Читать книгу Lost Worlds of 1863. Relocation and Removal of American Indians in the Central Rockies and the Greater Southwest онлайн

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With the arrival of nearly 1,000 Paiutes at Camp Independence a new set of logistical problems presented themselves. The army did not have enough rations to feed that many Indians as well as themselves. If they turned them loose the conflict between whites and Indians would be repeated. And, as for the whites of Owens Valley, they did not want the Numu in “their” valley and would certainly not leave them alone. It was obvious something had to be done as the volunteers had not planned or prepared for such a large aggregate of Indians. Finding a location outside of the Valley would not be easy as white adventurers and settlers were moving into all the good western lands. A reservation on infertile and rocky land that the whites did not want would be the usual and only solution. Fort Tejon, with its adjacent San Sebastian Reservation, would have to be reoccupied and become the target of the Owens Valley Paiute removal policy.⁴⁹

On July 10 Captain McLaughlin had the Paiutes gather on the parade grounds of Camp Independence. With the assistance of his translator, José Chico (the same man who was personally involved in aiding the volunteers in the Keysville Massacre), McLaughlin counted the Numu and found them to number 998. Then, with the unarmed Paiutes surrounded by a volunteer force that formed a “wall of firearms,” and again with Chico’s assistance, the Numu were informed of the plans for their removal from the Valley. Escape was not an option as the chiefs and sub-chiefs would be the first to be shot.⁵⁰