The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848 had little
effect on the dislocation of Native Americans, who had already been thoroughly exploited
by the Spanish. Originally settled by the Spanish as part of Mexico, California was too
far from Mexico City for tight control; so the Spanish settlers there did not concern
themselves overly about affairs in the Capital. One might draw some analogy here to the
American colonies and the British parliament. The Mexican government had granted large
estates to land owners in California known as Rancheros. Indians
were forced to work there as slaves. Their treatment was harsh and brutal; the death
rate was twice that of American slaves in the South.
The
gold rush itself not only brought large groups of Americans ((between 1841-67 350,000
people travelled to California and Oregon) but large groups of Europeans, particularly
French and Germans seeking their fortune. The French were commonly known as "Keskidees,"
a corruption of the French "Que'st d'il dit?" (What did he say?) The Indians at this
point had been completely exploited and their impact minimized. Even though large
numbers of Americans travelled to the area, the predominantly Spanish influence
remained.
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