined by journalist
737:Tustin, William Issac (1880).
640:Frémont, John Charles (1887).
624:Thomas E. Breckenridge Memoirs
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339:
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137:refers to the killing of many
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1:
793:Massacres of Native Americans
710:Richards, Leonard L. (2007).
705:. Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books.
683:. Ashland, OR: Lewis Osborne.
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646:. Chicago: Belford, Clark.
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193:
10:
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679:Martin, Thomas S. (1975).
665:. Smithsonian Institution.
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152:
728:Smith, Stacey L. (2013).
701:Paddison, Joshua (1999).
670:Madley, Benjamin (2016).
311:Kern and Sutter massacres
135:Sacramento River massacre
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101:
93:
85:
75:
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57:
47:
39:
35:Sacramento River massacre
34:
18:Sacramento River Massacre
674:. Yale University Press.
661:Heizer, William (1978).
346:Walker, Dale L. (1999).
316:List of Indian massacres
813:1846 in Alta California
719:Sides, Hampton (2006).
147:Captain John C. Frémont
306:Sutter Buttes massacre
277:Sutter Buttes massacre
248:
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168:Native American tribes
803:History of California
688:Norton, Jack (1979).
301:Klamath Lake massacre
289:Bridge Gulch massacre
285:Kabyai Creek massacre
269:Klamath Lake massacre
243:
229:
672:An American Genocide
631:Carson, Kit (1924).
141:on the banks of the
828:California genocide
760: /
741:. Bancroft Library.
723:. Random House Inc.
422:, p. chapter 2
213:Redding, California
181:Democratic Senator
42:California genocide
764:40.585°N 122.374°W
732:. UNC Press Books.
591:, pp. 324–325
393:, pp. 123–124
381:, pp. 418–420
271:three days later.
211:(near present-day
183:Thomas Hart Benton
176:John L. O'Sullivan
106:United States Army
823:April 1846 events
565:Breckenridge 1894
541:Breckenridge 1894
493:Breckenridge 1894
469:Breckenridge 1894
457:Breckenridge 1894
251:Indigenous land.
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440:. Retrieved
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403:Frémont 1887
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379:Frémont 1887
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217:Wintu people
200:Lassen Ranch
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139:Wintu people
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102:Perpetrators
70:Wintu people
61:5 April 1846
40:Part of the
29:
767: /
755:122°22′26″W
601:Norton 1979
589:Heizer 1978
555:, p. 8
553:Martin 1975
529:Carson 1924
519:, p. 7
517:Tustin 1880
505:Martin 1975
483:, p. 4
481:Tustin 1880
420:Madley 2016
77:Attack type
782:Categories
752:40°35′06″N
614:See also:
577:Smith 2013
442:10 January
391:Sides 2006
365:0312866852
158:Background
116:Kit Carson
52:California
437:revcom.us
322:Footnotes
255:Aftermath
295:See also
194:Incident
81:Shooting
48:Location
246:escape.
153:History
97:Unknown
94:Injured
808:Wintun
650:
362:
232:alive.
164:Mexico
124:Motive
86:Deaths
66:Target
648:ISBN
444:2023
360:ISBN
219:.
166:and
133:The
58:Date
170:. "
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435:.
410:^
358:.
356:81
291:.
656:.
446:.
368:.
20:)
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