Remove them beyond the West, California, gold

Abstract

This is a fragment of the history of Iss (Achoma-wi) and Aw'te (Atsuge-wi), native tribes of northeastern California. Politically, both tribes are placed under the rubric: Pit River Tribe. It is based on a narrative about Niee Denice, an Aw'te person born on Lost Creek in the Hat Creek area. The English rendition was told by Lela Grant Rhoades to linguist Bruce Nevins at Redding, California, 1972, at her home and in my presence. Niee Denice was later named Sampson Ulysses Grant by Basque ranchers who took him in during his flight from confinement at the Round Valley Reservation near Covelo. Grant's narrative begins when he was a child, rounded up as a part of a continual effort by the military and the vigilante "Guards/Rangers" throughout California to erase the native people from the earth. His mother and baby brother were shot while he and his father watched. They were murdered by the military because they were holding up the forced-march through the November snows of the Sierra Nevada/Cascade mountain ranges. The destination of the natives was unclear. Some records indicated that it was Fort Tejon, in southern California. Others that it was Round Valley Reservation, near Covelo. According to the narrative, the natives were marched to Fort Reading (Redding) in the Sacramento Valley, then south to Sacramento where they were put aboard ship. Beyond sight of land, the Captain caused the ship to spin around and around, hoping to make the natives lose direction to land. Then the sailors began throwing natives overboard. A near mutiny on this ship caused the Captain to put into Mendocino Station. Then the people were marched to Round Valley Reservation. He escaped and returned home. Grant gave the original narrative to his daughter, Lela, in Aw'te, while their family lived in Goose Valley. She, in turn, translated it into English for her children and the rest of us illiterate in Aw'te. I bought a copy of the recording from the Linguistics Library at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1991 and am working with Reitha B. Amen, Lela's daughter, to bring this history alive.