Indians of the Yosemite Valley and Vicinity - Their History, Customs and Traditions by Galen Clark
page 23 of 82 (28%)
page 23 of 82 (28%)
|
[Illustration: _Photograph by Foley_. CAPTAIN PAUL. One of the characters of the Valley. Supposed to be 105 years old, and a survivor of Teneiya's band.] HARDSHIP AND SUFFERING. Their four years' residence on the reservations, however, had been more of a school in the vices of the whites than one of a higher education. They became demoralized socially, addicted to many bad habits, and left the reservations in worse condition than when they were taken there. Their old tribal relations and customs were nearly broken up, though they still had their head men to whom they looked for counsel in all important matters. As the country became more settled, much of their main food supply, the acorns, was consumed by the domestic animals of the ranchers, and their mode of living became more precarious and transitory, and many of them were, at times, in a condition near to starvation. In these straitened and desperate circumstances, many of their young women were used as commercial property, and peddled out to the mining camps and gambling saloons for money to buy food, clothing or whisky, this latter article being obtained through the aid of some white person, in violation of law. Their miserable, squalid condition of living opened the way for diseases of a malignant character, which their medicine men could not cure, and their numbers were rapidly reduced by death. |
|