In part three we learned about the formation of reservations, or farms, that the federal government set aside for native peoples in the San Joaquin Valley. They were set up to cool hostilities between some natives and settlers. But the reservations didn’t last. When the reservations were closed in 1859, the lives of indigenous Californians became uncertain and difficult.
Native people who had relocated to the reservations were forced to go back to their lands in the foothills. Many found their lands occupied by settlers and altered by ranching, agribusiness, mining and the timber industry.
A small number moved further away to permanent reservations established by the 1870s. Most of the others fell between the cracks created by the federal government Once again, natives found themselves becoming migratory. Many spent the harvest season in the Valley picking grapes near the village of Minturn, north of what is now the city of Madera. As many as two generations of the Northfork Mono worked at Minturn well into the 20th century.
By the 1880s, many had reacquired their traditional subsistence cycles. Sometimes whole families would travel to the Valley together to work in the fields, planting and harvesting.
The ethnohistory of the Tribe states that in 1850, the Act for the Government and Protection of Indians had the exact opposite effect its title implies — it didn’t protect Indians.
The act became known as the California Slave Act and allowed indenture of native people and so-called “vagrant” adults under certain conditions. It prevented natives from testifying against non-natives in court. This meant that non-natives could violate the act and the natives could not testify against them.
According to the study, even when the proclamation for emancipation of slaves was issued by President Lincoln in 1863 and forced the repeal of the California law in 1867, kidnapping and the “sale” of natives continued.
In the 1880s a number of native advocacy groups were organized. Most of the groups were organized by middle- to upper-class non-natives who found the living conditions and neglect by the government to be deplorable. They pressed the government to improve the situation of native people.
These advocates believed the best way to save the natives was to help them assimilate into the “Euro-American” way of life. They blamed non-native settlers’ greed for land historically used by natives for causing much of the natives’ difficulties.
The advocates pushed the government to provide “civilization” programs, including education and incentive to become farmers.
Their efforts led to the development of the Dawes Act, or Allotment Act of 1887. The goal was to instill in natives the values of
individualism, private land ownership and agricultural production. They also pushed for the development of boarding schools.
The Northfork Mono eventually received allotments of land under the Dawes Act beginning in the 1890s. To survive though, they had to blend traditional methods with more modern lifestyles. They took work on ranches in the Valley, worked in the timber industry in the mountains and still hunted and fished.
The Dawes or General Allotment Act was designed to address the problems of “landless Indians.” Many ancestors of the Tribe received allotments. Native peoples rarely lived permanently on their allotment because the land was generally of poor quality and unsuitable for farming. Most only stayed on their allotments as part of their annual subsistence cycle.
The study states that researchers reviewed the allotments issued in the vicinity of the City of Madera and found that members of the Northfork Mono were among those who received allotments closest to the city.
The Act divided reservation lands into individually owned tracts of land. These lands could be used by native peoples and after 25 years, they could receive title to the property and citizenship. Unlike tribal lands, these parcels would be taxable. The allotments were usually poor lands for farming and couldn’t support the natives.
By 1856, M.B. Lewis, a Fresno River Reservation agent, wrote that Mono and other native women were, in his opinion, improving their situation by taking non-native husbands. He wrote that native women had become “independent” of the men.
Many of the tribe’s ancestors can be traced back to these marriages.
The circumstances of the years between 1860 and 1900 caused the Northfork Mono to migrate throughout the San Joaquin Valley. It was a time of hardship and a time of learning. The native peoples of the area faced incredible transformations of their traditional lifestyles and the landscape of their environment changed radically as settlers farmed and mined ancestral lands. They faced precarious relationships with non-natives but also learned how to work for, and sometimes with, non-natives.
Despite the changing environment, Northfork Mono Indians remained in the vicinity of the city of Madera, the report maintains.
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En 2004, la Rancheria North Fork de indios mono inició uno de los estudios etnohistóricos más exhaustivos y extensos jamás realizados por una tribu de California. El estudio implicó una inversión financiera significativa y casi dos años de investigación primaria y secundaria por parte de la Tribu.
Más de 7,000 documentos locales, estatales y federales fueron analizados y se llevaron a cabo numerosas entrevistas personales con ciudadanos tribales y personas que no son nativas. Este ambicioso proyecto de investigación fue realizado por James M. McClurken & Associates, una autoridad preeminente en el campo de la etnohistoria que ha llevado a cabo numerosos estudios para tribus en todo Canadá y los Estados Unidos.
El informe, titulado “Etnohistoria de los mono de Northfork en las inmediaciones de la ciudad de Madera, California”, fue redactado por la Dra. Heather A. Howard y puesto a disposición por la Tribu en el verano de 2006. El proyecto de investigación y el informe final representan el compromiso de la Ranchería North Fork de comprender mejor y dar a conocer la historia, la cultura y los valores de los mono de Northfork tanto a sus propios ciudadanos como a los demás miembros de la comunidad.
Esta serie de artículos apareció en el periódico y sitio web The Madera Tribune en agosto de 2006 y destila el informe de más de 400 páginas en una sola historia de los mono de Northfork, desde el periodo anterior al contacto hasta la era moderna. El autor, el Sr. Cal Tatum, captura sellos distintivos únicos y temas recurrentes en la historia de la Ranchería de North Fork, sobre todo los esfuerzos excepcionales de la Tribu por coexistir y adaptarse al paisaje cambiante —política, cultural y geográficamente— del condado de Madera. Esta capacidad de adaptación sigue siendo un sello distintivo de la relación de la Tribu con las comunidades circundantes hasta el día de hoy. Al igual que nuestra conexión histórica con las tierras del condado de Madera, es una parte perdurable de nuestra historia.
Esperamos que estos artículos brinden información valiosa sobre los mono de Northfork y otros pueblos nativos de la región del Valle de San Joaquín. Como siempre, el objetivo de nuestra Tribu sigue siendo ser buenos amigos, parientes y vecinos de todos los que comparten este lugar especial ahora llamado Madera.
— On behalf of our nearly 1,400 tribal citizens, we are sincerely, the Tribal Council of the North Fork Rancheria, September 2006.