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“Gold, Greed and Genocide”: The
True Story of the California Gold Rush
Gold, Greed & Genocide
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Over
150,000 Native Americans lived sustainably in California prior to
the gold rush. They had existed for many centuries, supporting
themselves mostly by hunting, gathering and fishing. This life
changed drastically in 1848 when James Marshall discovered the
yellow metal in the American River at Coloma, in Northern
California.
By
1870, there was an estimated native population of only 31,000
Californian Indians left. Over 60 percent of these indigenous
people died from disease introduced by hundreds of thousands of
so-called 49ers. However, local tribes were also systematically
chased off their lands, marched to missions and reservations,
enslaved and brutally massacred.
In
1851, the California State government paid $1 million for scalping
missions. You could still get $5 for a severed Indian head in
Shasta in 1855, and twenty five cents for a scalp in Honey Lake in
1863.
Over 4,000 Native American children were sold - prices ranged from
$60 for a boy to $200 for a girl. |
The gold
miners dug up 12 billion tons of earth - excavating river beds and
blasting apart hillsides in their greed. In addition, they used
mercury to extract gold from the ore, losing 7,600 tons of the toxic
chemical into local rivers and lakes. The amount of mercury required
to violate federal health standards today would be equivalent to one
gram in a small lake.
Although this gold rush ended in the late 19th century, a new gold
rush began in the 1960s. In California, Nevada and around the globe,
multinational companies have begun to use giant earth movers and new
technology using deadly cyanide to extract gold from indigenous
lands.
About
the artist: Denise Davis, whose family is from the Maidu tribe of
the Sierra foothills, lives in Chico, California. The design that
frames this painting is a traditional Maidu basket pattern. It was
Maidu land on which gold was originally discovered at the place we
now know as Sutter's Mill.
The
painting was commissioned by Project Underground in 1999 based on
the book Gold, Greed & Genocide. Copies of this book and information
about the impact of gold mining on Native American lands may be
obtained from:
| For More Information or to order a copy of the
"Gold, Greed and Genocide" Video and Curriculum, contact the IITC
San Francisco Office, (415) 641-4482, e-mail
iitc@igc.apc.org
Gold, Greed and Genocide web page click here:
www.1849.org |
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