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    1856 Diary of Indian Agent George Ambrose

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    1856 Diary of Indian Agent George Ambrose

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    1K views6 pages

    Trail of Tears

    Uploaded by

    LewisRoom20
    1856 Diary of Indian Agent George Ambrose

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 6
    paisturbed for centuriss, the Indians of the Rogue River Valley faced dizzying onslaught of changes and calamities becween the 1820s and the 1850s, In Jess than thirty years the spread of Euro-American seillement, new diseases, ecological disruptions accompanying the gold rush, and failures of federal Indian potiey swept through their villages with disastrous consequences. Because they resisted uespass and sought to defend heir peopl, they were labeled “rogues” or “rascals.” Their own names —Latgawe (people of the uplands”), Dagelma ["people along the river”), and Shasta- —were largely lost in the rush of evenis. To the victors who drove them from thei lands, they were “savages” and “rogues.” ‘The tragedies that befell the Ladians ofthe Rogue River Valley attained crescendo in the years fiom 1846 10 1856, Tn dhat decade, overland emigrants poured Uhrough Indian homelands via. the Applegite Trail The discovery of gold on Jackson Creek in early 1852 unleashed # flood of neweomers. Miners as well as pioneer settlers filing for lands under the Oregon Donation Land Act (of 1850 scrambled forthe sources of the valley andthe cantcoes of its wibutary steams. The federal goverment did too litle and acted too late to check the calamity. Seitlement and the gold rush unlessheil ecological disastr and robbed the Indians ofthe means to survive. Settlers split rails tp fence ther fields and erect cabins; they suppressod the Indian fire ecology Which ws essential inthe harvest of larweed seeds and maintenance 6 1856 Diary of Indian Agent George Ambro: Edited by Stephen Dow Beckham of an open forest understory productive of food for deer and elk: Seailers’ hogs rooted out cams Iilies and gobbled down scoms, fr. ther depleting traditional food resources ofthe Indians, The miners tamed over gravel bars in their quest for placer deposits and sent a ‘food of mud cascading downstream with tere impact on the rms of salmon and eel as well as hindering the ability of the Indians to fish for wout and harvest freshwater mussels, The setlers used reams to kill decr, elk, and beat, while the territorial legistanre mae it illegal for an ladian to possess a gun or purchase ammun tion. place of abundance was iransformed into lanl of starvation, Not unvil 1853 did the Bureau of Indian Atfairs negotiare tweaties with the Indians in the Rogue River Valley, By that dave the levels of distrust and ill-will were so high on both sides that the ‘wealies and creation ofthe Tule Rock Reservauion seeraod fur afl Jn the storm. The lands reserved for the Indians were but a frrction of theirweritory and lacked miny ofthe resources they needed to sur ive. The token garrison of soldiers at Fort Lane (neur the Rogue ‘River, below the Table Rocks) proved inadequate to siop trespassers 1 confine the Indians 10 residency on the reservation, & t stop the machinations of self-styled “exterminators” who murdered and mas- sacted Indians and then repeatedly provoked thea to retaliate, Above: "Beaute Tath Lower Table Rack Dung th vernovas f 1856, ladon ‘Ageut George Arsteone was reapomibe for ecuring the Lalas ob TaD Rock serstlon (ote Grind Rem Reser, mers ca mena of inion ‘sssupancy i the Rogue River Val, Soumess Oxeson Hrrsce ‘These events were made worse by the spread of measles, suena, and otier now diseases, Lacking resistance to these ail soats, the Indians sickened und died by the dozens. Some villages ‘sere entirely wiped out. Forced removal to the Table Rock Reservation in the waning months of 1853 only concentrated the ‘Sek and the well in unfavorable circumstances. ‘An attick of October, 1855, by “exterminators” from the sonvillo mining camps precipituted the Rogue River indian War + 1855 and 1856, and caused the flight of many able-bodied Indians west into tie canyon of the Rogue Rives. As the war slowed with the onset of winter snows and bitter old, Indian agent Gearge Ambrose coTlected the Indians who had .aiaed on Table Rock and others scattered from throughout the alley, and planned theit removal. The 1853 ieaties provided only saat tho Table Rock Reservation would serve temporarily as & solding place for the Indians. In accord with the national poliey of ‘oval and relocation, Ambrose set in place Superintendent Joel Palmer's larger schome, to colonize all of the Indians of western 09 on the Grand Ronde and Siew reservations. ‘Bor in Pickaway County, Ohio, in 1823, George H. Ambrose saad his wife, Ellen Frances. had emigrated overland 10 Oregon in 1850, Sensing the opportunities ofthe Rogue River region, they filed ‘upon a Donation Land Claim and setled in 1852 in Jackson County. S.H. Culver was rmoved as agent becuse of charges regarding his abuso of agency assets. Ambrose then took over administration of the Rogue Valley Indian Agency. Ambcose ‘pelieved all was under control and declared so in the fall of 1853, Jn a setics of leters signed “A Miner” in the Oregon Statesmen. “is optimisia v/as dashed by the massacre of twenty-three Indian ‘vomea, men, snd children atthe moulh of Butte Creek on October &. 1855, by veluntoers led by J. A. Lupton, In February, 1856, Ambrose directed the removal of the surviving Indians of the Rogue River Valley. His diaey, a chronicle of the jourey northward via the Applegate Trail, is terse and typ ical of the day, revealing no emotion regarding the suffesing and Lislovation of those he Jed. Ambrose readily admitted in his account that the wagons to haul the aged and ill were inadequate Zor the task. His dry dryly tallied the deaths of eight people anc ‘he births of eight caildren during the joumey. The snaw, mud, shortages of food, and constant fear experienced by the refugees were made brief note of by Ambrose. Putsued for days by Timeleon Love, a self-styled executioner of Indians, the agent had difficulty staving off Love's designs. The Indians may have feared that Ambrose was leading them to slaughter, Love's dagged pursuit of their parry and the inadequate rltary eseart must have caused alarm and anxiety. ‘Tae Ambrose diary hints at che dimensions of suffering and tragedy endured by the Indians of southwestern Oregon inthe 1856 eomovals to the new reservations. Similar forced marches northwad befell the natives of the Umpqua and Willamette valleys as well as several bands brought along the coastal teil from Port Orford to Siletz during the summer “It almost makes me shed twars 10 listen to them as they totter along,” observed Lt F. 0. C. Ond who \wimessed one of these removals ‘The Ambrose dizzy, which follows, documents the closing: fhapter on countless millennia of Irian tenure in the Rogue River Valley. Left bebiad were the bones of parents, grandparents, and aneestors, ages-old villages and fisheries, and a way of life Sova 1996 well-nuned to the shythms of » beautiful land.

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