Robert F. Heizer (1915-1979) (Ed.)

The Destruction of California Indians; a Collection of Documents from the Period 1847-1865

Santa Barbara [Calif.] Peregrine Smith, 1974

E78.C15.H4131 Anthropology Library

' 'The Act for the Government and Protection of Indians' enacted by the California Legislature in its first session (1850) was, by its title, one of humanitarian purpose—as we might say today, aimed at the 'preservation of any endangered species.' Actually its intent was a crudely inhumanitarian one which was constructed by a legislature largely sympathetic to slavery, and devised with the intent to realize some benefit, however limited, from the presence of the otherwise useless and threatening alien and unwanted population... the California Indians who numbered about 100,000 in 1848 had been reduced to 50,000 (some estimates are as low as 30,000) by 1870. (Heizer 1973:8-9)